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The lack of knowledge and motivation of the operation and maintenance (O&M) staff together with the available financial resources, are the key barriers to improving energy efficiency of buildings. A survey of O&M personnel has been conducted recently in Hong Kong to find out the energy consumption and the resource inputs to the operation and maintenance of services in commercial buildings. In turn, the current level of knowledge and skills of the O&M personnel was evaluated. Analysis of the collected data revealed that buildings with higher energy performance were associated with O&M personnel who were better paid. The income of the O&M personnel was associated with academic qualification and experience but a steady rate of rise could only be sustained by continued improvement. A feasible way to boost improvements in building energy performance would be to provide rewards that are linked to savings in energy costs.

Tourism is a pillar of the service industries in Hong Kong. Its growth entails quality hotel accommodations where cost‐effective operation and maintenance (O&M) of their facilities are essential. A benchmarking study was carried out on ten luxury hotels with the aim of identifying the significance and performance of various O&M cost elements.

A benchmarking club was set up for the practitioners participating in the study. A template was piloted and then refined for use in collecting data, which include the hotels' characteristics, their expenditures on maintenance and project works, in‐house manpower and payroll, contract maintenance costs, and utilities costs and consumptions.

Energy cost dominates the O&M expenditure of hotels. The cost for maintaining lifts and escalators constitutes a major part of contract maintenance costs. Larger hotels can enjoy a lower unit O&M cost.

Quality, age and occupancy rate of hotels are factors which warrant further work to investigate their effects on O&M costs. It is also necessary to study what cost‐sensitive parameters are appropriate for use in normalising the costs of different trades of O&M work.

It has been shown how a benchmarking curve can be constructed for identifying the performance of utilities cost. This approach can be taken to develop similar curves for benchmarking other cost elements, as well as other aspects including processes and values of O&M works.

Sensitive O&M cost data are seldom disclosed. The study has overcome the difficulties with their collection and the cost benchmarks presented are useful references for hotel practitioners.

A clear definition of the responsibilities of the contracting parties is crucial to any contract. However, many building services maintenance contracts contain vague terms that are often causes of disputes, suspension of work, unsatisfactory performance and financial losses. Common vague contract terms include those that require the contractor to be responsible for any replacement and restoration work arising from “fair wear and tear” and “vandalism”. Reports the findings of a survey of maintenance practitioners’ interpretations of these terms, and their experience with the use of such terms in building services maintenance contracts in Hong Kong.

As part of a study that aimed at enhancing the future roles and functions of building services (BS) engineers in Hong Kong, a survey was carried out to obtain demographic information about BS practitioners as well as their views and opinions on a range of issues which affect professional practices of BS engineers and recognition of their contributions by others. The purpose of this paper is to give a portrait of BS engineers in Hong Kong.

A series of statistical analyses were conducted based on the responses given by the BS practitioners, which included their qualifications, experience, job field, annual income and the number of trades of BS systems that they are competent in and responsible for.

The statistics show that: competence gap exists in that BS engineers are required to handle more trades of BS systems than those they are competent in; and the academic and professional qualifications, years of experience and job position are the key influential factors to the annual income of BS engineers but little differences exist in the average annual income of engineers in different job fields.

The competence gap is a concern that needs to be addressed to ensure BS engineers are competent in handling the common trades of BS systems, which is increasingly important for them to perform effectively in integrated professional teams for turning out holistic solutions for sustainable building developments.

Building operation and maintenance (O&M) service, which embraces a wide range of specialist trades, has been increasingly outsourced through discrete contracts. This paper aims to study the issues critical to outsourced O&M contracts for commercial buildings.

The paper takes a transaction cost approach to analyse the findings from face‐to‐face interviews with 22 O&M practitioners in Hong Kong.

The analysis revealed that they practitioners generally had limited understanding about the concepts of contract. Lacking a standard form for O&M contracts, some contracts were formed rather loosely and irregularities in contract conditions are common. Disputes frequently arise from the scope of work although the practitioners considered well defined work scope is paramount to a successful contract.

Besides the need to study how to improve practitioners' knowledge about O&M service contracts, further studies are required to investigate which or which combination of the contract concepts would be suitable for particular types of O&M contracts where their scale and complexity are dependent on the trade of work required to serve the building.

This paper uncovers a number of contractual issues that are critical to the performance of outsourced O&M service for commercial buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to narrow the diverse views of the industry stakeholders on two controversial issues, namely the scope of core competence of building services engineers (BSEs) and the statutory role that they should play, which were encountered in an extensive research study on the building services profession of Hong Kong.

An expert panel was formed and the Delphi method was applied to resolve the controversies. In the Delphi process, every panel member was provided with complete opinions expressed by all other panel members in each round of the deliberation.

Sufficient support was found for the proposition that professional BSEs should be competent in handling air‐conditioning, electrical, fire services, and plumbing & drainage works, and that the government authorities should mandate the design and compliance certification of electrical and fire services installations by BSEs.

Although the Delphi method has not been hitherto applied to resolve the controversies addressed in the study, it was proven to be a very effective tool in seeking majority opinions from a group of experts. The same approach may be taken in similar studies in future.

