It has been one year since I joined the Pareto FM family, so I thought it only proper to run a new blog about my time with the company and see what has held true from my initial impressions, and what has changed (see FM by name, Service by nature). Well, what has changed in the past year? In short - everything and nothing! The company has expanded its client base, looking after some of the most fascinating sites in the industry as well as the amazing people who reside in them, the Pareto family has welcomed some new additions, our Board has grown and our reputation is starting to carry serious weight within the industry. And yet, nothing has changed regarding how we approach what we do. We are still the same company who strive to deliver the ultimate experience in customer service by keeping things simple, empowering our staff, remaining ever flexible and adaptable, adding innovative solutions, processes and procedures, and truly caring about and taking pride in what we do. One year on and I still get a buzz of excitement every time I take minute to reflect upon the Pareto FM philosophy and how we do things. We really are different. Personally, my career path has been blown wide open. I've gained experience in tendering for contracts, from looking at scopes right the way through to presenting bids. I've mobilised contracts. I've been made responsible for service delivery across multiple accounts. I've worked closely with clients to create, build and deliver projects up to the value of £500,000. And all of this is not because somebody else couldn't be bothered, or we didn't have anybody else to do it and it was offloaded on to me. It's because I've wanted to gain the experience and with Pareto, unlike other organisations I've worked for, they can provide the platform for me to do this.
The “Pareto way” which was sold to me before I joined is still ringing true. We build strategic partnerships with our clients. Earning trust and respect and genuinely acting in their best interests with every decision that we make. We are constantly looking to improve the services delivered, through innovation and developing our teams. I have recently had two of my team members complete and pass their ILM Level 3 qualification. I can’t think of another FM company who would invest in non-management/supervisory employees like that, especially at the company’s own cost. However, that’s just the way we do things around here. And what a refreshing approach it is! We firmly believe in retention and development, with our staff and our clients. Getting to know the wider Pareto team over the past year has been a real eye-opener, too. I remember attending our first manager’s day in July last year and being blown away by the amount of talent and experience in the room. Hearing about the companies and locations people had worked at previously was astounding. And yet, here they all were, working for a comparatively small player in the industry. And, why? Because we all had a common theme – frustration with elongated and constrictive processes and procedures when working for the bigger companies, senior management becoming blockers rather than enablers, and each of us had been shown the Pareto dream. And that dream has proven to be reality. We are given the tools and the belief to deliver things to the Pareto standard. We want to be the best, and we are most definitely on the path to achieving that.
