What is “Facilities Management”?

“Facilities Management is people management. We just bring the buildings along for laughs.”
- Doug Christensen, BYU Facilities Officer, APPA Fellow

Is Facilities Management (FM) about Buildings? Equipment? People? Service? Money? Risk?

I would say all of the above plus some others, but I agree with Doug (my friend, teacher, sponsor and mentor) that the most important element is people.

Having personally managed Facilities Operations ranging in size from 500K SF to 17M SF I was only as good as my staff. In every case. And our team was only as good as our customers perceived us to be whether it be students, faculty, administration, or the Board to name just a few of the stakeholders.

We’ve all heard the terms “surround yourself with successful people” and to “hire slow and fire fast” but is that possible in today’s FM hiring market when we are facing:

• An aging workforce
• The shortage of qualified management and skilled trades candidates
• Escalating wages due to inflation and competition for labor
• Benefit cost
• High turnover especially in Departments such as Custodial and Grounds
• Lack of succession plans and staff development programs

There is no easy solution but there are things you can do:

• Conduct a labor needs analysis to determine appropriate skill mix and staffing requirements
• Based on above right size the Department and  recruit the right people
• Perform a market basket wage and benefit study to assure you are competitive but not overly so
• Implement motivational and incentive programs
• Create career paths for employees that have potential
• Consider outsourcing more tasks

R Ledbetter & Associates can help. Contact me to discuss our process and capabilities. My email is: Randy@rledbetter.com