The Future of Facilities: Outcome-Driven Contracts & Workplace Readiness

Leveraging JTBD Principles to Redefine Service Value Beyond Traditional SLAs in the Hybrid Model

Table of Contents

• Introduction: The Broken Contract

• Why Old Contracts Fail in the New Hybrid World

• Introducing Jobs-to-be-Done for Workplace Services

• Elevating the Abstraction: From Siloed Services to Integrated Workplace Readiness

• Building the New Contract Strategy: Key Elements for Procurement & Operations

• Case Study / Scenario (Hypothetical)

• Conclusion & Call to Action

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𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗺 𝗜 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵?

I want you to see that while JTBD is a method, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 is that it can be applied to almost 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙮𝙥𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢. You have a choice; you can spend years listening to someone preach about how to do a small part of it, or you can inspire yourself to dive in and solve problems that are never talked about in this small community. 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿.

Introduction: The Broken Contract

Remember the days of bustling full offices, five days a week? Workplace service contracts for cleaning, maintenance, IT support, and catering were built for that predictable reality. Fast forward to today's hybrid landscape, and many businesses are stuck paying for services designed for full occupancy, even when offices are sparsely populated. Imagine paying for deep cleaning on floors that haven't seen traffic all week, or catering services scaled for a crowd that’s now working from home. It's inefficient, costly, and frankly, broken.

Traditional workplace service contracts, often based on fixed schedules, square footage, or assumed headcount, are fundamentally misaligned with the dynamic nature of hybrid work. This misalignment leads to wasted resources, potential dips in service quality when employees are present, budget headaches, and increased operational risk.

The solution lies in a fundamental shift in perspective. Instead of focusing on service inputs (like hours spent cleaning or number of maintenance checks), we need to focus on the desired outcomes these services are supposed to deliver. This is where the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework offers a powerful lens. By understanding the core 'jobs' your company is hiring these services to accomplish, you can design service strategies and contracts that are flexible, efficient, and truly aligned with the value you need in the hybrid era.

Why Old Contracts Fail in the New Hybrid World

The friction between old contract models and new work patterns creates several critical problems:

• The Variability Challenge: Hybrid schedules mean office occupancy can fluctuate dramatically day-to-day and week-to-week. Rigid contracts based on static assumptions (e.g., cleaning 5 days/week regardless of use) simply can't adapt efficiently. Input-based Service Level Agreements (SLAs) become meaningless when the inputs don't match reality.

• The Cost & Value Dilemma: Paying premium rates for services rendered to empty desks or underutilized spaces is a direct hit to the bottom line. In an era of tight budgets, demonstrating Return on Investment (ROI) for fixed, input-based service contracts becomes incredibly difficult. Procurement and finance leaders are rightly questioning the value delivered.

• The Experience Gap: Conversely, cost-cutting measures based on reducing fixed schedules can lead to poor experiences when employees do come into the office. Finding dirty common areas, unavailable meeting rooms due to delayed maintenance, or inadequate support impacts productivity, morale, and the perceived value of the office environment.

• The Data Disconnect: Most traditional contracts aren't designed to integrate with real-time workplace data (like room booking systems, badge swipes, or occupancy sensors). This prevents the dynamic optimization needed to match service delivery with actual demand, missing opportunities for both cost savings and service improvements.

• The Risk Factor: Static, inflexible contracts often lack clauses to effectively manage the risks associated with fluctuating demand, unpredictable disruptions (like health mandates), or the need to rapidly scale services up or down. This leaves businesses exposed.

Introducing Jobs-to-be-Done for Workplace Services

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory encourages us to look beyond the surface-level service description. Instead of thinking "we need cleaning services," JTBD asks: "What 'job' is the company hiring this service to do?" What specific progress or outcome is the business trying to achieve in a given circumstance?

Identifying the Core Jobs for workplace services might include:

• Ensure a hygienic and safe work environment for occupants.

• Maintain optimal building functionality and minimize operational downtime.

• Provide seamless access to necessary employee support services (IT, amenities, etc.) when onsite.

