ISS has released (6 August) a whitepaper ‘discussing insights on how to manage and mitigate risk through strategic facility management’.
Research behind the whitepaper, Managing and Mitigating risk within Strategic Facility Management, is based on fieldwork performed by the Vienna University of Technology, Department of Information and Facility Management (IFM); PriceWaterhouseCoopers Austria (PwC); and experiences derived from the delivery side of the service provider ISS Austria’s FM business.
‘The significance of risk management and control activities has increased as a result of various legal initiatives in the United States and Europe, but also as a result of the current economic situation.
‘In this context, a methodology is presented that provides measures to implement or optimise a company’s risk management system as well as its internal control system (ICS),’ explains the company.
The paper also demonstrates how facility services outsourcing can be implemented in an optimum way in order to manage and, ultimately, minimise risk.
‘In doing so, risk maps and reference processes, in addition to reference risk and control matrices deriving from companies and institutions, can be used as points of reference for developing organisations’ own risk management systems and ICS, as well as for designing their operational and organisational structures.
‘Naturally, when applying these measures within a specific organisational unit it is necessary to individually tailor the reference models. This also includes defining roles and responsibilities within business processes, optimising the outsourcing activities of facility services and taking aspects of risk management into consideration,’ explains ISS.