At the beginning of 2020, the world had no clue that the worst time was about to knock at the doors. Before anyone could prepare, they were taken hostage by the COVID 19 pandemic. Mankind was gridlocked; workplace had to be shut down, the lockdown was imposed to curb the volume of the pandemic. The new virus brought uncertainty, fear and chaos. As coronavirus came under the scanner, we learnt a lot about it and adopted the required changes. Today, hygiene and wellness have emerged with greater significance- from being a good-to-have to becoming a must-have component. There is a need for a holistic solution that can address all the high-hygiene requirements and this is where Paradigm Integrated Facility Management Services, one of the largest Residential Comprehensive Facility Management ISO certified firm in India steps in. Since the outbreak, the company has been implementing safety and hygiene norms in its Facilities Management services – from introducing best practices in how facilities are being managed and services are being delivered to technology implementation and creating innovative solutions to meet the current and future challenges.
Paradigm’s story begins in 2006 when the founding team noticed several moot points – unsatisfied customers, hardships of janitors and much more. Bridging those gaps, the firm today provides the best-in-class standard of services, acting as a single point of contact for enhancing the operations of complex facilities. “We have ensured that our attrition levels are the lowest in the market by bringing in more transparency in the organization. Our clients know exactly what they are paying for and in return, our staff knows what exactly our clients’ service expectations are,” says Group Head Pallavi Reddy.
Pallavi has been instrumental in starting the journey of Paradigm. We spoke to her over a host of issues in line with the journey of the brand Paradigm and how it has acted in response to the pandemic, as a frontline warrior.
Let’s hear the Group Head’s reflection on Paradigm
Services
Paradigm provides a complete array of services purely through “INHOUSE TRAINED MANPOWER”, which includes- Administrative Services, Offering Technical and Periodic Maintenance, Housekeeping, Gardening Services & Pest Control, O&M of Water Treatment Units, Tank Cleaning Services, Security Services with 24/7 Emergency Support.
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The COVID-19 impact Paradigm has been at the forefront of supporting both in-house & new clients and taking care of the cleaning and Sanitizing services. What has challenged us the most during the pandemic is delivering the same quality facility management services without escalating costs. There has been a sudden spurt in our expenditures. On the contrary, many of the clients are going through their lowest times either in their businesses or Jobs. Despite this, we are leveraging our services to the clients without escalating costs. At present, resourcing is also a major challenge; managing the welfare of our staff when they must get quarantined, their safety and hygiene are paramount for us. These are difficult times and we need to hold each other’s hands throughout.
Paradigm’s response to the pandemic
We have been at the frontline against the pandemic since the outbreak as we were still delivering essential facility management services for the residential sector. However, in the wake of COVID measures, our staffing was restructured along with the realignment of the resource development for maintaining social distancing norms and minimizing our resources’ exposure to the outside world.
All our teams are well equipped with safety gears (PPEs, masks etc.) and there are ample sanitizing options at every location. We have continued the training procedures for our staff to ensure that they are well versed with the precautionary government guidelines and standard operating procedures for each activity they are carrying out. Our manual registers have been replaced with a digital non-contact model through a partner app called LittleOffice which provides complete visitor management, complaint management, along with Facial recognition-based attendance of employees, etc. We are consciously thrusting machinery usage wherever possible to improve the overall efficiency of work as well as minimizing exposure of staff and clients to more and more people.
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To deliver an overall safe and hygienic terrain, our focus has been pressed on to know what products are we using and their quality. Currently, there have emerged a large number of new suppliers and brands in the market, however many of these new products, rather chemicals don’t come with any test certificate or Material safety data sheets (MSDS) which is extremely critical from the safety aspect of our staff. This is where the evaluation of products is primary. Secondly comes the usage of products – why, when, where, how and what to use. The unscientific approach may result in a scenario where the use is worthless or non-efficient or even damaging. Hence, training the staff on these aspects has been a priority especially with the new products being thrust into the scenario.
Adaptations by Paradigm
We first targeted the Common Contamination areas in our line of work such as Registers, stationery items, workspace essentials, enclosed spaces such as Security cabin, estate office, utility rooms, lifts and surroundings, common areas like play areas, washrooms, all possible touchable areas, resident vehicles etc. Our next step was to look at the possible solutions and implement them. In our workspaces (residential as well as commercial), we minimized our point of contact- we went contactless where digital alternatives were available. We are following government guidelines and social distancing norms. We ensured that our personnel installed Aarogya Setu app. A sanitized schedule has been prepared based on the frequency of usage and much more.
Monogram of Quality
Rather than perception, it is the need of Qualitative aspects which has taken over in the post Pandemic period. We have been trying to drive this aspect for quite some time into end-users, so this effect or change is what we always wanted. However, the challenge lies in controlling the costs from escalating, and this is where our resource replanning, machinery usage, automation and regular analysis of utilities are helping cope with the demands.As new standards and requirements of FM arise, we are working hard to track them and fully manage all aspects of the managed services.
