Property maintenance
Rather than managing individual tradespeople for different jobs – smart businesses are looking to consolidate suppliers. Providers who offer a broader range of services deliver substantial benefits to businesses of all sizes.
Regular maintenance reduces workplace disruption and provides a better working environment free of hazards. Whether it is common check-ups, refurbishment or a fitout it can make a big difference.
Businesses need to consider the right approach to their workplace. You need to think through the impact on the people managing the work, the staff who are affected and also the cost to your business.
Better Buying Outcome
The right maintenance supplier for your business will provide flexibility, transparency and quality. You will save time in managing maintenance and be able to better control costs. We recommend a provider who delivers on the following criteria:
- Geographical reach to cover as many of your sites as possible. This gives you volume buying power and control.
- Flexibility around scheduled maintenance and ad hoc work. This provides a scalable solution that works when you need it.
- Transparent margins on consumables used as part of the work. This is an area where many providers gouge customers or try to inflate margins.
- A strong focus on culture. They should have an ’employer’ rather than ‘contractor’ focus. This provides a degree of comfort and security in the interactions with your staff.
- Technology to provide you with visibility over company / facility-wide tasks and expenditure. This reduces the pain of chasing tradies over the phone or email.
- An assurance that all staff are competent and certified professionals in the various trades.
Things to look out for when choosing a building maintenance supplier
Bait pricing on contract
Some providers will load margins on items outside of scheduled maintenance. The danger is that while many businesses track contract spend, non-contract items may be overlooked.
Margin on consumables
Being provided a transparent margin on the consumables that your supplier purchases as part of maintenance is critical. This can avoid the substitution of cheaper product as well as gouging on margin.
Subcontracting
While subcontracting work is common, will quality suffer through poor supervision? This risk increases rapidly when you have multiple locations. Make sure your maintenance supplier reviews their subcontractors to the same level as their employees.
Cultural Fit
Cultural fit of maintenance staff plays a key role in minimising disruption. Are their staff courteous? Are they clean and well-mannered and do they clean up during and after completion of the job? While rarely considered as part of the buying process, minimising disruption in the workplace is important.
Supply Clusters Standing Offer
We partner with National Projects & Maintenance (NPM) to take the heavy lifting out of managing building maintenance.
Members receive the following benefits when they choose to work with NPM:
- Discounts on standard rates for maintenance and trade staff
- A discount on the fixed-margin for consumables used
- Volume rebates (Premium Members) on scheduled property maintenance services
