When something goes wrong in a building, the facilities team isn’t always the first to know. Often, it’s an administrative assistant, business services officer, executive assistant, or local office employee who sees the problem first. They hear an alarm. They discover a leak. They know employees can’t get through a door or that a scheduled service call is disrupting normal operations.
That makes administrative staff an important part of a facility’s emergency response, even if maintaining the building isn’t their job. The key is making sure they know what to do with what they see.
The First Link in the Response Chain
Trisha Matzke, a property manager and business services officer for Health and Human Services of Texas, sees this firsthand. Administrative staff are often in the building every day, making them a valuable source of real-time information when something happens. Their role isn’t to diagnose a mechanical problem or repair a failed system. It’s to communicate what they’re seeing and help connect the facilities team with the right people.
That might mean reporting a maintenance emergency, loss of utilities, safety concern, access problem, or anything else affecting normal operations. The facilities team can then coordinate with the lessor, property management, vendors, maintenance personnel, security, or other appropriate resources. That communication also helps determine the severity of the situation. Sometimes local staff can take immediate steps while a permanent solution is being coordinated. Other times, the situation requires a much larger response.
Either way, the response starts with someone recognizing a problem and knowing who to tell.
IFMA Fellow Thomas L. Mitchell Jr. puts the larger issue into perspective. He recommends three steps for facilities and administrative teams: establish one operational communications system, pre-authorize emergency decisions, and build redundancy into critical building systems. Together, those measures can reduce information delays, shorten response time, and help keep one building problem from becoming an organizational disruption.
Building Information Shouldn’t Be a Scavenger Hunt
Communication works better when everyone is working from reliable building information. Matzke supports multiple buildings, which means she can’t physically be at every location when something happens. Current information about the building, contacts, lease responsibilities, service providers, floor plans, and existing facility issues gives her the context to respond from wherever she is. That’s especially important when determining who is responsible for what.
Does an issue belong to the agency? The lessor? Property management? Security? IT? A service contractor?
Knowing the Answer Can Save Valuable Time
The same principle applies to the information administrative staff need. They don’t need to become facilities experts, but they should know where to find emergency and facilities contacts, building hours and access procedures, evacuation information, and other information relevant to their role. For some situations, that may also include utility shutoff information, accessibility information, vendor contacts, scheduled maintenance or construction activities, and known building issues.
The goal isn’t to give everyone every piece of technical information. It’s to make sure the right people can find the right information when they need it.
Business Continuity Is a Team Sport
A building problem doesn’t stop being a business problem just because a facilities team has taken ownership of it. Consider an equipment failure.
“At one of my buildings, we had an HVAC issue that could have affected normal operations. Local staff communicated what they were experiencing in the building, which gave me the information I needed even though I wasn’t physically on-site,” Matzke said. “I coordinated with the appropriate building and maintenance contacts, kept the local team updated, and followed the issue through until service was restored. The administrative staff provided real-time information from the building while I handled the facilities coordination. That partnership allowed us to respond quickly and minimize the impact on employees and services.”
Administrative teams may also have to communicate changes, reschedule meetings, coordinate people and vendors, support leadership, or help employees understand what is happening. The facilities team may be responsible for restoring the building, and administration can play a major role in keeping the organization functioning while that happens.
Make the Relationship Part of the Plan
There is often an invisible divide between the people who run the business and the people who run the building. Administrative assistants don’t need to become facilities managers. Facilities teams don’t need to become administrative assistants. But both groups need a shared understanding of who to contact, what information is available, and what happens next when something goes wrong.
That means building information shouldn’t live in one person’s head, an outdated binder, or a folder nobody remembers how to find. Emergency procedures should reflect the actual building. Contacts should be current. Responsibilities should be clear. And information should be available to the people who may need it, not just the people who maintain it.
When that foundation is in place, administrative staff can become an important extension of the facilities team’s response.
The next time something goes wrong, the organization doesn’t have to start with, “Who knows what to do?” Everyone already knows their part.
Jack Rubinger is a content writer for facility solutions provider ARC Facilities. He has more than 20 years of building, technology, healthcare, higher education, and workplace safety writing experience. He can be reached at jack.rubinger@arcfacilities.com.