The facility manager has a significant impact on an organization’s success. Yet often, the role of the facility manager is seen as being just a simple tactical or technical function, no more important than mail or repographics.
The reality is that for most organizations, real estate is the second highest expense after human resources. And if they own their facilities, real estate is also a valuable asset. What’s more, the facility manager has an impact on the productivity of an organization’s most important asset: its employees.
So why is the contribution facility management makes to an organization often overlooked? Quite simply because, by efficiently and effectively doing their job, most facility managers perpetuate the myth that they are just background — performing a necessary but non-critical function.
Facility managers can and should go beyond the ‘manage’ label in their title and provide leadership within their organization. This means understanding the link between facility management and the organization’s corporate goals. And it means getting involved and advocating for new approaches to real estate and facilities. It may even mean encroaching on what is traditionally seen as someone else’s job.
Begin by building personal knowledge. Network with other facilities professionals, attend conferences and read FM magazines. Also track trends and upcoming issues in the organization’s industry. Building personal knowledge takes time, but it is necessary to provide leadership in facility management.
Leadership in facility management should occur in all directions: downward to staff, sideways to colleagues and upward to senior management.
Develop the facility management department into the professional operation it should be. Train and re-train staff. Establish procedures and conduct quality assurance and performance management. Get the systems and resources needed to manage the organization’s assets and space efficiently. After all, other departments do these things, why doesn’t the facility management department?
Then, with information gathered through the department’s professional operation — and with help from industry software — provide leadership sideways and upward.
Take the initiative to understand how the facility manager’s responsibilities impact on and interact with other departments, such as security and risk management. Then develop initiatives, hopefully in collaboration with those departments, that relate to facility management responsibilities but that also affect those areas.
For instance, instead of assuming that HR knows what is best for employees, take the leadership role and sell changes in the facility that improve employee satisfaction. Learn more about how space use affects worker productivity. Find out the latest space allocation and layout approaches used by leading companies. Research what facilities-related amenities leading organizations use to recruit and retain employees. Then share this information with the HR department. Perhaps HR hasn’t considered or has even resisted these types of changes.
Don’t wait to be asked by management to react to initiatives. Be aware of the organization’s issues and marketplace and make recommendations for improvement upward. Develop a business case with evidence and analysis that show how a proposal will benefit the company. Communicate with confidence and influence by fully understanding the issues and knowing the facts and figures.
Start with changes that are easy to carry out. Based on these small successes, facility managers will gain credibility. That way, when facility managers propose bolder changes, they are likelier to secure approval.
Facility managers need to demonstrate to their organizations that they are not just operating on a tactical level, they are providing leadership that positively impacts the organization’s two top assets: its people and its facilities.
Facility managers aren’t just managers; they need to be leaders as well. By being leaders, facility managers will not only drive improved results in their organizations, but they will contribute to the growth and development of the profession and improve their own careers.
Michel Theriault is principal of Strategic Advisor, a facility, property and asset management consulting firm. For more information, visit www.strategicadvisor.ca and www.thebuiltenvironment.ca.
