Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
August 2002
The Many, Many Hats of Facilities Managers
Building on last month’s article, which presented the functions of facilities management, this month we explore the roles that facilities managers play. Facilities managers influence their department and its personnel; therefore, it is important to understand the many roles assumed by a facilities manager in a rapidly evolving company. They are:
- business leader
- spokesperson
- environmentalist
- mentor / resource of resources
- agile purchaser, lessor, and contractor
- strategic business planner and implementer
- financial manager
- innovator
- networker
- information manager
- Business Leader
- A facilities manager should understand the core business of his or her company, and should speak the language of business. This means knowing the company’s goals and how best to support them, and communicating this understanding to colleagues. Increasingly, decisions that further the corporate interests of the core business may not always further the interests of the facilities department. For example, diverting capital funds for a new ad campaign may delay replacing a chiller. Such events require the facilities manager to rely more on leadership skills rather than management skills.
- Spokesperson
- As businesses concentrate efforts on core functions, the facilities staff should promote the department, its mission, and its role in supporting the company’s core business. The facilities manager should assume the responsibility for public relations and customer education. This process requires the development of a message, the identification of target groups, and the means to publicize the role facilities play in the company’s success. In other words, you need a marketing plan.
Facilities management has its own language, and not many outside the realm of FM speak that language. Therefore, a good FM spokesperson will use terms and analogies that make sense to other sectors of the business world.
- Environmentalist
- Facilities departments should seize the opportunity to be environmental leaders within their companies for several reasons. First, most environmental issues are part of the facilities mission, and the staff has expertise in most of the areas of concern. Second, a clean record on environmental issues is important to good business practices and can enhance the positive image of the company as a good corporate citizen. Third, it makes fiscal sense to lower the risk of environmental liability in an effort to protect the bottom line. Creating environmental awareness among corporate staff may require some initial investment, but it can generate equal or greater savings on an ongoing basis. Finally, this is an area where the department’s environmental efforts can gain broad support from employees and management.
- Mentor/Resource of Resources
- As the style of supervision has changed in the past several years, there is greater reliance on participatory management techniques. As staff becomes more self-directed, facilities managers have become mentors who encourage staff to perform well. One of the aspects of being a good mentor is being able to obtain resources – investing time to procure and protect the resources needed by the department. This shift in work style, from managing every detail of the work to providing resources for others to manage the work, is disconcerting for facilities managers who are used to direct participation and intervention. It is not always possible to delegate responsibility or accountability, but a good mentor helps to make participatory management easier and more rewarding for both the employees and the company.
- Agile Purchaser, Lessor, and Contractor
- The increasing use of the just-in-time approach to facilities performance means more careful planning of personnel assignments (both in-house and outsourced), resulting in less downtime. This approach to staff management places special strains on facilities staff, who function as internal service providers within their companies. Facilities managers, who often have seen their staff decreased, should have purchasing and contracting agreements in place that permit them to expand or decrease their service capabilities quickly. In addition, they should be skilled at rapidly leasing new property and disposing of excess property. If the real estate function remains separate from the facilities function, organizations will have difficulty handling rapid transactions to produce fully functional facilities just in time.
- Strategic Business Planner and Implementer
- A company can optimize its facilities management function by including the facilities manager in all strategic business planning. To become a full participant in corporate planning and high-level decision-making, the facilities manager should understand strategic planning and how it works. More importantly, he or she must convey to top management that strategic facilities planning can contribute to enhanced corporate performance, in terms of profitability, market share, and shareholder value. These advantages should persuade executives to include facilities managers “in the loop,” thus reducing the occasions when the facilities department must react to decisions made without the discussion of viable options.
- Financial Manager
- The facilities department is a high-profile consumer of corporate resources. Having expert financial management skills assures even the most skeptical auditors that you are spending money efficiently and as close to budget as circumstances permit. Facilities budgets should be structured for each program and then tracked from plan through execution. Information should be automated and easy to retrieve and interpret. Departments should produce financial performance indicators to compare performance over time (e.g., last year, last month, same month last year). Several financial indicators should be selected that describe performance, and they should be indicated in regular reports to management. Comparisons of performance data with that of benchmarking partners, competitors, and best-of-class companies (acknowledged leaders in the same industry) are very informative and reassuring to corporate executives who may not know how to gauge facilities performance.
- Innovator
- Innovation has long been associated with technology. However, merely having a CAFM system is no longer enough. The greatest value of these systems is in their support of strategic planning and decision-making. It is important to configure CAFM systems toward these objectives every time an opportunity for technology upgrades occurs. Portable and wireless technologies have great potential for facilities operations because laptop applications and modified point-of-sales devices can substantially reduce the paperwork flow in companies with large maintenance and building assessment programs. Electronic mail, networks, faxes, and other communication systems can increase responsiveness within the facilities department and connectivity within a building or between buildings.
- Networker
- The successful facilities manager actively builds a broad professional and business network, both inside and outside the company. Active participation in local chapters of professional associations is important. Management journals promote networking as a way of remaining open to future employment opportunities. The importance of networking with business colleagues is to find out their problems, their perceptions, and how to work together. Equally important is to tap into local, national, and international networks of consultants, contractors, and service providers to understand the market, evaluate your performance in that market, and build contacts that may be needed during a rush project.
- Information Manager
- Facilities managers should appreciate and capitalize on the value of the data they routinely collect and store. Good information management focuses on the value of the data. For example, one facilities manager was able to become a major player in his company’s downsizing effort because of data contained on the CAD drawings maintained by his department. He understood that this data was the central reference and focus of all space reconfiguration discussions. He promoted its value to top management as a tool to help them sort out some very complex issues. Facilities managers should advertise this and other capabilities to help corporate management make sound decisions.
