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Year: 2026

The modern FM helpdesk: from reactive service to intelligent experience

Posted on by Ian Adams

Thoughts on the workings of the modern helpdesk, by Lynne English, Operations Director

Lynne English front picture of her face.

For many organisations, the helpdesk has traditionally been viewed as a reactive function – a place where issues are logged, tickets are raised, and problems are fixed. But this view is rapidly becoming outdated. As facilities management (FM) evolves, so too must the role of the helpdesk.

At Q3, we see the helpdesk not as an administrative function, but as the operational brain of a high-performing FM environment.

More than a service desk

Today’s helpdesk sits at the centre of the workplace experience. It is no longer just a phone line or inbox, but a 24/7, multi-channel front door to the organisation. It connects people, buildings, services, and suppliers, acting as a central hub for insight into what’s happening on the ground.

Crucially, it is responsible for far more than logging issues. A modern helpdesk manages reactive and planned work, coordinates compliance activities, controls supply partners and owns communication across the contract.

When viewed through this way, the helpdesk becomes a powerful source of operational intelligence – shaping performance, not just recording problems.

A fundamental mindset shift

The biggest change we see in FM is not technological but a shift in mindset.

The modern helpdesk moves:

  • From reacting to faults to preventing them
  • From technical language to simple, human communication
  • From fixing buildings to enabling people’s productivity and wellbeing

This is more than incremental improvement. It represents a step-change in how FM is delivered and experienced.

Increasingly, success is no longer measured by how quickly jobs are completed, but by how effectively disruption is avoided and how well the workplace supports performance.

From building-focused to people-focused

As organisations place greater emphasis on employee experience and productivity, the helpdesk must evolve accordingly.

The focus is shifting:

  • From buildings to people
  • From tasks to outcomes
  • From service delivery to managing customer experience

In practical terms, this means designing helpdesk interactions around the needs of the user by ensuring communication is clear, responsive, and aligned to how people actually engage with services day-to-day.

Technology as an enabler, not the answer

Technology plays a critical role in this transformation, but it is not the sole driver. The next-generation helpdesk is increasingly digital, incorporating:

  • Virtual-first operating models
  • AI and automated agents
  • IoT-enabled monitoring and insights
  • Consumer-style interfaces and communication channels

However, at Q3, we believe the real differentiator lies in integration by bringing together people, processes, and technology into a single, cohesive model. This is what turns fragmented estates into connected, intelligent workplaces.

The outcome: enabled, high-performing workplaces

Ultimately, the role of the helpdesk is not to manage tickets it is to enable the workplace to work as it should.

The most effective helpdesk operates almost invisibly. Issues are anticipated and addressed before they impact users, communication is seamless, and the environment simply works as it should.

At Q3, we have a clear view of how this all works:

  • The helpdesk is the intelligence layer of FM
  • It is central to delivering consistent, high-quality workplace experience
  • It is pivotal in moving organisations from reactive service to proactive, insight-driven performance

As FM continues to evolve, organisations will need to seriously rethink the helpdesk so as to be best placed to deliver smarter, more resilient, and more human-centric workplaces.

Q3 Colleague Recognised at The Square, Camberley

Posted on by Ian Adams

We are proud to share that Waqar Hussan, a Q3 Security Officer working at The Square Camberley, has been recognised as Employee of the Month.

This recognition, awarded at the centre managed by Praxis, is a fantastic reflection of the commitment, professionalism and high standards Waqar brings to his role every day.

Gavin Vidler, Centre Manager said, “Waqar has made a real impact at The Square through his hard work, reliability and flexibility. His willingness to support the wider on-site team, adapt to changing demands and consistently deliver a high standard of service has clearly been valued.”

Working as part of the Q3 team at The Square, Waqar plays an important role in helping to create a safe and welcoming environment for occupiers, visitors and colleagues across the centre.

We are delighted to see Waqar’s contribution recognised and would also like to thank Gavin and the team for acknowledging the excellent work being delivered on site.

Congratulations to Waqar on this well-deserved achievement.

Q3 supports Maximus with people-first cleaning service transition

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3 Services is supporting Maximus through the transition of cleaning services from an in-house model to a fully managed Q3 delivery model, with 31 colleagues transferring under TUPE to be part of the broader IFM contract team.

The mobilisation is designed to strengthen service consistency, improve responsiveness across sites and create a better day-to-day experience for both the client and the people delivering the service.

A strong emphasis has been placed on a smooth and supportive transition. Every transferring colleague has been engaged through direct consultation, with one-to-one conversations helping to ensure the process is clear, compliant and reassuring. All Right to Work checks have been completed, and the incoming team will also benefit from access to Q3’s wider employee support and benefits.

