Since the 1980s, when moves to describe FM as its own distinct business discipline first took root in the US, the sector has evolved in different ways on both sides of the ocean.
Today however, while traditional differences (many exacerbated by geographical considerations) continue to maintain a degree of difference, the move by organisations to embrace the concept of the wider workplace, and FMs’ role in managing, maintaining and developing it, is a common theme on both sides of the Atlantic.
As of 2013, does either market have a lead in terms of cutting-edge FM thinking? Dave Wilson, managing director of consultancy Effective Facilities believes that while the US was first to develop the discipline, it no longer leads the way.
“The first people into a market create the experience from which others can learn, and thus leapfrog ahead, which is what I think the UK did,” says Wilson. “In addition, in the UK we had the artificial stimulus of enforced competitive tendering in the public sector, which dramatically opened up the markets to both more competition and created a supply of experienced internal buyers.
In turn, this led to increased acceptance of outsourcing, and in that part of FM we are undoubtedly ahead. The US market is also much larger than the UK, and much more geographically diverse, so even where there was outsourcing it has taken some time for larger players to begin to offer credible national FM services.”
However, while Wilson believes the UK’s lead in FM outsourcing is particularly true in terms of the move to output specifications and contract management, “I think we are falling behind in terms of strategic analysis and alignment because the scale of typical US facilities is such that they have more, and often better educated, senior people on the internal side. I also think the US is now learning from our experience.”
John Bowen, MD at FM consultancy Gulfhaven, points to the more traditionally accepted difference between the UK and US approaches.
“The US focuses more on the site or building,” says Bowen, “and that aligns in many ways more to the ‘landlord model’ as we know it here, whereas we’ve begun to move towards a facilities-led model whereby we run the building for the occupants.
But this US focus on the facility is changing, and quickly, according to Wilson. “It probably remains true for the majority of in-house practitioners that FM in the US is still primarily about buildings, as it is in most of the rest of the world,” he says.
“But the US is becoming more accustomed to the importance of alignment with the culture and strategy of the ‘core’ business than is often the case in the UK.”
Workplace first
Paul Morgan is vice president and general manager, Americas and Oil & Gas Markets, Global WorkPlace Solutions, Johnson Controls. A Brit who’s currently based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he’s spent the past three years in the US and sees the story in general as one of a convergence in thinking between the two markets. He does, however, also recognise how the UK has been first to see FM as being primarily about the management of all aspects of a workplace, operating as an ‘enabling platform’ for the organisation.
“This idea that an organisation’s core business is enabled by people and that the more you support your employees the more you influence your core outcome — that’s a trend that first emerged in the UK, although in the US there’s no doubt we’re seeing an acceleration in recognition in the past five years of how much the workplace can impact on an organisation.”
Morgan sees the UK’s emphasis on workplace support as reflecting recent global and multinational deals, “…where large corporates have been more prone to talking about the workplace and facilities services as supporting occupancy.”
Gaining recognition
Notwithstanding what would logically seem to be a wider role as a result of the broader workplace focus, Bowen thinks that FM in the US still benefits from a greater recognition of the role, both at boardroom level and with building occupants. “I think they have an advantage there,” he says.
“Over there, FM grew out of a recognition at the top that there was a need for it. As a result, FM is seen as an important tool for delivering corporate goals; its place in the hierarchy seems better understood, whereas over here FM teams and their contribution are often less understood or respected.”
Bowen wonders if there isn’t a broader cultural aspect to this. “More Americans rent their homes,” he says. “If you’ve watched any US sitcom, especially those where the cast live in apartments, the building ‘Super’, or superintendent, will crop up regularly in the plotline. Friends, Frazier and Seinfeld all gave examples of this — could US employees possibly have a clearer idea of where FM sits in their lives, at work and at home?”
The outsourced market
So how does FM delivery by outsourced contractors in the US vary to that provided in the UK? “Gradually, the market has matured,” says Wilson. “It is now clearly a significant single market, hence the emergence in the sector there of Johnson Controls, Aramark, JLL and CBRE, plus the incursion from European groups such as ISS and Sodexo, which is making the market more homogenised than it was.”
The gradual move to a ‘workplace-first’ mentality in the US is particularly marked in certain verticals, including hi-tech sectors such as telecoms where, like their UK equivalents, organisations are using the workplace to differentiate themselves. But beyond these early movers, says Morgan, workplaces in the US remain of the more traditional type.
