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Is Your MAC Program out of Control?

Published Date

MAC Workplace Management Plan

Scott Snead, President, Graebel Commercial Services, Inc.

(Pssst… Hey MAC, Do You Have a Workplace Management Plan?)

What makes an organization tick?

Most of us would quickly suggest it’s the people. Now if you’re a facility manager, you probably wouldn’t disagree, but you also know that the physical workspace doesn’t manage itself. Someone needs to make sure there are no glitches or lapses in the work environment that can disrupt employees or company performance.

The physical workplace essentials, of course, include things like lighting, climate control, furniture, IT and workspace configuration. But think for a moment about how these can cascade into dozens of other tasks and systems – each one intended to maintain employee focus, productivity and even morale.

One major category of these workplace services is known as “MAC” – Move Add Change – which encompasses all matters related to furniture and workplace. In recent years, MAC programs have expanded from a “break-fix” focus to encompass proactive services (still related to furniture and work place) ranging from ergonomics to setting up for large events.

I remember when employee MAC requests were logged by phone and entered onto spreadsheets. Now, as organizations grow and become more conscious of the need to quickly address MAC issues, it’s extremely important to automate and systematize the MAC management process. Fortunately, there are excellent tools and resources to help you do this.

Where should you start? As you design or evaluate your MAC program, here are five elements you should be sure to address:

  1. The first key to taming the MAC monster is to create a MAC work order process. How will requests be submitted? Who will approve them? Who will fulfill them? As you can imagine, there’s no one-size-fits-all process. You’ll want to handle workstation moves differently from a chair repair, for example. Which leads to #2 below…
  2. Carefully define work order types. No doubt you’ll be using a selection menu of some sort, so make sure it’s sufficiently detailed to: relocate one workspace or a seven-person team; adjust a work surface; order a chair, etc. It’s best to create specific work order types that are meaningful to your organization. Specificity helps ensure that you allocate and schedule the right resources and capture helpful program metrics (more on that in a moment).
  3. Building on these first two steps, for each task develop operational standards regarding responsiveness, timing (e.g., after hours or during working hours) and personnel. This helps ensure the right human resources are available for each task – janitorial, movers, computer techs and furniture installers, for example.
  4. The level of detail in #2 and #3 will enable you to outline program metrics. You can’t improve what you can’t measure, so for each activity, you’ll need to track the time spent on it, the related costs (material and labor), and customer satisfaction metrics.
  5. The metrics in #4 won’t matter unless you aggregate and analyze the data in a monthly/quarterly program evaluation. Budget is the big driver here, but also review the data you captured regarding turnaround, responsiveness and employee feedback (positive and negative).

As MAC programs have evolved, so has Graebel’s MAC program support. It’s a natural extension of our workplace services’ global corporate relocation activities for which we maintain a global network of vetted service providers. A core strength, we also help companies at the MAC program level and work with most types of automated MAC-approval systems.

Need to tame your MAC program? Contact Graebel to find out how our workplace services team help!