An interview with Deepak Shanbhag, CEO of Property Solutions India (Pvt) (Ltd) PSIPL, one of the top facilities management companies in India
In this interview, we speak with Deepak Shanbhag, CEO of Property Solutions India (Pvt) Ltd. (PSIPL), one of India’s leading facilities management companies.
Under his leadership, PSIPL has been at the forefront of delivering innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable management solutions.
Deepak shares his insights into the evolving facilities management landscape, the challenges of shifting to output-based performance metrics, and his vision for enhancing worker effectiveness and operational efficiency.
Can you share your journey and what inspired you to lead PSIPL in the Integrated Facility Management sector?
Deepak Shanbhag: The zeal to create a wide scale positive impact is what drives us at PSIPL. By adopting a directly managed IFM model, we touch lives of people across the entire strata of the society.
Engaging and working with diverse industry segments, empowers us to build comprehensive, robust, and agile service models. The exposure and learnings across diverse sectors also allows us to innovate new service lines.
Long term presence is pronounced in this industry, as the experiential nature of commerce solidifies IFM’s relevance across a spectrum of economic trends. India’s fast-growing economy forecasts an inevitable rise in facility spaces, promising immense scope for IFM providers to thrive.
In your view, how has the role of facilities management evolved in recent years, especially regarding worker effectiveness?
Deepak Shanbhag: It has been more than two decades I’ve been in this Industry. Earlier being employed in services like housekeeping and security were not as aspirational, and was considered a last resort job.
By leveraging advanced technologies and growing business demand for IFMs, providers changed the scenario for the better by offering increased pay scales and improved working conditions. Thereby, making impactful strides in improving worker effectiveness.
Visit any property run by a facility management provider and you will find clean premises, functional devices, and well-equipped spaces, which are the results of worker effectiveness.
Now, facility workers feel fulfilled with their jobs and also find motivation seeing their work’s impact on people. We are focusing on further increasing worker effectiveness by tackling the talent shortage and untrained manpower with strategic solutions.
We have an elaborative training guide for our line level teams educating them on their functional, behavioural, and financial aspects. These training programs are designed to accelerate their professional as well as their personal development.
What challenges do you face in transitioning organisations from traditional time-based performance metrics to output-focused evaluations?
Deepak Shanbhag: An outcome based IFM service model is preferred because of its direct relation with business goals and objectives. Implementing it starts with the FM service provider mapping the client’s business goals and execution strategy, then assessing their needs across the journey.
IFM’s should use these insights to inform their own operations and curate a Bill of quantities (BoQ) which is in complete alignment to the client’s requirements. This alignment will be a crucial factor in attracting, servicing, and retaining business.
The Indian IFM space has started to evolve in this direction. However, the approach requires businesses to make a shift at the fundamental level, which can be painstaking and time consuming.
Even when businesses decide to tread this path, consistently adhering to the model becomes a challenge in a fast-changing market.
That being said, the simplicity of measurement and speed of control makes the transition worthwhile. Regular, open, and transparent conversations with all stakeholders is key for contract calibration and assessment.
What best practices would you recommend to other facility managers looking to implement output-based performance measures?
Deepak Shanbhag: As an IFM service provider, this approach begins with the very first interaction with the client where you assess the present and future needs of the business.
A service based on high technology-human ratio should be a key part of your offering, where you highlight the reduced dependency on the human element and the standardised performance of operations. Your aim should be to quantify every aspect of the output and align it with the client’s goals and objectives.
The entire delivery model should be hinged on technology through which the parameters can be measured. This way one can map business downtime, customer complaints, attrition, incidents, and other aspects which are attributable to IFM service delivery and cast a direct impact on the client business outcome.
Data is indeed the new oil. FQI comes handy as it gives the health of every contract, and also provides direction to the delivery team’s actions.
Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee in facilities management that could further enhance worker effectiveness in the future?
Deepak Shanbhag: Evolving technology and consumer behaviour is creating great scope for facility management providers to deliver exceptional value to businesses and people. Capitalising on this opportunity would require FM providers to evolve alongside.
Few trends we foresee include evolution in the criteria that makes a service partner appealing for businesses; focus on aligning IFM’s operations to the client’s ESG goals assists in developing mutually beneficial relationship between businesses, IFM providers, and government bodies; the angle of service scalability becoming crucial; automation, both in digital and physical functions will play an important role in elevating efficiency; integrating smart tech and IoT with the human element will be essential to innovate a personalised experience in this field.
Deepak Shanbhag’s leadership at PSIPL highlights a commitment to innovation and sustainability in facilities management.
His focus on output-based metrics and cost-effective solutions is reshaping the sector, ensuring that businesses can operate more efficiently while enhancing worker effectiveness.
With his forward-thinking approach, PSIPL is poised to continue setting industry benchmarks and driving the future of facilities management in India.
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