Business Continuity Planning for Condominium Managing Agents in Sri Lanka: Resilience during Pandemics

Business Continuity (BC) of condominiums is being greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is highly contagious, imposing a huge risk on community-based environments in which residents share different common facilities such as lifts, recreational areas, swimming pools, gyms. Besides, the apartments are mostly used as closed units without a solid connection with the environment. Such settings may heavily contribute in spreading any contagious disease, justifying the strict care extremely demanded at residentials. As the caretaker, the Facilities Management (FM) service provider, also known as the Managing Agent (MA) must continue its operations while facing the pandemic with a huge risk. Rather than being reactive towards the emerging struggles, it is more effective to have a proactive approach in combatting a pandemic. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) allows an organisation to be equipped with all mandatory plans and strategies which can be implemented before the pandemic strikes. Hence, this paper proposes a Pandemic BCP model for MAs which can be utilized for the on-going COVID-19 and future pandemics. Data were gathered using literature, expert interviews, site observations and document review. It was observed that none of the organisations had BC plans prepared for a pandemic. However, most experts admitted the importance of BCP in this context. They mentioned that the remote working culture already established in MAs, heavily contributed in adapting to the situation. Further, satisfactory accommodation facilities provided for the on-site staff was witnessed during the site observations. The documents review revealed the comprehensiveness of prompt action taken by MAs to resume operation of the critical functions. The proposed model consists of six stages and the paper discusses the factors to be considered under each stage of the model. MAs can utilize this plan effectively in adapting to the current and future pandemics to ensure solid BC

Business Continuity Planning for Condominium Managing Agents in Sri Lanka: Resilience during Pandemics

Business Continuity (BC) of condominiums is being greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is highly contagious, imposing a huge risk on community-based environments in which residents share different common facilities such as lifts, recreational areas, swimming pools, gyms. Besides, the apartments are mostly used as closed units without a solid connection with the environment. Such settings may heavily contribute in spreading any contagious disease, justifying the strict care extremely demanded at residentials. As the caretaker, the Facilities Management (FM) service provider, also known as the Managing Agent (MA) must continue its operations while facing the pandemic with a huge risk. Rather than being reactive towards the emerging struggles, it is more effective to have a proactive approach in combatting a pandemic. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) allows an organisation to be equipped with all mandatory plans and strategies which can be implemented before the pandemic strikes. Hence, this paper proposes a Pandemic BCP model for MAs which can be utilized for the on-going COVID-19 and future pandemics. Data were gathered using literature, expert interviews, site observations and document review. It was observed that none of the organisations had BC plans prepared for a pandemic. However, most experts admitted the importance of BCP in this context. They mentioned that the remote working culture already established in MAs, heavily contributed in adapting to the situation. Further, satisfactory accommodation facilities provided for the on-site staff was witnessed during the site observations. The documents review revealed the comprehensiveness of prompt action taken by MAs to resume operation of the critical functions. The proposed model consists of six stages and the paper discusses the factors to be considered under each stage of the model. MAs can utilize this plan effectively in adapting to the current and future pandemics to ensure solid BC

RISK ASSOCIATED WITH FACILITIESMANAGEMENT OUTSOURCING AND ITS IMPACT ON SERVICE PERFORMANCE

In Sri Lanka, Facilities Management (FM) outsourcing has shown steady growth in recent years. Although FM outsourcing has become popular, organizations do not aware about what risks are involved with outsourcing and its impact on service performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop the strategic framework to analyse risks associated with FM outsourcing and their impact on service performance. Firstly, a literature review was done to identify FM outsourcing risks and its impact on service performance. Further, management strategies were reviewed to overcome FM outsourcing risk with a view to improving performance. A quantitative research approach based on questionnaire was followed to achieve research aim. The initial literature survey findings and preliminary survey finding were included in the questionnaire. Subsequently, questionnaire survey was conducted among the professional experts in both FM service provider companies and client organisations. The results were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Accordingly, 31 factors were identified among the analysed 32 FM outsourcing risk factors. The relationship between FM outsourcing risks with service performance attributes were identified by using correlation analysis and FM service provider related risks were rated at the high side of correlation. The factor analysis was also carried out and six management strategies were identified as the most efficient strategies. Finally, a framework to enhance the FM outsourcing practice was developed based on the research findings, in order to suggest appropriate solution to overcome FM outsourcing risk. Hence developed framework can be used to effectively manage FM outsourcing practice for FM practitioners

Development of a Customer Satisfaction Assessment Model for the Immigration and Emigration Service in Sri Lanka

Immigration and Emigration Service (IES) is among the most vital set of state services of a country. In Sri Lanka it has played a great role with the augmented rates of immigrants and emigrants during past few years. The efficiency of this service relies on its customers’ satisfaction. Thus the focus of the research was to identify the level of satisfaction of customers regarding the quality of services, and to suggest appropriate further improvement strategies to maximize its efficiency. Quantitative approach was used for the effective fulfilment of desired objectives. During the first phase of data collection, two preliminary surveys were carried out to filter and specifically identify the factors to be included in the satisfaction assessment. Subsequently, the customer satisfaction assessment was completed focusing on 125 customers. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 4 experts, aiming to identify possible improvement strategies for further enhancements in the service quality. Twenty eight factors were established to appraise the immigration and emigration service quality. The service quality assessment using IPA matrix revealed that the customers were satisfied with 15 factors and dissatisfied with 13 factors. Thus, several improvement strategies were proposed to improve the current service quality.International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB

MANAGING OCCUPATIONAL STRESS OF PROFESSIONALS IN LARGE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN SRI LANKA

This research aims to take an insight at construction professional-specific occupational stress causing factors, and their impacts to the productivity. The occupational stress causing factors pertinent to construction professionals, consequences of occupational stress and occupational stress prevention strategies that could be implemented within the construction sites were studied and a questionnaire survey was carried out among construction professionals such as project managers, Engineers and Quantity surveyors to identify the significance of them. Ten stressors were identified as significant in causing occupational stress among constructional professionals. Further it was recognized the organization related factors have a significant variance of occupational stress among professionals. Thereafter 11 significant impacts for project managers, 9 significant impacts for Engineers and 11 significant impacts for Quantity surveyors were explored. Impact of occupational stress of construction professionals for low performance and productivity can be reduced and job satisfaction can be enhanced by implementing the occupational stress management strategies in construction sites