• Optimize workspace utilization for cost-effectiveness and employee experience.

• Enhance employee well-being and productivity during their time in the office.

• Mitigate operational and compliance risks associated with facility services.

Once the core jobs are identified, we define the Desired Outcomes. These are the measurable criteria that tell us if the job is being done successfully. Using the job "Ensure a hygienic and safe work environment" as an example, desired outcomes could include:

• Minimize the time work areas are unavailable due to service activities during occupied hours.

• Increase the adaptability of service frequency based on actual, data-informed usage patterns.

• Reduce the overall cost associated with servicing unused or low-traffic office zones.

• Ensure service protocols consistently meet or exceed evolving health, safety, and compliance standards.

• Increase employee satisfaction scores related to workspace cleanliness and readiness.

Focusing on these outcomes shifts the conversation with service providers from how they do the work to what results they deliver.

Elevating the Abstraction: From Siloed Services to Integrated Workplace Readiness

Managing multiple vendors – cleaning, HVAC maintenance, IT support, catering, security – each with their own rigid, input-focused contract, creates significant administrative overhead and often prevents a holistic view of workplace performance. It's complex and often inefficient.

What if we elevated the level of abstraction? Instead of managing individual service inputs, what if the core job we focused on was higher-level? Consider this job: "Ensure optimal workplace readiness adaptable to dynamic occupancy and business needs."

This higher-level job implies a future where the complexities of individual services are obfuscated. The focus shifts to achieving a desired state – a workplace that is consistently ready, functional, safe, and supportive for employees, whenever and however they choose to use it. This opens the door to conceptualizing new solutions, such as:

• Integrated Service Models: Partnering with a single strategic provider or a consortium capable of managing multiple services under one outcome-focused umbrella.

• Performance-Based Contracts: Agreements where payment is heavily tied to achieving the pre-defined outcomes related to 'workplace readiness'.

• Obfuscated Complexity, Demonstrated Value: The client (your company) manages the overarching 'readiness' outcome, while the provider manages the intricate coordination of underlying services (cleaning schedules adjusted by occupancy data, preventative maintenance triggered by sensor alerts, IT support scaled based on usage patterns). The supplier's role shifts to proactively demonstrating value against the agreed outcomes.

Imagine a single Master Service Agreement (MSA) where your provider leverages technology and integrated processes to dynamically adjust cleaning, HVAC, basic IT checks, and even amenity stocking based on real-time data, all focused on achieving the composite outcome of 'workplace readiness' within defined cost and quality parameters. This simplifies management for you and demands greater sophistication and value demonstration from your service partners.

Building the New Contract Strategy: Key Elements for Procurement & Operations

Transitioning to a JTBD-driven, outcome-based approach requires rethinking the core components of your service strategy and contracts. Key elements include:

• Outcome-Based Metrics & SLAs: Define success criteria and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) based on achieving the desired outcomes identified through the JTBD process. Examples: Maintain 99% uptime for critical AV equipment in meeting rooms; Achieve a 4.5/5 average employee rating for workspace cleanliness; Reduce energy consumption in unoccupied zones by 15%; Ensure 100% compliance with documented safety protocols.

• Flexibility & Scalability Clauses: Embed mechanisms for dynamic adjustment. Contracts must clearly define how service levels (and associated costs) will scale up or down based on agreed-upon data triggers (e.g., thresholds for occupancy density from sensors, percentage of desks booked in the reservation system, real-time service requests).

• Data Integration & Transparency: Mandate the use of technology (sensors, booking data integration, work order systems) for service optimization. Require transparent reporting from vendors that clearly demonstrates performance against the outcome-based metrics. Data ownership and access rights should be clearly defined.

• Strategic Partnership Model: Move away from purely transactional vendor relationships. Foster strategic partnerships where providers understand your core 'jobs' and desired outcomes, contribute to process improvement, proactively manage risks, and are invested in delivering measurable value. This often starts with collaborative workshops during the RFP and contracting phase.