Q3’s leadership team has maintained a visible presence throughout mobilisation, meeting stakeholders, visiting sites and building a clear understanding of local requirements. The contract is further supported by a strengthened management structure, including Jack Goodchild as Key Account Manager and Deborah Pollard as Cleaning Manager, helping to ensure strong accountability, consistent standards and close operational support from day one.

The transition also reflects Q3’s commitment to investing in people. Moving colleagues onto the Real Living Wage supports workforce wellbeing and engagement, while the new operating model gives Maximus greater flexibility, clearer oversight and a service that can evolve quickly around site needs.

For Q3, it is another example of how a people-first approach can strengthen service delivery and long-term partnership working. Maximus UK describes itself as a trusted partner delivering complex public services across the UK, making service reliability and responsive support especially important.

Q-who? From the Dance Floor to the finance team

Posted on by Ian Adams

Four years after joining Q3, Amy Hossin’s role has grown alongside the growth of the business itself. Starting out on the soft services side when the finance team was just three people, she has steadily taken on more responsibility as Q3 has expanded.

Today, she is Finance Manager for Q3’s fast-growing technical services and IFM operation, helping to support a part of the business that continues to evolve at pace. Here’s the story of her journey:

“My route into finance was not entirely straightforward. After studying accounting at college in Kent, I completed work experience with a local accountancy firm. That placement turned into a summer job and then, almost immediately into a full-time position, with the firm supporting my AAT studies one day a week. It was a solid start to my career and gave me the technical grounding that carries through to my work today.

“But my story also includes a surprising detour. A lifelong passion for dancing led me into a very different role as a social media marketing specialist for International Dance Shoes, a company I had known for years, because they sponsored me through the competitive world of dance. With such a strong personal connection to the industry, it felt like a natural fit at the time and gave me experience in a completely different environment.

“Dancing had been a huge part of my life from an early age. Throughout my teens, weekends were spent travelling across the UK and Europe with my dance partner, competing in Latin and Ballroom competitions as well as national and world championships. At one stage I was ranked third in the UK, eighth in Europe, and was also a Nordic Open champion – an experience that taught me a huge amount about discipline, hard work and commitment.

“Eventually, the practicalities of balancing a career with such a demanding passion led me back towards finance. That decision brought me to Q3, and into a sector I knew very little about at the time.

“Like many people at Q3, I did not set out with facilities management in mind. But what I found was a business full of variety, challenge and opportunity. For me, Q3 has the mindset and processes of a large corporate organisation, but with the friendliness, open dialogue and care of a family business… and that combination has made a lasting impression.

“One of the biggest challenges in my current role has been helping to integrate Q3’s hard services and IFM operations with the wider business, aligning standards, processes and financial procedures along the way. It is a role that demands flexibility, attention to detail and a willingness to get stuck in wherever needed — whether that means supporting payroll, assisting with head office functions, or helping different parts of the business work more seamlessly together.”

Amy’s journey is a great example of what makes Q3 such an interesting place to build a career. From accountancy to dance, from social media to finance leadership, her path has been anything but conventional. But that mix of experience, adaptability and drive is exactly what helps Q3 continue to grow and why Amy is playing such an important role in its future.

Cobotics go live at Chelsea Harbour

Posted on by Ian Adams

Following a trip to the Channel Islands to see how our Q3 colleagues had successfully deployed cobotics in a major contract on Jersey, COO Stuart Bellew and Contracts Manager Ferhat Goual returned to the London with clear ideas for trying a similar approach at Chelsea Harbour.

Introducing cobotics cleaning isn’t simply a case of plugging in the robot cleaner and letting it go. For a deployment to really work, it’s important to work closely with the client to understand their expectations and to identify the specific demands and challenges the machine is likely to face at that location. Then, through talking to the technology provider, one has to match the machines’ capabilities to these requirements.

As well as scoping the project correctly, the team was aware of the need to manage the roll out through proper staff training and education, to ensure technology worked smoothly alongside regular cleaning staff.

The result is that there has been an easy transition with “the first machine, a Phantas Vacuum from Bunzl called “CJ,” now on site. CJ will be working across Level 5, The Emporium open-showroom, area and although nobody is particularly clear as to how CJ got his name, we’re sure CJ will prove a popular, regular feature as he glides around.

Q3 enhances Facilio CAFM and Helpdesk system with Bruce and Bernard apps incorporating AI

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3 is expanding the scope and functionality of its Facilio CAFM system with exciting, new developments which will make it even more intuitive and user friendly to clients, workplace end-users and Q3 mobile engineers.

Q3 works with Facilio because of the inherent flexibility of the platform’s architecture and the ability to integrate easily with other systems. We’ve already connected our CAFM with finance systems, IoT sensors for real-time fault detection, and compliance tools like SFG20. We also use Facilitiesline to monitor supplier accreditations.

So, adding an interface with WhatsApp and incorporating voice-based bot agents was a natural next step.

Bernard Bot is an agent which allows customers to log issues and requests via voice, email and WhatsApp and to obtain progress updates on the actions being taken through the same channels. AI allows Bernard to learn and understand these users, so it becomes unnecessary for them to repeat key details like contract, location, or job responsibility, every time they make a call. So, long as the user can quote the right job number, Bernard can interrogate the CAFM database and provide the answer. Only, a broad Glaswegian dialect has confused the voice activated channel on a couple of occasions.

Alongside Bernard is Bruce Bot. Bruce provides a simple interface for mobile engineers to access the works management system and report on their jobs without having to directly access the Facilio portal.

It works like this. Via WhatsApp, an engineer reports he is working on Job 123, and Bruce checks whether this is starting now, or whether the job may have started earlier, perhaps when the engineer was in a basement without phone reception. Everything is timed and date-stamped and once the job is completed, the engineer goes through a prompted series of checklist and water-risk compliance questions.

Lynne English, Operations Director at Q3, said “Like any FM system these days, it’s all about the data. These innovative steps make it quicker and easier to ensure that all the data is collected accurately and on time, giving us a 360° view of what’s happening. Frankly, it shifts CAFM up to a whole new level!”

 

Learning at Work: Unlocking Potential Beyond the Classroom

Posted on by Ian Adams

An article by Paul Courtney, HR Advisor, Q3 Services, written for Learning at Work Week, May 2026

For many people, the word “learning” still carries memories of classrooms, exams, pressure and, sometimes, failure. The experience can often put people off the prospect of learning for life.

School works brilliantly for some, but not for everyone. Traditional education often relies heavily on one style of learning – reading, memorising and repeating information. Yet people are not one-dimensional. Some learn visually, some aurally, some through experience, movement, mentoring or practical application.

That is why learning in the workplace can be transformational.

At work, learning becomes real. It has context, purpose and immediate relevance. Instead of studying theory for an unknown future, people develop skills that help them contribute, grow and succeed today. For many individuals, this can completely change their relationship with learning.

Workplace learning is not simply about qualifications or training courses. It can take many forms: mentoring, apprenticeships, buddying systems, coaching, shadowing experienced colleagues, practical demonstrations and hands-on experience. Often, people who struggled in formal education thrive in these environments because the learning feels natural and connected to what they do in real life.

Importantly, learning at work also creates something deeper – a sense of belonging and purpose.

When employers invest in people, they send a clear message: you matter, and we believe in your potential. That investment builds confidence, motivation and engagement. People become more willing to contribute ideas, take ownership and develop themselves further because they can see a future within the organisation.

Without that investment, businesses can unintentionally create stagnation. Roles evolve constantly. Technology changes. Customer expectations shift. Industries move forward. If organisations fail to develop their people, employees can gradually fall behind the requirements of their roles, sometimes through no fault of their own.

Equally, businesses themselves risk becoming stale.

Learning keeps organisations fresh. It introduces new thinking, new skills and new perspectives. It encourages innovation and adaptability. In challenging times especially, a workforce that is continuously learning is far more resilient than one that has been left behind.

One of the most rewarding aspects of workplace learning is seeing individuals achieve things they may once have considered unattainable.
At Q3 Services, we firmly believe people should never feel pigeonholed into one role or one level. With the right support, development and encouragement, individuals can break free from perceived limitations and progress far beyond where they first imagined.

A great example of this can be seen in the career journey of Fabio Goncalves, whose development within the business demonstrates what can happen when opportunity, commitment and learning come together. Stories like this remind us that talent is often unlocked, not discovered instantly.

Developing people properly also creates practical advantages for organisations. Promoting internally can be hugely beneficial because existing employees already understand the culture, systems and values of the business. However, internal promotion only succeeds when people are supported with training, coaching and mentoring.

We have all seen examples where somebody excels technically in a role but struggles after promotion because they were never developed for the responsibilities that came next. A classic example is the outstanding salesperson who becomes Sales Manager without ever being taught how to lead, coach or manage people. Success in one role does not automatically prepare someone for another.

That is why learning and development must be continuous, intentional and aligned with future opportunities.

Learning at work is not a luxury or a tick-box exercise. It is an investment in people, in resilience and in the future of the business itself.
When individuals grow, organisations grow with them.

And perhaps most importantly of all, workplace learning gives people permission to believe that they are capable of more than they once thought possible.

 

Thoughts from Martyn Freeman on World FM Day 2026

Posted on by Ian Adams

World FM Day, Wednesday 13th May, 2026

This year’s World FM Day theme, “FM: Cultivating Belonging Through Built Environments,” perfectly captures something those of us in Facilities Management have always understood.

Buildings are about far more than bricks and mortar, systems, and infrastructure.

The environments people work in everyday influence how safe they feel, how effectively they collaborate, how supported they are, and ultimately how well organisations perform.

That is why Facilities Management matters so much.

At Q3 Services, we see every day how good FM creates the conditions for people and businesses to succeed:
• Safe and compliant workplaces
• Clean and welcoming environments
• Reliable building services
• Responsive support teams
• Spaces that allow people to focus on their work with confidence
• A great vibe, and a great culture

Much of this work happens quietly in the background, often unnoticed when it is done well. That’s the way it ought to be. And its impact is enormous.

As the workplace continues to evolve, there is understandably a lot of focus on technology, data, and workplace experience. These things absolutely have their place.

But the foundations remain the same.

People value workplaces that are dependable, professional, inclusive, friendly and well managed. Environments where they can do their jobs effectively and feel part of something bigger than themselves.

That is what great Facilities Management delivers.

On World FM Day 2026, I want to recognise all the FM professionals who keep workplaces, public spaces, and critical services operating every single day.

Your work enables organisations to function, teams to perform, and communities to thrive.

Thank you for what you do, because without you we wouldn’t have a business.

The Workplace Isn’t the Problem

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3’s marketing manager, Ian Adams has some misgivings about the current direction of travel on the productivity, CX and getting people back to the workplace debate…

There’s an ongoing narrative in facilities management around the “intelligent workplace” and “workplace experience.” Offices that adapt to us, respond to us, and ultimately entice workers to come in every day and perform like superstars.

It’s been going on for a while now, and lots of individuals and organisations are laying claim to being thought leaders and experts on the subject. Fair enough, the debate is topical and stimulating, and a lot of the arguments makes perfect sense.

  • Using data to inform best practice? Absolutely. It’s transforming the way FM works.
  • Workspaces that actually function properly? Long overdue, and no one can argue with that.
  • Facilities that respond quickly to real time needs, creating great comfort conditions and a welcoming place to work? That’s using tech to its best advantage. Tick!

But here’s the uncomfortable question… Are we beginning to confuse an efficient well-run workplace with a high-performing organisation?

A lot of the conversation right now suggests that if we just get the environment right and incorporate the sensors, the flexibility, and the “workplace experience,” then improved employee productivity and engagement will follow automatically.

Really? Is there any evidence to support this cause-and-effect hypothesis?

A workplace should support and stimulate the work and yes, the office should allow you to work better. Beyond that, a lot of the current commentary is all cherry on the top stuff.

For people like me, who have worked in quite a few workplaces over the years, the simple basics haven’t changed. People need:

  • Clear expectations
  • Strong leadership
  • Accountability
  • Freedom to do their job and make mistakes
  • A team around them that relies on everyone showing up, playing their part and delivering

I have seen this formula prove successful for teams surrounded by some pretty shambolic workplaces environments. It’s about the people and culture, more than the bricks and mortar.

By all means, fix the things that frustrate people. No one is arguing to retain noisy background distraction, broken coffee machines, unreliable tech or unusable meeting rooms.

But let’s not drift off into a position where we strive to make the workplace compete with home life to earn high attendance rates.

At some point, work is still work, and we have to deliver it, in return for that thing called remuneration. That’s the long-established deal between employer and employee.

If people need to be persuaded by sexy lighting systems, flexible walls and bells and whistles just to turn up, we might not have a workplace problem, we have a culture problem. And a spangly workplace will never correct a toxic culture.

Good facilities management enables good performance; it shouldn’t try to replace the need for it. FM can support the success of an organisation but that shouldn’t make us the driving force.

We mustn’t puff ourselves up to pretend we are so clever and important that we can determine the ultimate success of a client organisation. We can however support our clients achieve success by doing a lot of the smart, heavy lifting.

 

 

 

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Award for Q3 from Greenly

Posted on by Ian Adams

As part of their supply chain audit process, our client Maximus required Q3 to undertake an extensive, online Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions audit.

The result, a silver medal, for demonstrating a strong commitment to decarbonisation of our operations and placing Q3 in the top 5% of the Greenly climate network.

The detailed online survey examined factors including the precision of our GHG assessment, carbon reduction objectives, climate actions in process, employee awareness, and ESG impact.

The recognition reflects Q3’s ongoing involvement with the Planet Mark organisation which has been independently auditing and advising the company on its journey to Net Zero – a target we have committed to achieving by 2035.