Facilities Management – A Promising Profession Career
Due to the dynamic business environment, increasing expectations from building occupiers, advance in technologies and introduction of legal requirements, there is growing demand for competent facilities management (FM) practitioners by most large organisations to facilitate their business well.
There are several job titles in the FM industry. They may be Corporate Support Services, Asset Maintenance Management, Corporate Real Estate Services, Facilities and Support Services, Building Management Services, so on and so forth. What matter most is the practice of business facilitation through management of built-facilities and support services.
Traits of a successful facilities practitioner
To succeed in the FM career, you will need to develop and excel in the followings:
Interpersonal skills
To be able to build rapport with people, interacting at all levels, in providing a pleasant experience from FM services
Analytical skills
In identifying the organisation’s needs, best value solutions and sourcing for optimum results;
Presentation skills
To inform of the FM work plan and progress, persuade in adopting changing, to get buy-in for value-add projects, and incident reporting.
Financial skills
So as to be able to articulate FM services performance and plans in financial terms.
Adaptability
To be able flexible to align and adapt to organizational changes and need for FM services in supporting those change.
Value-Based FM
The activities of FM are wide and varied. To get started in FM need not be complex. The following I-S-C Value concept provides simple steps to get FM practitioners started on a journey towards enabling FM to be value-add and business advantage.
Identify value
Take stock of the facilities systems and services that are critical to the business operation. Adopt tools that enable effective prioritisation and mapping of the interdependence and interrelated processes.
Sustain value
Conduct survey of current facilities systems and services and evaluate if they are operating as designed and ensuring that they are operating at their optimum performance, complying to the necessary legal requirement and adopting the best practices in operations and maintenance.
Create value
Continually look out for opportunities for initiating improvement, innovation and change to support the organisation’s success.
The function of FM is diverse. Its success is often measured by its contribution towards organisation’s overall business objectives. Its role is one of support to the core business. If you are new or considering transiting into this promising FM profession career, you will what to assess your own knowledge and skills and identify the areas that you need to acquire and equipped in. The FM profession is an exciting and promising career for those who have what it takes and wish to be a FM professional.
