Emma Wharton: Restoring the past, building the future

You have achieved a lot in your career. What are you most proud of?

Hands down I'm most proud of the Restoration and Renewal Programme at Parliament. The Palace of Westminster has 1,100 rooms and dates from the mid-1800s. It is one of the most iconic and significant buildings in the world and is Grade I listed. Together with Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church, it forms part of the UNESCO Westminster World Heritage Site. I was part of a very small team that provided evidence to the Joint Committee on its restoration and renewal.

The committee ultimately recommended that Parliament temporarily move out from the Palace of Westminster to undertake the major refurbishment works. I'm also particularly proud of the client team I have built, who are working with the design team of the Palace to develop the stakeholder requirements for the design of the Palace.

Parliament had a reputation for being a male-dominated space. Is this still true?

In terms of who we employ, Parliament has a very good ratio of women to men. It is an equal opportunities employer and, in fact, when we released our Gender Pay Gap report the mean pay gap for the House of Commons was 1.7% compared to the average pay gap of 13% in public bodies. In one area, Parliamentary Digital Service, the mean gap was -5.21%. In this case, women had a pay lead over men due to the number of women holding more senior positions.

In estates, typically, there are more men than women. I will often be the only woman in a high-level meeting, but I don’t see that as a disadvantage. Rather I'm part of a positive change that is happening over time and hope in a small way to be a role model.

However, rather than concentrating just on gender, I think that diversity is absolutely essential in the workplace if we are to see good decision making. Across Parliament we have a diverse workforce and we aim to provide a positive, inclusive working environment where people are valued for the skills and experience that they bring to work. Our aim is to be representative of the society we serve.

What future challenges does FM face, and how can they be addressed?

The perception of FM I mentioned earlier remains a key challenge – to demonstrate in the boardroom the value of how good FM, in efficiently utilising property assets, drives productivity benefits for the organisation. RICS has the platform to promote that change in the perception of FM. In fact, I think referring to it as FM has been holding us back. This is now being recognised through BIFM becoming IWFM and IFMA launching Workplace Evolutionaries in the UK.

Secondly, FM professionals need better data. It's a data-driven world and for too long we have been reliant on anecdotal evidence. FM can leap the hierarchy by having much better control of its resources and the ability to use data to get ahead of the organisation – to suggest solutions, not just respond.

Are there any insights you have gained in your career that you would like to share?

Keep solutions simple and focus on creating welcoming community spaces for teams to work in and for networks to develop, rather than focussing on the individual. Human nature makes us want to feel part of a community and our workspaces should facilitate that to get the best out of teams, promoting both wellbeing and productivity. And take charge of your data, you'll be creating the strategy instead of just responding to it.