Why FMs are a valued treasure during these difficult economic times

Hot property

Amidst global turmoil who would have thought that that the latest professionals to go on everyone’s quick-dial list would be facilities managers? Claire Saeki explains why there are very good reasons for the sexing-up of the FM.

Suddenly the world has been thrown upside down, and the unlikely winners are facilities managers. The embarrassing thing for architects, investors, valuers, designers and product suppliers who have not been paying attention to the winds of change is that they still don’t really know what a facility manager is. Crucially, in today’s difficult business environment, FMs can provide support and, yes, income now that new development pickings are getting slim on the ground. Here, we give a brief guide to the world of the office FM and why it has become the profession du jour.

How to distinguish property managers from facility managers

Associations such as the International Facilities Management Association (ifma.org) provide definitions, but the crux of what makes an FM different from what we call Suddenly the world has been thrown upside down, and the unlikely winners are facilities managers. The embarrassing thing for architects, investors, valuers, designers and product suppliers who have not been paying attention to the winds of change is that they still don’t really know what a facility manager is. Crucially, in today’s difficult business environment, FMs can provide support and, yes, income now that new development pickings are getting slim on the ground. Here, we give a brief guide to the world of the office FM and why it has become the profession du jour.

How to distinguish property managers from facility managers

Associations such as the International Facilities Management Association (ifma.org) provide definitions, but the crux of what makes an FM different from what we call a property manager is that the latter is passive or solely reactive, whereas the FM will be actively trying to manage the space so that it better suits the needs of its users. The problem is that often the word ‘facilities’ does not appear in that person’s job title. But with a little sleuthing you’ll discover that this person is the one responsible for making sure everyone has a desk, ensuring that meeting room lights are turned off and taking the lead when it is time to move offices. On a building level, the FM is the person running the energy audits, hiring the security guards and instituting the recycling programme — plus about a million other things. What is most important is how these individuals can help you personally.

For developers and commercial building owners

Question: Would you be in the position of holding empty stock that costs a bomb to run if you had addressed issues of energy efficiency and water conservation at design stage? Probably not. An FM could have helped you with this. Proving this point, more and more FM consultancies such as Singapore headquartered United Premas are being asked by developers to work with their technical teams on how best to come up with a good design. Without wishing to alarm anyone there are other reasons to get some expert advice. Recent research presented to the UN suggests that climate change is going to come a lot quicker and with more force than previous conservative estimations. Retrofitting an entire building to comply with emergency legislation brought in to deal with chronic water shortages across China and India will be annoying (not to mention costly) but is very likely within the next 5 to 10 years.

For valuers and investors

Rather than finding out how much the building across the street costs and working it out from there, a life cycle valuations can give a genuine picture of true worth. The only catch is that it will require the input of both building valuers and managers and is radically shifting the way valuers look at buildings. Check out the work of the Green Building Finance Corporation and be prepared to accept that the FM needs to be your new best friend.

For architects

Icons are over. The new yardstick of an architect’s prowess will not be the number of floors in their latest building. As Rem Koolhaus has said, in the future buildings will not be measured by size but how it is put into action. Who is best placed to give you pointers? you guessed it, FMs.

Are you in real estate?

At the Office Space conference organised by Facility Media in September 2008, Nick Brooke of Professional Property Services warned about the increasing amount of what he termed “grey space” in the office market. Now in early March this year, sources reveal that one large global real estate company in Singapore is looking for sub-lesees for just over one mil sqf of office space, and in other cities it’s worse.

While corporate leasing is tough right now, some divisions are out performing, namely the facilities management division. According to previous research by RFP, many in-house FMs had a corporate real estate background. Even if you are at all concerned about you current position, you would be wise to at least get friendly with the head of that department.

For designers

Rough times for corporate interiors lately, now that the hedge funds with their ripe lucre are closing up, packing up and walking out the door? As you can see from the above, the transactions folks might not be feeding you the leads they once did, instead opportunities lie with the people managing, and restacking around the empty desks and grey space.

But let’s not focus on the negative because the real opportunities lie in retrofitting and the good news is that often governments are willing to pay for it. For example the Australian government has created a Green Building Fund that will distribute AUS$90 mil in allocations of AUS$50,000 to AUS$500,000 over the next four years. Jan van Schaik, Director at Minifie Nixon Architects, notes that the fund “may provide the architectural industry with some relief during the economic decline, as demand for retrofitting work increases… The whole issue of sustainability is a crucial one,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to be done on upgrading building stock and the sooner we start doing that the better.”

Projects that qualify for funding include common area lighting, heating, glazing and shading, air conditioning and ventilation, and monitoring equipment, such as building automation systems. This sounds like the domain of a qualified FM who is charged with making his or her building more environmentally friendly and efficient. There are two streams and both are relevant for office buildings. Stream A (the third round of which closes 30 June 2009) targets owners of existing commercial office buildings. It supports their efforts to reduce their energy consumption, by offering funds for the retro-fitting and retro-commissioning of these buildings. Stream B (closing date still unstated at time of print) offers grants of up to AUS$20,000 “to develop the knowledge, skills or capability of those involved in the operation of commercial office buildings, to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.” Troy Williams, Chief Executive of the Australian Institute for Building, says that the institute has observed that clients are demanding that new office buildings are more energy efficient with developers and buildings meeting this demand. In this context, the major problem is with existing building stock.

For building owners

Archibus sells facilities management software across the globe and Dennis Cheng, the company’s Vice President operating in the Asia region, says he has noticed the rise and rise of the FM. Companies in China, he notes, have encountered various difficulties as roles generally covered by an FM may be separated across several different divisions so that space planning might fall to administration, energy or property management.

For FMs

If you are an FM we have a little advice. After reading this article you may realise there will be increasing numbers of people both wanting to talk to you and join your ranks. It’s time to smarten up your act a bit. If you have never taken a course or read a book on communications or marketing, now is the right time. If your job title does not reflect what you do then, take this article to your boss and explain why you are now an important part of the team that deserves to be recognised accordingly. Go on to ask for a bit of funding to implement the projects that will save the company money and bring in good public relations. Tidy the place up a bit, dress like you belong in the boardroom (you’ll get there faster that way) and for goodness sake get a good haircut. Hold your head high and quit whinging about budget cuts (we’re all dealing with them). Boast about your successes instead. Now is your time to shine — don’t miss it.