By Kingsley Adegboye 

Against the backdrop of the peculiar nature of the Nigeria’s workplace which demands distinctive considerations with regard to occurrences in recent times ranging from Covid-19 and its ever-evolving variants to economic eccentricities, poor workplace maintenance culture, socio-political trends and stances that have grossly affected the work, the worker and the workplace, the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management IWFM, Nigeria Region, recently organised a one-day conference themed “Re-inventing the Workplace”. 

Explaining the essence of the one-day event in Lagos, the Chairman of IWFM Nigeria Region, Mr Tunde Obileye, said the essence of the gathering was to promote the industry called facilities management in the sense that in our everyday living whether workplace or at home, there are aspects of facilities management we see constantly on regular basis. 

“As a country, people or community, there is need for us to embrace what facilities management is all about so that we can take it from the position that it becomes a way of life for us. 

” At the moment, the whole concept of facilities management has not been understood, hence gatherings like this will promote and advocate the ideals of facilities management and maintenance culture. 

“And of course, the world is moving very fast and we don’t talk about maintenance culture in that sense anymore. The world is beginning to look at wellness, well being and the workplace and how people feel when they are in their workplace.

” In other words, are people comfortable with their work environment or are they just going to work for the sake of going to work? Most people spend their day in their workplace.  There is a lot going around particularly as a result of the pandemic and what should obtain post-pandemic”.

On tackling the challenges facing facilities management in the country, he said the first thing to be noted is that IWFM is an international organization that deals with issues of workplace and facilities management. 

“Now, we as a region, we are now leveraging on what is being done or has been done to bring it closer to Nigerians. One of challenges is lack of awareness which is a major problem, and of course understanding the fabric of what facilities management is all about. 

“For instance, we don’t pay attention to health and safety in the workplace. If go to offices, you will see wires littering all over the place and hazardous situations which shouldn’t happen in the first place. 

“Another challenge is that we do not have qualified workforce in the sense that a lot of people who are into facilities management do not have the training, skill and competence to do the job, and there is a need to focus in that area where we begin to develop the skills and those in the industry can upscale their skills”.

On impact of Covid-19, IWFM Nigeria boss, noted that “Covid-19 created accelerated change in terms of how we now work, how we now go to work and how we now carry out our tasks in the workplace. 

“Of course, some people are still very sceptical about going to the workplace because they are not sure of their safety. So, remote working is as a result of the outcome of Covid-19. And beyond that, technology has also come into recognition in the sense that technology is driving a lot of changes, and facilities management being the kind of service we provide, is also driving technology to be deployed to make work a lot easier for us. 

“So, with technology, people now know that they don’t have to be physically present in their workplace to do the work. To answer your question directly, remote work is as a result of Covid – 19 in Nigeria. 

” However, abroad, remote work had been in existence before Covid-19″.