Case Studies

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Cleaning delivering the Olympic Dream

It is no secret that successfully staging an Olympic event can bring a huge boost to the economy of the host nation in terms of construction and management contracts and an increase in tourism not only during but after the event as well.

An equivalent of £400m worth of Olympic contracts were awarded to businesses in New South Wales when Sydney hosted the games in 2000 and the neighbouring state of Queensland benefited from equivalent of £150m worth of work.

With an estimated £2 million being spent every day between 2007 and 2012 and with up to 6,000 construction staff in employment Facilities Managers will feel the full weight of responsibility to ensure that everything and everyone is ready when the doors swing open and the games come to town.

The right skills and the right people are going to be paramount to ensure the success of games and with an estimated 400,000 – 500,000 visitors per day, 20,000 operational staff working at venues, up to 70,000 volunteers and transport staff, the range of skills expected of those running the event will be varied and wide ranging and will include:

Management & Leadership,
Communication
Technical
Customer Services,
Legislative compliance
Financial Management

To ensure the right people have the right skills both large and small/medium companies need to be planning their strategy for dealing with the demands of the games now, and putting in place plans to train and develop staff who can meet the challenges ahead. Most high level training programmes take a number of years to complete and need supplementary experience to provide individuals with the confidence to tackle the enormous challenges the games hold. With this in mind it can be seen that promotion of FM and investment in both current and future staff needs to be developed and undertaken today.

To discuss skills issues affecting your organisation and how you can up skill your staff for future demands contact Asset Skills FM Specialist Karen Waterlow on 01392 423399 or kwaterlow@assetskills.org

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