A contractor can hit every number on their SLA report and still be the reason your building keeps failing the same way every quarter. Response-time metrics get gamed easily — log the call late, close the ticket early, and the scorecard looks perfect while the actual problem never gets fixed. The fix isn't a stricter SLA. It's measuring outcomes a contractor can't quietly manipulate. Sign up to build scorecards contractors can't game, or book a demo to see one in action.
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Metrics contractors most commonly game without technically breaching the contract
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Question that separates an outcome metric from a gameable one: can they fake this and still pass?
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Sections a quarterly business review needs to actually drive improvement
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Times a repeat failure should trigger a root-cause conversation before a penalty clause does
Before You Write Another SLA
A penalty clause changes contractor behaviour around the thing you're measuring, not necessarily the underlying problem. If your SLA measures response time, you'll get faster responses to poorly fixed jobs. Design the scorecard around what you actually want — a building that works — not the easiest thing to log.
Why Most FM SLAs Get Gamed
It's rarely dishonesty in the obvious sense. It's a contractor optimising for the number on the report, because that's what the contract actually rewards.
Gaming 1
The Clock Starts Late
A call gets logged as "received" thirty minutes after it actually came in, quietly protecting the response-time average.
Gaming 2
The Ticket Closes Early
A job is marked complete on first visit, then reopened as a "new" issue days later when the same fault returns.
Gaming 3
Easy Jobs Get Priority
Quick, guaranteed wins get scheduled first to protect the completion rate, while a hard diagnostic job quietly slips.
Metrics That Get Gamed vs Metrics That Don't
The difference usually comes down to who controls the number. A contractor logging their own response time is marking their own homework. A tenant rating whether the problem actually went away isn't.
Easily Gamed
Time from call logged to first response
Percentage of tickets closed within target
Number of jobs completed per week
Self-reported satisfaction on the job sheet
Hard to Game
Repeat-fault rate on the same asset within 30 days
Independently sourced tenant or occupant NPS
Ratio of planned to reactive work over time
Third-party audit of a sample of closed tickets
Score Contractors on Outcomes, Not Self-Reports
Oxmaint tracks repeat faults, planned-vs-reactive ratios, and closed-ticket audits automatically against every asset.
Penalties Should Follow Root Cause, Not the First Miss
A single missed SLA can be a bad day. The same fault on the same asset twice is a pattern, and it's the pattern that should trigger escalation.
| Occurrence |
Response |
Owner |
| First occurrence |
Standard fix, logged against the asset history |
Contractor |
| Second occurrence, same asset |
Root-cause review requested, no penalty yet |
FM manager and contractor jointly |
| Third occurrence, no root cause identified |
Penalty clause applies, escalated to QBR |
FM director |
Building a Quarterly Business Review That Changes Behaviour
A QBR that's just a scorecard read aloud rarely changes anything. These four sections give a contractor something to actually respond to.
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The Scorecard, With Trend Lines
One quarter's number means little without direction
Show every core metric against the last four quarters, not just the current one, so improvement or decline is visible at a glance.
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The Repeat-Fault Deep Dive
Pick the two worst-performing assets, not every asset
Walk through what's actually gone wrong on the two or three assets with the most repeat visits, and what the contractor proposes to change.
03
Occupant Feedback, Unfiltered
Not the contractor's own satisfaction survey
Bring NPS or comments collected independently of the contractor, so the review isn't relying on their own summary of how they're doing.
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Named Actions With Dates
A QBR without follow-up is just a meeting
Leave with specific commitments, owners, and dates, and open the next QBR by checking whether they were actually met.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q
How many KPIs should a contractor scorecard actually include?
Fewer than most FM teams start with. A scorecard with fifteen metrics dilutes attention across all of them. Four to six well-chosen, hard-to-game metrics drive more behaviour change than a long list nobody reviews properly each quarter.
Q
How does TUPE affect switching a poorly performing contractor?
TUPE can require incoming contractors to take on the outgoing contractor's staff on their existing terms when the work transfers. This doesn't prevent a switch on performance grounds, but it does mean the transition plan needs specialist advice on staff consultation and liability, factored in well before the contract end date.
Q
Should penalty clauses be the first response to a missed SLA?
Not usually. An immediate financial penalty on a first miss can push a contractor toward hiding problems rather than raising them. Reserving penalties for repeated, unresolved patterns tends to produce more honest reporting and better long-term outcomes.
Q
Where does a CMMS fit into holding contractors accountable?
It removes the contractor's ability to control the record. Response times, repeat visits, and job history get logged against the asset independently of the contractor's own reporting, which is what makes an outcome-based scorecard credible in the first place.
Hold Every Contractor to the Same Honest Scorecard
Oxmaint logs response times, repeat faults, and job history independently of the contractor, so your quarterly reviews are built on evidence, not self-reported numbers.
Independent SLA Tracking
Repeat-Fault Detection
Contractor Scorecards
QBR-Ready Reporting
