Mitie, the facilities management company, has been working with Sky, the UK’s largest entertainment and home communications company, since 2012.
Mitie provides integrated facilities management to Sky’s entire estate in UK and Ireland, which includes catering, mechanical and electrical maintenance, security, front of house services, cleaning, helpdesk, switchboard, mailroom management, pest control, waste management, landscaping and QHSE.
Sky’s aim is to attract the best people in the industry and create an environment in which their staff can thrive. To achieve this, the broadcaster, with the help of Mitie, has switched its emphasis from serving the building to serving its customers – Sky’s internal staff. They have also adopted a strong service culture, recruiting people with a strong service or hospitality background.
“We don’t talk about FM, we call it service,” says Nick Green, Sky’s property service group director. Green’s vision dates from his experience of the buzz created by 70,000 volunteers three years ago at the London Olympics.
The Sky ‘games-makers’ comprise more than 850 Mitie people looking after 50 of Sky’s buildings across the UK – 1.86m sq. ft. of property space. They provide a human face to FM and focus on service first, and the building second.
Conrad Dean, Mitie’s account director for the Sky contract, explains that Mitie is focused on “how people work, and how we [Mitie] need to anticipate the evolution of their needs from a workplace perspective.”
A good example of this is how Mitie has helped transform the catering offer across the four restaurants and various cafes at Sky’s Osterley campus in West London. Operated by Mitie’s catering business, Gather & Gather, the majority of the food outlets are regularly adapted in response to Sky personnel requests. They also run a table service restaurant and place great emphasis on the quality of their coffee.
“We have the UK’s number one young barista and the 11th best barista on site,” claims Green, referring to the company’s detailed recruitment policy. And it’s not unusual for the baristas to know what their customers want before they tell them.
Mitie also now manages thirteen shuttle buses to take staff on and off site. The complex’s relative isolation from central London is thus offset by small, but significant steps to help its people achieve a better work-life balance.
This news story forms part of the ‘Getting with the Programme’ article in FM World, the magazine of the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM).
To read more about Sky’s service provision and its relationship with Mitie, please click here.
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For further information, contact:
Helen Greenwood, IR & PR Manager, Mitie Group plc
T:+44 20 3123 8731 E:helen.greenwood@mitie.com
