Facility managers should be well equipped with enhanced technical and management knowledge to ensure they can deliver a more integrated services when managing and protecting the assets of building owners and their user occupiers.

There will be an expectation by building owners, users, and the visiting public that the safety, cleanliness, and the environmental standards of buildings will be to a much higher standard than ever before.

In essence, bringing together a new set of standards around “People – Process – Place” will be the challenge for the future facility managers that will be responsible for managing large, multi-occupancy buildings.

The challenge

The Facility Management industry has grown significantly over the past few years around the world. With this level of growth, it has meant that a large percentage of people managing FM portfolios have entered the industry without the necessary training and qualifications. This is not a fault of the facility manager, more the outcome of business pressures to attract people from other industries to deliver work for clients that are outsourcing at a fast pace.

Impact of facility managers’ decisions

Over the years, facility managers have relied heavily upon their outsourced service providers to have the training and knowledge in certain technical and non-technical areas of service delivery. Although, this has been a normal practice in the past, it may not be acceptable in the future.

Effectively, decisions that facility managers make on a day to day basis can impact the:

• Safety and well-being of employees,
• Work environment,
• Cost,
• Risk of maximizing and optimizing the performance of the overall built environment.

Benefits of FM formal education to the built environment

The modern facility managers will have to have the knowledge and capability to have a wider lens on key high-risk aspects of service delivery. This includes understanding the procurement cycle through to how it impacts at ground level. Post COVID-19 pandemic, it will be inevitable that the skills, demands and expectations of the modern facility managers will be higher than ever before.

In general terms, facility managers are not always trained in areas such as environmental monitoring, air filtration systems, cross-contamination risk, hygiene controls nor have subject matter knowledge on how to monitor and control cleanliness and sanitization standards.

Currently, there are no barriers to entry to become a facility manager, however you could be responsible for multi-million dollar budgets, complex workplace issues, high levels of risk management, safety, and environmental requirements etc.

If the FM industry adopted a more comprehensive, grass roots approach to education, training and developing future facility managers, it would provide better value to building owners, buyers of service and other key stakeholders.

The Facility Management industry has achieved a great deal in advancing the science and professionalism of facility practices.

As we are now entering into a new era of risk, fear, and opportunity, it is important that we develop different pathways to staying not only relevant but also offering the next evolution of the FM industry.

Inspired by Steve Taylor’s The role of the facility manager into the future – PDF