Last updated on: November 19, 2024
What is facilities management?
Facilities management is the corporate capability that ensures physical environments support an organization’s and its employees’ working needs. While some facilities management needs are core across all organizations, others are organization-specific.
For example, an educational institution will have different needs than a manufacturing company. Either way, facilities management capabilities are focused on ensuring that physical environments can support the organization’s needs in providing a conducive working environment.
It’s important to appreciate that the responsibilities of facilities management and facilities managers can be wide-ranging and differ across organizations. This is addressed later on.
Why is facilities management important?
Facilities management is essential to all organizations, even those with a totally remote workforce.
Facilities management capabilities enable ongoing business operations and employees’ ability to work effectively in various ways, including:
- Contributing to employee productivity – helping to ensure employees and other occupants (such as supplier staff and contractors) can fulfill their duties.
- Ensuring employee comfort and safety – ensuring buildings and equipment meet employee needs and safety standards.
- Contributing to legal compliance – for example, building conditions and specific needs such as fire evacuation practices.
- Emergency response – planning for extreme weather conditions, fires, and other events that adversely affect workplaces and business operations.
- Contributing to corporate profitability – facilities management is usually a significant corporate expense; hence, the cost-effective delivery of the required facilities is imperative for the business.
- Scaling services as needed – facilities management is relied upon to ensure the success of business changes, such as operational expansion where more staff and potentially sites are employed to meet growing demand.
- Facilitating corporate sustainability needs – for example, optimizing energy use, reducing waste, using green products and services, and introducing new sustainability best practices.
What are the types of facilities management?
It’s common for facilities management responsibilities and capabilities to be split between two areas:
- Hard facilities management, which deals with managing physical assets and elements such as electricals, plumbing, elevator services, and heating and air-conditioning
- Soft facilities management, which focuses on service-based tasks such as lease management, security, janitorial services, and groundskeeping. These soft services are often focused on occupant comfort and well-being.
What are the functions of facilities management?
The people, processes, and technology employed in facilities management will differ depending on organizational size and complexity, with the facilities management team potentially responsible for various services, including:
- Maintenance and operations, including janitorial services
- Occupancy management
- Energy management
- Security management
- Real estate management
- Lease management
- Fixtures and fittings management
- Capital project management
- Occupant experience management
- Emergency management
- Business continuity.
The above list of facilities management responsibilities relates to the assets or facilities services “consumed” by business operations and employees. Many administrative facilities management functions are required to support these, such as planning, budgeting, accounting, and handling facilities management requests.
Benefits of facilities management
Like any corporate business function, the facilities management department or team is responsible for playing its focused part in helping to ensure business success. In operating facilities management practices and processes based on industry best practices, corporate facilities management capabilities create or co-create business value that can be seen in benefits such as:
- Improved building and space utilization – space-related costs are lowered, and operational work facilities are improved in terms of both employee productivity and satisfaction.
- Reduced operating costs – the efficient use of facilities resources allows organizations to minimize their overall running costs without compromising corporate capabilities or quality. This can include preventive maintenance programs and energy-saving initiatives.
- Improved compliance – when facilities undertake regular maintenance and inspections it helps buildings comply with relevant legislation, regulations, and standards. It minimizes restorative costs and avoids potential fines or other legal and brand-hurting issues.
- Improved employee and third-party safety – facilities management capabilities help organizations meet health, safety, and environmental regulations.
- Increased sustainability – facilities management teams achieve this through sustainability practices, including energy efficiency and waste reduction initiatives and adopting eco-friendly resource management policies.
- Disaster preparedness – facilities management planning and preparation for emergencies and disasters help to ensure operational continuity, including quick recovery when operations temporarily cease.
- Asset life extension – the regular maintenance of and updates to facilities-managed assets extends the life of the facilities equipment, reduces their total cost of ownership(TCO)r, and maximizes their business value.
What are facilities management roles?
There is a broad spectrum of facilities management roles. For example, the title “facilities manager” will mean different things depending on organizational size, industry, and complexity.