• Innovative Pricing Models: Explore alternatives to fixed-price or input-based models. Consider:

  • Pay-per-use: Cost directly tied to utilized space or service consumption.

  • Outcome-based fees: A significant portion of payment linked to achieving specific KPIs.

  • Gain-sharing: Sharing cost savings achieved through innovation or efficiency improvements proposed by the vendor.

  • Tiered models: Different service levels and costs based on predefined occupancy bands. Aligning cost directly with the value delivered is paramount.

Case Study / Scenario (Hypothetical)

Let's consider "HybridCorp," a mid-sized tech company struggling with its traditional office service contracts post-pandemic. Costs were high, employees complained about inconsistent cleaning, and the Facilities and Procurement teams were buried in managing multiple vendors.

The Transition:

1. Cross-functional Team: Facilities, Procurement, HR, and IT formed a working group.

2. JTBD Workshops: They mapped their existing services to the core 'jobs' the business needed (e.g., Ensure productive environment, Optimize space cost, Maintain critical systems). They defined specific, measurable desired outcomes for each job.

3. Outcome-Focused RFP: They issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for an Integrated Workplace Readiness Partner. The RFP emphasized the desired outcomes, required data integration capabilities, and proposed flexible pricing models. It asked vendors how they would achieve these outcomes, rather than prescribing specific tasks.

4. Vendor Selection: They selected a provider who demonstrated a strong understanding of the outcome-based approach, presented a compelling technology integration plan, and showed willingness for a strategic partnership.

5. Contract Negotiation: The contract heavily featured outcome-based SLAs, data transparency clauses, and a tiered pricing model linked to occupancy data and performance metrics.

6. Implementation & Results: The new partner deployed sensors, integrated with HybridCorp's booking system, and implemented dynamic scheduling. Within six months, HybridCorp saw a 20% reduction in overall service costs, employee satisfaction scores for workspace readiness increased by 30%, and the Procurement/Facilities teams significantly reduced their administrative burden. The vendor proactively identified further optimization opportunities.

Conclusion & Call to Action

Whether your company plans for a hybrid and dynamic model, or it intends to mandate a 3, 4, or even 5-day a week return office rule, doesn’t it make sense to rethink how we manage workplace services? Clinging to outdated, input-based contracts guarantees inefficiency, wasted budget, potential risks, and a suboptimal employee experience.

By embracing the Jobs-to-be-Done framework, businesses can reorient their focus towards the outcomes that truly matter. This approach enables the design of flexible, data-driven, and value-focused service strategies and contracts that are fit for the hybrid era, as well as a return to more traditional routines. It elevates the role of service provision from a commoditized cost center to a strategic enabler of productivity, well-being, and financial prudence. For Procurement and Facilities leaders, this represents a significant opportunity to drive strategic value.

Whether you continue a remote or hybrid environment, or a full RTO, it makes sense to consider more flexible, outcome-focused service contracts because competitive forces are likely going to require shifts in how you deliver value and getting stuck in an inflexible contract makes little or no sense anymore.

Ready to start rethinking your contracts?

1. Initiate Dialogue: Start cross-functional conversations involving Facilities, Procurement, HR, IT, and Finance. Get aligned on the problems with the current state.

2. Map the Jobs: Begin identifying the core 'jobs' your current workplace services are hired to do. What outcomes are really expected?

3. Pilot Program: Consider piloting an outcome-based approach with a single service category or a specific building zone to test the model and gather data.

4. Talk to Vendors: Engage your current or potential service providers about their capabilities and willingness to explore outcome-based partnerships and flexible models.

This shift requires a change in mindset, but the benefits – cost savings, improved value, reduced risk, and a better workplace experience – are substantial.

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Procurement and Facilities leaders: What's the biggest contractual hurdle you face adapting services to hybrid work? Are you experimenting with outcome-based clauses or dynamic pricing? Share your experiences and innovative solutions in the comments below!

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I believe that an innovation consultant should eat their own dog food. Therefore, we must always strive to:

• Get more of the job done for our clients

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