HR directors show little or no interest in the working environment, according to the latest poll of facilities professionals - hosted here on i-FM. The result comes despite the fact that the human resources directors' body, the Institute of Personnel Directors (IPD) agrees that the workplace is among major factors to take into account in the recruitment and retention of good staff.

The question was posted on I-FM's front page as one of our series of monthly straw polls. Nearly two-thirds of visitors (64%) agreed that the human resources function does not understand the importance of workplace issues in attracting and keeping good people while 36% disagreed. At the same time, surveys of business leaders are consistently proving that the difficulties in finding and keeping skilled professionals are currently proving a real barrier to competitive progress.

IPD spokesman, Nick Isles, called the survey results "disappointing." He said that his profession understood that "environment was one of the major factors, along with issues such as stress in keeping staff morale high." The IPD, he added, would not agree that HR people were "not interested" and he said he thought that "most of our members would have environmental issues high on the agenda".

However, one facilities supervisor (who wished to remain anonymous) said: "It is all a question of integration. HR could help the cause of facilities at board level in my company – they are represented but we are not. However, its always them against us, rather than with us – as if we didn't share a common goal. I think if they only understood that by working with us as a team we could improve workplace morale, they would take it more seriously."

When HR does work more effectively with FM the results are very positive. Robin Wainwright, a project supervisor at Cable and Wireless told i-FM: "I think the relationship reflects the reporting line. Last year, we spent a while reporting to the HR Director and that changed the focus. Issues like whether the buildings were too hot or too cold came under the attention of HR – and they wanted to know our side of the story. We are back under the remit of the Finance department now, but the links have been made. We are looking at a flexible working initiative now and we are working closely together to achieve our aims."

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Fiona Perrin