How to Successfully Handle Facility Budget Cuts

As a facility manager, you may occasionally be responsible for keeping your facility running on a smaller budget than expected. Understandably, budget cuts become the first resort when budget makers face financial problems, so being able to manage a tight budget is a great skill to have.

With that in mind, here are a few strategies that can help you prepare for potential facility cuts. Remember that, as a facility manager, you play an important role in not only running your facility but also in helping employees do their best work and keeping their spirits up in challenging circumstances. In line with this, your facility’s condition can have a considerable impact on how productive employees are, how well they work, and your facility’s reputation.

Be Prepared for Potential Budget Cuts Before They Happen

Being prepared for budget cuts can make you better placed to smoothly handle a stressful situation down the road. That’s why it’s a good idea to develop a management strategy now, even if everything seems fine for the time being. Not having a streamlined maintenance program that’s ready to go could lead to considerable financial losses and slow operations down.

Here’s an example: If your facility unexpectedly needs emergency repairs or cleaning equipment, this could be a blow to your budget, particularly if these needs arise during an already financially difficult time. If more significant problems, such as power outages, happen, they can completely stop operations. These challenges are worth considering because they could potentially cause your facility to lose more money than it would save with a budget cut.

As another example, if you have to replace your HVAC filter, that will cost way more than the cost of maintaining it. This is especially true during holidays because contractors and handymen tend to charge more then. So, it’s conceivable that you sometimes won’t be able to find an affordable solution to a problem right when you need it if you’re not prepared. This leads to our next point.

Preventing Problems Before They Arrive Can Save Your Facility a Lot of Money

The best way to avoid problems is to anticipate them before they have a chance to become full-blown headaches. Any experienced facility manager will tell you that keeping up with maintenance and doing any necessary fixes or replacements is the best way to handle budget cuts. Even if money is tight, always use preventative measures to avoid potentially-enormous expenses down the road. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Know Who To Call If Problems Arise

If something went wrong in your facility and you needed professional help, who would you turn to? If you don’t already know, now is a great time to do some research and find reliable companies that can help you if something unexpected happens. Again, being prepared is always better than being caught by surprise by an unforeseen expense. Even if your facility has been running smoothly so far, that doesn’t mean problems can’t arise during a budget cut. Part of your role as a facility manager is to have the right phone numbers on hand so that you can easily get in touch with the right service providers in a pinch.

But don’t just stop at knowing who to call if something breaks or needs maintenance. Having an established working relationship with service providers can make it much easier to get a problem resolved quickly. For instance, if your company needs to move elsewhere, whether temporarily or permanently, being able to contact a moving company that you already have had contact with can help ensure the packing is done well and for a reasonable rate. Since your facility depends on having certain pieces of equipment on hand to operate, having a maintenance strategy to account for facility projects, whether they’re planned, corrective, or emergency-based, can make a huge difference.

Budget Cuts Are An Opportunity To Do Better

Budget managers are used to proposing drastic cuts that affect facility management. Of course, this can be difficult to handle as a facility manager, but there is a bright side. Budget cuts are a great chance to become more resourceful and to better use what you do have at your disposal. Needing to get creative can drive you to look at problems through different lenses and help you explore options you might not have even considered before.

When you have to decide what is necessary and what isn’t, this can help you re-evaluate how your facility does things – and why. For example, budget cuts may lead you to ask better questions when deciding whether to hire a cleaning service, or it can help you determine a better way to schedule cleaning so that it doesn’t need to be done as often. Ultimately, hard times can teach you things as a facility manager that you might not learn otherwise, so don’t be afraid to use these opportunities to explore new ways of doing things.

Regularly Streamline Your Maintenance Program to Prepare for Budget Cuts

Starting at the beginning of every fiscal year, make sure to create a solid maintenance plan to see you through the coming year. Creating a software-based plan can help you stay organized and schedule everything from invoices to preventative measures in one place for easy reference. Like with any budget, if you know what goes in and what goes out, you’ll be in a better position to know how much you can afford to spend.

Another benefit to having a maintenance plan is that it will help you have a better working relationship with your facility’s CEOs or CFOs by letting them know when a budget cut is allowable. It’s this kind of foresight that takes some of the stress and headache out of cuts to your facility budget. Contact System4 to learn more about streamlining your maintenance program.