Facilities Management

According to the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), this is one of the fastest-growing professions in the UK. However, it is an area of responsibility that can still be undervalued by the business community – although people are quick to notice when any aspect of it goes wrong! Facilities management (FM) has always been an essential aspect of running a business, but it is now a profession in its own right, and is defined by the BIFM as ‘the integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities’. In short, facilities managers are responsible for many of the buildings and services that support businesses and other types of organisation; FM encompasses multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment, and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace.

Effective FM, combining resources and activities, is vital to the success of any organisation. At a corporate level, it contributes to the delivery of strategic and operational objectives. On a day-to-day level, it provides a safe and efficient working environment, which is essential to the performance of any business, whatever its size and scope.

Within this expanding discipline, facilities managers provide, maintain and develop services ranging from property strategy, space management and communications infrastructure, to building maintenance, administration and contract management.

The sector is large and complex, comprising in-house departments, specialist contractors, large multi-service companies, and consortia delivering the full range of design, build, finance and management. Estimates vary, but suggest that it is worth between £40 billion and £95 billion a year. Practitioners require excellent communication and management skills, as well as relevant knowledge, in what has become a vital strategic discipline, which translates the high-level, strategic change required by senior decision makers into day-to-day reality for people in their working and personal lives. Performed well, FM can:

Deliver effective management of an organisation’s assets
Enable new working styles and processes – vital in this technology-driven age
Enhance and project an organisation’s identity and image
Help the integration processes associated with change, post-merger or acquisition
Deliver business continuity and workforce protection in an era of heightened security threats.

Legislation has had a considerable impact, with laws and regulations covering many different functions, like access for the disabled. Health & safety at work covers a number of procedures, such as fire and other emergencies, which have to be considered and implemented. Indeed, the responsible person may have to answer to the courts as well as to the Chief Executive.

Every organisation has someone responsible for the FM function. They may not actually be called ‘facilities manager’, but they will deal with these areas. The smartest of front offices will have people behind the scenes to make sure the lavatories work, the photocopier has paper and that the Internet server is up and running.

Few companies or businesses have the manpower or resources to deal with all aspects of FM, and this has been one of the main reasons for the growth in outsourced FM, which now accounts for over half of the total market. Functions can either be outsourced on an individual basis, or everything can be outsourced to a ‘total FM’ company.

Facilities management in the Services
Many Service people have never heard of facilities management, despite the fact that they may well have been carrying out many of its functions. Some may even be halfway to becoming professionally qualified in FM without even knowing it. So read on … this could be you.

The vast majority of those in the Forces have been involved in the management of facilities. Environments from ships to ammunition sites, and from aircraft maintenance hangars to divisional headquarters, are complex and demanding, and someone has to run them. It is not just the job of the administrative or logistic specialist – often it is a person with a very different job title and other priorities who actually manages the environment in which Service people work.

Many Service environments differ from their civilian equivalents. However, the principles are exactly the same: modern threats such as fire, electronic attack and mechanical breakdown may be very similar, and contingency plans for equipment redundancy, relocation and physical security translate easily to the outside world.

So the issue is to explain the skills and experience gained in the Forces environment to a civilian employer who may not immediately appreciate the similarities between a nuclear submarine and an office block, and how skills acquired in the Services may translate to the civilian workplace. There is resettlement advice and training available in this field, either for the Service leaver who wishes to specialise in it, or for the more general manager who will be responsible for premises or facilities as part of a wider role.

Qualifications
The BIFM has more than 12,000 members – both organisations and individual professionals – and offers two main grades of membership. Associate membership is suitable for people who are new to the industry, or working within junior positions, while Members are those with five years’ or more managerial experience, together with over three years’ FM experience.

Level 3
In terms of qualifications, the BIFM has worked with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) to develop a new level 3 qualification in FM, which is aimed at those who are fairly new to FM, or have been in it for a while but do not have any formal qualifications in FM. The qualifications, which have been accredited on to the Qualifications & Credit Framework (QCF), meet market demand for an industry standard in FM and provide flexible learning by offering three different qualifications at level 3 – Award, Certificate and Diploma (each of which is made up of mandatory and optional units) – to meet varying skills training needs. The focus is on work-based assessments rather than examinations, and concentrates on developing key FM skills that are immediately transferable to the workplace.

Levels 4, 5 and 6
In addition, the BIFM has developed a new suite of qualifications at levels 4, 5 and 6, which are due to be launched in 2010 (we will look at these in detail in a future edition of Quest). These will provide a natural progression from the aforementioned level 3 qualification, for learners who want to continue their FM education. The main aim is to provide more flexibility and greater recognition for individual achievement, thereby encouraging take-up and accelerating the ‘professionalisation’ of FM.

At the time of writing (September 2009), the BIFM is in the final stages of getting these qualifications on to the QCF and they will be available through BIFM-recognised training centres from January 2010 onwards. As well as choosing the level (i.e. the degree of difficulty) at which they wish to study, learners will be able to choose the size of the qualification they undertake: the BIFM will offer an Award (level 4), Certificate (levels 5 and 6) and Diploma (levels 4, 5 and 6). This structure will offer clear levels of achievement, from operational through to strategic FM, as follows.

Level 4 is designed to provide a broad understanding of the FM industry for operational staff, who may have some experience, are managers and may be responsible for a broad range of FM functions.
Level 5 is targeted at FM staff, who may have considerable experience and responsibility for more specialised and/or complex functions within the FM industry.
Level 6 is for senior managers who have strategic and high-level responsibilities for development and change within FM at that level.

The qualifications are ‘unitised’, which means that learners undertake a number of mandatory and optional units to build up enough credits to achieve their chosen qualification. For example, to achieve an Award, a learner must attain 12 credits (one credit requires roughly ten hours of learning). Assessment of units will be by a variety of methods, including work-based assignments, rather than traditional exams.

Employment
Many, if not most, FM jobs are with specialist companies in this field, often contracted out to a client organisation. These companies employ, permanently or on contract, people who are competent in all the disciplines associated with FM. Many are now running huge contracts with military organisations, providing the infrastructure for bases throughout the UK and wherever the Armed Forces are serving in the world. In smaller organisations, including schools and partnership practices, FM may well be only a part – albeit an important part – of the overall management job.

There are few professions that are as well suited to a transfer from Service to civilian life as FM. Those in the Forces currently looking after facilities are likely to be learning valuable skills for use in industry. However, as noted above, there are some key elements involved in gaining professional recognition in the FM field, and the importance and relevance of previous experience need to be understood.

Further information
British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), Number One Building, The Causeway, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 2ER Tel: 0845 058 1356 Website: www.bifm.org.uk