Examples of facilities management roles include:
- Director of Facilities – with overall responsibility for delivering facilities management capabilities in line with business needs
- Facilities Manager (or Facility Manager) – a more hands-on role than Director of Facilities but are still likely to employ other team members and third parties to deliver the required facilities services on a daily basis
- Maintenance Director – with a focus on providing the required maintenance capabilities and results
- Maintenance Manager – a more hands-on role than Maintenace Director
- Property Manager – responsible for the corporate building portfolio and ensuring individual properties meet business needs (including compliance with relevant legislation)
- Assistant Facilities Manager/Facilities Coordinator – reporting to a Facilities Manager, these roles usually handle day-to-day facilities management operations and may have a particular focus area or areas
- Maintenance Specialist – responsible for maintaining a particular type of facilities equipment; this could be plumbing-related, for example
- Maintenance Coordinator – responsible for the planning and execution of facilities maintenance schedules
- Sustainability Specialist – a role focused on the sustainability aspects of facilities management; the role could be a generalist or at a granular level, such as being knowledgeable and experienced in bringing about waste management improvements
- Efficiency Consultant – this role could be responsible for improving facilities management operations or be focused on the consumption of resources such as energy.
The permutations of facilities management role levels and focus areas (and different terminology choices) mean that the list of possible facilities management roles can run into hundreds.
How is a facilities management department structured?
The structure of a facilities management department will vary depending on an organization’s size, industry, and complexity. However, some generic considerations can be applied.
Small organizations might have only an individual or small team overseeing everything related to the management of facilities. As organizations grow, focused facilities professionals will be responsible for set areas. For example, defined facilities roles in a large organization can include Maintenance Manager, Sustainability Manager, and Property Manager.
If a large organization has a global presence, it will likely need local facilities management roles to deliver against the needs of specific buildings in the correct language and time zone and in line with local legislation.
There are also different facilities management structures:
- Larger organizations usually employ a functional structure. Specific teams are responsible for different facilities functions, such as workspace planning, furniture and fittings management, preventive maintenance, asset management, people and office relocations, and facilities help desk support.
- An integrated structure is usually employed in smaller organizations. Still, it can also be used in larger organizations with geographically dispersed facilities. Here, a single individual within the facilities teams is responsible for many facilities areas.
- A matrix structure is often employed in larger organizations with facilities across multiple locations. Unlike the functional and integrated structures, this structure doesn’t always have clear and distinct reporting lines. H2:
What can facility departments learn from IT departments? (An introduction to ESM)
While a facilities management team might look to industry best practices and benchmark against other facilities management teams, there’s also the opportunity to benefit from the tried and tested capabilities of the corporate IT department.
IT departments have over thirty years of ITIL best practice adoption and IT service management (ITSM) tools designed for optimal service delivery and support provision. These capabilities can be shared with other business functions, such as facilities management teams, to improve their operations and outcomes. This is termed enterprise service management or ESM for short in the IT space. However, it’s increasingly common for the sharing of ITSM capabilities with other business functions to be called digital transformation, workflow enablement, or work optimization.
Facilities management teams can thus learn about service delivery and support from IT departments, particularly in terms of adopting technologies, improving operational efficiency, and using best practices for service management. Examples of where facilities management teams can learn from their peers in IT include:
- Focusing on employee and user experience – IT departments increasingly focus on employee experience and productivity improvement, identifying and addressing issues that cause friction among employees. Facilities management teams can also enhance the occupant experience by improving aspects of facilities delivery that improve experiences and productivity – for example, designing user-friendly spaces, improving indoor air quality, and providing comfortable working environments.
- Fit-for-purpose help desk systems – IT departments use help desk, IT service desk, or ITSM tools to manage and resolve issues efficiently. These have evolved over the last thirty years, and using an ESM approach, they can be applied to facilities management operations to efficiently handle maintenance requests, track work orders, and improve response times using workflow automation.
- Automation adoption – IT departments have long automated routine tasks such as software updates and backups. Facility departments can do the same –for example, automating lighting, climate control, and security systems to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort and the associated costs, delays, and errors.
- Self-service capabilities – IT self-service capabilities have evolved over the last two decades, and facilities management teams can benefit from this evolution via either a separate facilities management portal or an enterprise-level employee portal.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) exploitation – ITSM tools and platforms have already introduced AI-enabled capabilities to improve service management operations and outcomes. When corporate service management capabilities are shared, these embedded capabilities are available to facilities management operations.
- Service level agreement (SLA) use – IT departments often operate SLA targets to help ensure timely and effective service delivery in line with customer expectations and needs. Facilities management teams can also adopt SLAs to set customer expectations and measure performance.
- Data-driven decision-making – IT departments increasingly rely on data analytics to monitor systems, predict issues, and optimize performance. Facilities management teams can use similar analytics capabilities to optimize energy usage, maintenance schedules, and space utilization.
