How a Facilities Management Leader Leveraged Ideas-to-Action to Reduce Costs and Maintain Service Quality
Is it possible to squeeze cost savings out of essential services while maintaining customer satisfaction? That was the challenge facing a facilities management leader at a leading facilities management company. He found the answer by tapping into the ingenuity of his frontline employees using the Ideas-to-Action Process as the launchpad.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities with Ideas-to-Action
Under pressure to cut costs, Tom took an unconventional approach. Instead of relying solely on external consultants or top-down directives, he empowered his frontline facilities management teams to find innovative solutions. He challenged his managers across multiple locations to engage their employees in identifying cost-saving opportunities within high-use services like landscaping, janitorial, and handyman work – all while operating under a strict no-travel mandate.
The Ideas-to-Action Platform: Empowering Effective Action
To support this initiative, Tom introduced his five team leaders to the Ideas-to-Action Team Platform. They started with an online workshop where leaders learned about the Ideas-to-Action process and tools, and reviewed charters for targeting high-spend areas. Team leaders then launched their Ideas-to-Action teams. In their first meetings, they brainstormed cost-saving ideas, focusing on:
- Clarifying supplier scopes of work.
- Reviewing performance metrics.
- Pinpointing unnecessary services
- Identifying areas for self-performance.
Within 30 days, through online meetings only, the Ideas-to-Action teams had uncovered potential savings of nearly one million dollars. These included innovative solutions such as:
- Streamlining job descriptions for greater flexibility when using external labor.
- Reassigning tasks to optimize in-house expertise.
- Bundling services for economies of scale.
Over the next 30 days, the teams executed actions to begin realizing these savings.
The Ideas-to-Action Difference: Speed, Simplicity, and Employee Ownership
For this leader, the biggest advantage was tapping into the untapped potential of his team. “Our frontline employees held the keys to finding savings suppliers overlooked,” he explained. “Ideas-to-Action provided the tools and structure to transform their insights into action, quickly and effectively.”
Are you ready to unlock hidden cost savings? Explore the Ideas-to-Action methodology and discover how it can help you achieve significant results without sacrificing service quality. Preorder your copy of Ideas to Action: Unlock Your Organization’s Hidden Genius for Igniting Innovation and Accelerating Results and explore our Ideas-to-Action solutions for healthcare organizations:
