Market sentiment in Saudi Arabia indicates that customers value reliability and predictability when engaging FM service providers. Customers want to know that certain base levels of quality, safety, and professionalism will be met regardless of location in Saudi Arabia.

In today's globalised world, Saudi-based customers increasingly expect consistency and adherence to international standards from the facilities management companies they do business with. 

Consistent standards

It's understandable that companies operating across the Kingdom do not want to see sub-par soft services delivery standards at one location, for example their Jeddah office compared to their main Riyadh office or headquarters – blue-chip customers demand, and rightly expect, the same cleaning standards to be maintained consistently at all their locations across Saudi Arabia, and often to the same standard as their international parent companies or those seen overseas in major gateway cities. 

The question is how can FM companies achieve and maintain these international standards in a vast country the size of Saudi Arabia? The answer is through making a commitment to staff training benchmarked to internationally accredited standards.

The bottom line is consistency. More Saudi-based FM clients are seeking consistent, world-class FM service delivery standards from FM providers with staff trained to BICSc-accredited standards and operating to BICSc service delivery standards, or other comparable global training standards. Musanadah responded to this market trend early by opening new BICSc-certified training facilities, known as LEAD Training Centers, in Al Khobar and Riyadh, and soon Jeddah.

The challenge of remote site staff training

Remote site staff training across Saudi Arabia remains a real challenge due to the Kingdom’s vast size covering over 2.15 million km². Musanadah is addressing this challenge through the imminent opening of new BICSc-accredited training facilities at the remote, Saudi Vision 2030 heritage site, AlUla, completing Musanadah’s Kingdom-wide network of these facilities.

Continuing growth of the FM sector in Saudi Arabia presents significant opportunities and is underpinned by increased outsourcing facility services by asset owners and building managers across the Kingdom. A recently released 2023 report by Frost and Sullivan places the compound annual growth rate (GACR) for the Saudi FM market at between 5 to 6 percent for the period through to 2027. However, together with a range of other accelerators such as the effects of Saudi Vision 2030 construction project completion, this growth rate is forecast to range up to 10 percent for total FM services.

Amidst all this rapid growth, Musanadah has stayed true to its commitment to invest in its people to achieve and maintain high Saudization and talent retention rates. The company has significantly expanded internal training programs and learning and development (L&D) opportunities for employees at all levels. Workers take part in ongoing seminars, workshops, mentoring, and online courses to constantly advance their skills. This has contributed to Musanadah maintaining impressive customer satisfaction levels and a client retention rate of over 98%, also meeting its Saudization and talent development goals, while expanding at nearly double the industry growth rate.

About the author
Vijay Kavasseri is the Operations Director at Musanadah Facilities Management.