The core competence identified should be made as a minimum requirement for practitioners who wish to practise as professional BSEs. The views and comments given by the expert panel members are informative references to public policy makers.

This was the first ever study conducted in an attempt to identify the core competence and statutory role of BSEs in Hong Kong.

The paper aims to describe a research study on the impacts of different facility service procurement methods on the perceived performance of hospital engineering services (HES). The procurement methods examined include in‐house organization by hospital staff and through a service level agreement with a government agency, each with and without outsourcing from private sector services providers works for some trades of HES.

Performance of HES was measured by end‐users' perception obtained through a questionnaire survey. Statistical analysis of the perceived performance scores given in the 444 questionnaire returns was carried out to yield evidence in support of the hypotheses under test.

The main hypothesis tested was that given the unified management and monitoring system used among the hospitals and the low tolerance for inadequate HES performance in healthcare settings, there should be minimal differences in the perceived performance of the HES despite the fact that facility services for the HES were procured through different methods, which was shown to be largely valid by the survey findings. The second hypothesis tested was that good or poor performance would be dominated by the nature of different trades of HES, which was also validated by the survey findings.

Due to the small number of users involved for some trades of HES, the uncertainties in some mean performance scores are relatively large.

The findings allowed the hospital administration to focus on costs in measuring the cost effectiveness of HES provisions in its hospitals.

A situation that involves co‐existence of different procurement methods is hard to find, and thus the findings are valuable. The performance scores found in the study can be used for benchmarking performance of HES in future.

To explain the recent emergence of the trend of outsourcing for building services operation and maintenance (O&M) work for commercial buildings in Hong Kong and to predict its future development.

Based on economic theories, the authors' understanding of buildings and building services O&M in Hong Kong and information regarding property, companies and manpower statistics, the increasing use of outsourcing is explained with a prediction of its implications for industry stakeholders and future trends.

Reports the common operation and maintenance organization for small, medium and large commercial buildings and explains the relation between outsourcing and the recent economic downturn and sharp cuts in O&M expenditure. Analyses the factors influencing O&M costs and predicts that the trend of outsourcing will continue if contractors keep on upgrading their knowledge and skills to provide quality services more economically than the in‐house workforce.

The explanation and prediction rely greatly on economic theories and the authors' knowledge and observations from industry, yet the reason for outsourcing and the factors influencing O&M costs are unveiled.

The findings have exposed implications for building owners and O&M practitioners as a result of the outsourcing trend, on top of establishing a rigid framework for future practical research in the area.

This paper explains the prime motive for outsourcing building services O&M work for commercial buildings, predicts future trends and reveals the implications for stakeholders in the O&M industry in Hong Kong.

To investigate the knowledge and perception of serving and prospective operation and maintenance (O&M) practitioners about the key aspects of sustainable buildings, and to study the contribution of the current education and training means to their knowledge level.

A self‐administered questionnaire survey was conducted on full‐time practitioners attending continuous professional development (CPD) courses related to building services engineering (BSE) or facilities management (FM); full‐time practitioners studying part‐time on undergraduate BSE/FM courses; and full‐time undergraduate BSE/FM students. A total of 168 responses were collected and analysed.

The respondents were largely unaware of the initiatives for promoting building environmental performance and sustainability. Their knowledge level about sustainable buildings was generally low and bore little correlation with their work experience, attendance to CPD training and undergraduate studies that they attended. Good O&M for buildings was perceived by both O&M practitioners and building designers to be highly relevant to sustainable buildings.

Further research is required to study how the education and training means should be revamped and coordinated to tailor for the O&M practitioners. More stringent CPD requirements by relevant professional bodies would help motivate the practitioners to continuously acquire knowledge which is essential for making buildings sustainable.

The findings have unveiled the need for tailor‐made undergraduate and CPD training programmes to effectively enhance the knowledge of O&M practitioners.

This paper presents an unpopular but important research which uncovered the state of knowledge and perception of O&M practitioners, who play a crucial role in realizing the goal of sustainable buildings.

The purpose of the paper is to study the use of management tools and their costs for monitoring building operation and maintenance (O&M) service contracts.

The management tools usable for monitoring building O&M contracts were reviewed, with their characteristics highlighted and compared. A series of face‐to‐face interviews with practitioners looking after building O&M contracts was conducted to collect empirical information, followed by data analysis and discussion of the results.

The paper finds that using balanced scorecard or benchmarking to monitor building O&M contracts was unpopular. The use of customer satisfaction survey was rather common. The cost for monitoring contracts through performance review meeting and O&M audit was measured. It tended to reduce in relative amount with larger scale of contracts.

More research is needed to study the effect of factors, including propriety of contract, complexity of work, contractual relationship, capability and quality of the contract and management teams on contract monitoring effort. Further works may take a similar approach of the study to investigate other transaction cost elements.

The cost amounts for implementing the management tools inform practitioners about their significance relative to the amounts for procuring O&M services. How to make effective use of management tools to monitor O&M contracts should be investigated.

It has been demonstrated how to measure the cost for using management tools to monitor building O&M contracts. The reviewed characteristics of the management tools and the unveiled amounts of contract monitoring cost are useful information to O&M practitioners.