- Continual improvement – IT departments use performance metrics to assess operational efficiency and team performance. Where improvement opportunities are identified, the ITIL continual improvement practice is used to progress prioritized improvements through to value realization. Facilities management teams can do similar – measuring energy efficiency, maintenance effectiveness, and space utilization and making improvements where needed.
Top skills of a facilities manager
Facilities managers often begin their careers in more junior or focused roles, such as mechanical engineers, maintenance technicians, or building management assistants. In these roles, they can gain experiences and knowledge that will help them progress to more senior roles, including facilities manager.
Anyone wanting to become a facilities manager can help their progression through a facilities management certification such as Certified Facility Manager (CFM), Facility Management Professional (FMP), or Sustainability Facility Professional (SFP).
While these certifications are helpful, there are also skills required of prospective facilities managers, including:
- Leadership and people management skills
- Communication skills
- Business knowledge
- Financial acumen
- Strategy creation capabilities
- Project management capabilities
- Strategic facilities planning capabilities
- Technical skills related to operational maintenance and technology
- Health and safety knowledge
- Risk management
- Crisis management capabilities
- Regulatory and legislative knowledge
- Sustainability knowledge.
Facilities management best practices
Various facilities management “pillars” can be considered best practices for facilities management teams. These pillars reflect that facilities management involves more than the business touchpoints where facilities services are delivered. These pillars include:
- Strategic planning – developing a strategic facilities management plan that aligns with organizational objectives across areas such as maintenance, asset management, and upgrades.
- Energy management – focusing on sustainability as well as energy efficiency.
- Preventive maintenance – implementing a preventive maintenance schedule to prevent breakdowns (and unwanted costs) and extend equipment lifespans.
- Safety management – including safety plans, procedures, audits/drills, and emergency responses.
- Emergency preparedness – developing and updating emergency recovery plans covering power issues, natural disasters affecting facilities, and other unexpected events.
- Compliance management – ensuring that all facilities comply with regulations and legislation.
- Vendor management – developing good relationships with facilities vendors and contractors and analyzing performance to improve stability and reduce costs.
How to select the best facility management software
Before considering how best to select facility management software, it’s important to appreciate that this will likely include more than one tool, such as a building management system (BMS). There will be other technologies in play that help with facilities management, such as network-connected “Internet of Things (IoT)” devices that gather data automatically and send it to one or potentially multiple facility management software solutions. These IoT devices might relate to:
- Water and power usage tracking
- Temperature control
- Carbon monoxide detection
- Monitoring movement in restricted areas
- Fire detection.
The following guidance relates to these additional technologies and facility management software applications as much as the primary facilities management system.
- Identify the facilities management needs and requirements – assessing current capabilities and the facilities management goals and features of the new software (which could be a facilities ticketing system or something broader). This includes capturing the inputs from various facilities and business stakeholders.
- Undertake some high-level market analysis – what’s out there in terms of software plus the suitability of different software vendors.
- Engage in an RFP process – evaluate the key features in the considered software and get demos for the highest scoring options. The key features will likely include work order management, preventative maintenance management, asset management, workspace management, and reporting and analytics. Additional software capabilities such as self-service portals, knowledge management, mobile-friendly interfaces, and integrations with other facilities and business systems are also important.
- Consider non-functional aspects – such as scalability, the delivery model (cloud vs. on-premises), configuration and customization capabilities, security, and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
- Run a pilot or proof of concept – to assess how well the software works within your organization.
- Select the best-fitting software based on the above.
Future facilities management trends
Several trends are affecting the future of facilities management. Some relate to technology, while others relate to people and the social aspects of corporate operations.
In terms of technology, AI will have the most significant effect. AI technologies can be used in most aspects of facilities management, including predicting maintenance needs, optimizing energy usage, and enhancing physical security. The existing and future use of IoT devices and other smart technologies will also increasingly include AI-based capabilities.
In terms of people, employee health and well-being will increasingly influence facilities management strategies, policies, and practices. As a minimum, this will include ensuring the suitability of working spaces and the arrangements for remote or hybrid working. Technologies that monitor occupant health and well-being could be integrated into the facilities management technology stack.
Facilities management teams will also be pivotal in corporate sustainability initiatives. For example, energy efficiency, with the growing emphasis on energy consumption and carbon footprint reduction, and zero-waste initiatives and recycling programs.