Hobart City Mission

About the client

Hobart City Mission are a not-for-profit organisation, and one of Australia’s oldest running missions. For over 170 years, Hobart City Mission have provided support and crisis accommodation for the most vulnerable in Southern Tasmania.

With a large portfolio of properties comprising of offices, disability group homes, retail, and social housing, facilities management is critical to the delivery of the much-needed services Hobart City Mission provides.

The opportunity

Over the past few years, cost of living pressures have dramatically increased demand for Hobart City Missions services. With more people than ever relying on Hobart City Mission, the organisation wanted to improve visibility over maintenance works and assets.

As a not for profit, Hobart City Mission is committed to optimising expenditure to help as many vulnerable people as possible.  

The journey

After identifying several key areas in need of improvement, Hobart City Mission engaged FMI in February 2023 and quickly onboarded. Hobart City Mission hopes FMI will play a key part in improving visibility and optimising expenditure in facilities management. This means having oversight on planned and reactive maintenance as well as being able to report on expenditure and asset and contractor performance.

Hobart City Mission Facilities Manager, Nadia Zeini, explains.

“Without a maintenance system in place, visibility and reporting on all areas of asset management was certainly a challenge. We would get testing of critical systems done, but it would be recorded on a spreadsheet and saved somewhere. Reporting was difficult because data was dispersed across several locations. Without a consistent method of sending out work orders, communication with contractors was inconsistent and often confusing. We now have a uniformed and consistent work order which we have tailored to meet our needs. Having a record of work orders being sent out also keeps our contractors accountable."

"We understood there were a multiple issues that needed to be improved in order to optimise our performance as an organisation and our service delivery outcomes being successful. Contractor scheduling was a huge problem for us, with contractors showing up to carry out maintenance at our properties, but no-one knowing that they were coming, so therefore the maintenance couldn’t be carried out due to lack of access. We would have to try to reschedule and start that whole process again. It was time consuming and frustrating for everyone involved.”

In just a few short months, Hobart City Mission have dramatically improved visibility over contracted services and created an active feedback loop with contractors.

“By putting work schedules into FMI, we’re able to get a clear picture of when planned maintenance schedules are becoming due, and we are better able to evaluate contractor performance based on set benchmarks and KPI’s we outline on work orders and in their service agreements”

"For our everyday contractors, like our electricians, handymen, plumbers etc. the system is working really well. They get sent a work order as soon as a maintenance request comes in, and can jump on them straight away. We’ve set benchmarks and KPIs for them, and FMI helps us evaluate how well they align to those by enabling us to run reports” Nadia explains.

“Our staff have also found the system easy to use when reporting maintenance. FMI operates really well through our intranet and feedback so far is that the system is easy to use and logical."

Tightened regulations in Tasmania have increased the workload for Hobart City Mission in terms of contractor accreditations. With a recent change to child safety accreditation in Tasmania, organisations working with children now have to prove that their accreditation processes are in good functioning order. Hobart City Mission already had stringent measures in place, however FMI is assisting by providing oversight and reporting capabilities.

With FMI, Hobart City Mission have been able to improve their visibility over contractor accreditations. “We’re building the data in FMI with all our contractors and their staff so we can easily see when accreditations are expiring and give them a heads up. We work with really vulnerable people, so it is absolutely imperative that our contractors have the appropriate accreditations before they set foot on any of our sites” says Nadia.

Looking to the future

Hobart City Mission are at the start of their journey with FMI. Compliance, and visibility over critical systems is the first priority.

“Visibility over our compliance has improved significantly. Since January 2023, we can now report on 90% of our compliance activities, and that will be at 100% by the end of the year” says Nadia.

For Hobart City Mission, the support provided by the FMI team has been invaluable. “There’s always a few teething issues, but the support has been amazing, they jump on questions or issues straight away, the team is so responsive and helpful” says Nadia.

Hobart City Mission is continuing to grow their property portfolio, and having FMI in place will allow the organisation to grow whilst retaining complete oversight of assets and maintenance schedules at all times. Its great to have a system in place that will grow with us, meaning no part of our infrastructure department will be left behind, forgotten or neglected.