The facilities manager is seen by most organisations as the person who manages all of the essential support functions of any business, and allows the core business to concentrate on the reasons it exists. Facilities managers look after the building, making sure office workers have a safe, clean and comfortable work environment; ensure that the manufacturing plant and work space are well managed, with sufficient lighting, power and utilities supplies, as well as other services such as waste and recycling, IT provision, mail room facilities and portering. Then there’s catering for the workforce, cleaning of the whole premises, security, maintenance … and much, much more.

According to the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), it 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’, as outlined above.

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.
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 our current 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 and 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 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 the internet server is up and running.

Few companies or businesses have the manpower or resources todeal 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 skills gained 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 several grades of individual membership. Associate membership is suitable for people who are new to the industry, or working within junior positions, while Member (MBIFM) and Certified (CBIFM) are for those with more managerial experience. There are various routes to MBIFM, including a vocational route, while CBIFM is available to FMs with higher-level qualifications and FM experience.

Level 3

In terms of FM qualifications, the BIFM has worked with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) to develop a level 3 qualification in FM, which is aimed at those who are practising or potential first line managers.

Levels 4, 5 and 6

In addition, the BIFM has developed a new suite of qualifications at levels 4, 5 and 6, which have been accredited on to the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). These qualifications were developed to meet market demand for an industry standard in FM, and provide flexible learning by offering three qualifications at each level: Award, Certificate and Diploma. These qualifications were launched last year and provide a natural progression from the aforementioned ILM level 3 for those 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. 

The level dictates the degree of challenge, while Award, Certificate or Diploma relates to the ‘size’ of the qualification – Diploma being the largest (i.e. requiring the most hours of input). This structure offers clear levels of achievement, from operational through to strategic facilities management, 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 – which are available through BIFM-recognised training centres – 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 is 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.