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IFMA: Competency #6 – Communication

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  • Post last modified:July 4, 2020

Communication is one of the eleven competency areas as identified by the International Facility Management Association’s global job task analyses.

What is Communications?

  • Communication is the process of creating and sending messages with the goal to influence the opinions, actions and decisions of the intended audience.
  • Effective communication requires:
    • Knowledge of the intended audience.
    • Clarity of purpose in a message.
    • Easy-to-understand language.
    • Use of appropriate media.
    • Feedback that confirms the purpose was achieved.

Why is Communications important?

  • Helps advance the facility management agendas to the intended audiences.
  • Inefficient communication could cause service delays or incorrect deliveries.

How the Communications competency helps the Facility Manager

  • Increase community relations.
  • Increase union or work council relations.
  • Establish facility manager’s position in the organization as either a strategic player or as a traditional supporter of facility needs.
  • Use the appropriate technology to gather, store and share information with all stakeholders in an effective manner.
  • Communicate effectively with vendors and suppliers to ensure complete understanding of organizational and customer requirements.

Examples

  1. Promote facility management information and recommendations to internal stakeholders, including:
    1. Facility staff.
    2. Senior management.
    3. Boards of directors.
    4. Internal customers.
    5. Business units.
    6. Relevant partners – IT, security, human resources, etc.
  2. Prepare reports for external stakeholders, including:
    1. Public.
    2. Customers.
  3. Develop and implement a facility management communication plan that includes:
    1. Messages.
    2. Reminders.
    3. Vision and mission statements.
    4. Annual reports.
  4. Select the situation-appropriate media and techniques for communicating with stakeholders, including:
    1. Internal/external facility management website.
    2. Presentations.
    3. White papers.
    4. Mock-ups.
    5. Models.
    6. Webinars.
    7. Reports.
    8. Renderings.

The Competency Areas

All the 11 competency areas are:

Image credit: Katarzyna Tyl from Pixabay

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