“A lot of this is down to market dynamics and the specific industries in which organisations are participating,” he says. “Take the provision of laboratory instrumentation: five-to-10 years ago, delivering that operational activity would not have been in the scope of service, but we’re now seeing that kind of service emerge as one that firms can now visualise as being outsourced. I see this sector-specific focus on outsourcing opportunities continuing in the US as firms wrestle with market volatility.”
Skillsets
The skillsets required of FMs in the UK and US would seem on the face of it to be similar, but differences in approach exist.
“Most US major corporations have defined competencies for all employees and FM is no exception,” says Bowen. “These competencies are usually organised on a three-tier basis for new starters, experienced and senior people, respectively, and they form part of development plans. They’re usually aligned to a professional standard and, where international operations are involved, recognise local standards where necessary.”
While these competencies don’t have a formal qualification, they often align with promotion and advancement, thereby having a positive career impact that qualifications in the UK are yet to achieve, suggests Bowen.
“There seems to be a stronger emphasis on delivering training in the US to bring people up to the required competencies.”
The focus on workplace and technology trends will narrow this distinction, says Morgan. “As the focus shifts from infrastructure to workplace, so the skillset requirements between FMs in the US and UK will become the same.
“When you move away from the idea of the building being managed to the idea of providing support to occupants, understanding core business activity and how FM can support that, then the skillset requirement of an FM becomes more about being relationship-savvy and data analysis-savvy rather than simply technically savvy.”
The skills requirement becomes linked to the need to predict and anticipate needs, and that requires more rounded business leaders, says Morgan. From that perspective, he says, UK FMs are perhaps more relationship-aware, although he believes that they’re now catching up stateside.
Different strokes?
So in 2013, what else separates the two markets? “In the US, there is less outsourcing overall,” says Wilson. “The scale of some property portfolios means that in-house delivery is more viable. There’s also much less ‘legacy’ property estate in the US and that allows them to achieve higher standards of building performance than we do.
Wilson also thinks that US offices, and the people who work in them, are culturally much more conservative in their expectation of work environments than those of us in the UK.
“Although the examples we see from the hi-tech companies are impressive, they are the exception,” he suggests. “Cellular offices and ‘Dilbert’ style cubicles remain the norm for most.
“We [in the UK] may have gone too far in terms of open-plan, pushed by our property values which are generally much more per square foot than in most US cities, but I think we remain ahead generally in workplace design.”
For Bowen, a remaining and significant distinguishing factor is the strength of the service ethic in the US. “It’s stronger over there, and that applies across the board,” he says. “The FM has a much more positive approach, especially in communication. Customers, or end users, are better informed about progress on jobs and are more likely to be assured that a job has been closed down to their satisfaction.
There’s a much stronger focus on customer-facing employees understanding how important the customer is over there.”
Bowen also believes that FM is much more closely aligned to the corporate real estate function in the US. “I would like to see more FM people leading CRE in Europe than they do now, so that we could develop the service-led side more,” he says.
“In the US, there’s better recognition of the role that the right surroundings play in enabling occupants to deliver corporate objectives; what goes on in the building has a greater prominence. Here, we see technically-led CRE teams, who often seem to concentrate more on the building itself — that’s how I got into FM back in the late 1980s when the CRE-led team shut down part of my logistics operation with no warning. I still see that attitude in firms today and it is the worst aspect of the landlord model.”
Ultimately, it could be new technology that brings the practice of FM in the US and UK even closer together, says Morgan. “This concept of the technology-enabled FM has been bandied around for many years, but it’s accelerating now. More technology-enabled facilities will make the job of the FM easier and there are many dimensions to that — smart equipment, self-diagnosis, for example. I don’t think there’s necessarily any greater adoption of this IT in the US compared to the UK, but I do think the way FM is delivered will flatten out.”
More analysis of real-time information on occupants, where they are and what they’re doing, will inform occupancy decisions and lead to more sophisticated FM on both sides of the Atlantic, says Morgan. “Technology will play a big part as we move to a more ‘on-demand’ service position.” – See more at: http://www.fm-world.co.uk/features/feature-articles/us-and-them/#sthash.NgA5FRQC.dpuf
