SBFM, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading and fastest growing soft FM service providers, has launched Unify – the company’s new learning and development platform – as part of renewed investment in training to help address long-term skill and labour shortages across the industry.
Designed to increase employee engagement, support career development and empower employee success, the platform provides colleagues with on-the-job training to build expertise in critical areas that form the foundation of the FM roles they perform.
The skills gap – particularly amid a huge loss in skilled and semi-skilled front line workers’ post-Brexit – has been repeatedly cited as being an impediment to the FM sector’s ability to attract and retain talent. A total of 87% of UK companies say they are finding it hard to fill positions, with a third feeling the skills gap is widening[1].
SBFM’s new learning and development platform will addresses this gap by helping FM professionals to upskill and stay up to date with the latest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives affecting the industry.
While at the same time promoting a culture of continual learning that ensures SBFM’s employees feel supported and equipped with the knowledge, skills, and behaviour they need for long-term career growth.
The new digital training platform will offer a foot on the ladder to trainee professionals starting out in a new career in FM, while freeing up capacity for experienced industry professionals to bolster and refresh their training.
An integral part of SBFM’s career development experience, Unify is an intuitive digital platform combining tailored learning pathways for all employees, personalised skill development at scale, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and microlearning that allows learners to fit development into their busy schedules.
With Unify, training and development is brought to life in a way that is interactive and engaging. A single digital destination for all learning content, the platform offers opportunities for SBFM employees to upskill and reskill, putting learning firmly in the control of colleagues across all areas of the business.
The Unify platform will be the first of many solutions in a growing network of SBFM tools that aims to not only bolster career development, but also build a positive and inclusive workplace culture and boost engagement across dispersed teams.
The new platform provides the SBFM team with critical education and guidance on topics including equality and diversity, mental health, self-care, work life balance, bullying and harassment, amongst others.
While also encouraging employees to engage and collaborate with their colleagues across the SBFM community in a centralised hub.
Kelly Dolphin, Learning and Social Impact Director at SBFM, said: “At SBFM we are focused on offering careers not jobs and Unify provides the ideal platform to help the company’s dedicated employees to develop personally and professionally in their role, and build their knowledge, skills and experience to grow within SBFM.
“SBFM’s vision is to ensure that everybody is unified and feels a connection with SBFM, that every employee has the right to advance their career and has the opportunity to learn. We are looking beyond short-term gains and aiming to embed a culture of continual learning, development and education, underpinned by an environment where people can grow both technically and culturally. Unify is a platform that will enable us to do just that.”
Unify will enable SBFM to deliver on demands for greater workplace engagement and deliver on the company’s vision to develop a dynamic future fit workforce in line with its People Strategy.
For more information, visit: https://sb-fm.co.uk/
[1] https://fmindustry.com/2022/07/27/diversity-and-inclusivity-essential-to-closing-uk-construction-skills-gap/
