Facility Manager: Job Profile and Role

While some of us are happy to just tag and trundle along, others thrive when being put in charge – be it in charge of a team or running a business. Managerial roles tend to be the perfect fit when it comes to choosing the right career. What about you? Do you see yourself in one such position? If so, we will introduce you to an interesting manager job in this blog: the job of a facility manager.

Find out if this could be your dream career after you have read all about the expected salaries, your potential employers, and what it takes to become and thrive in this profession. To help you in your decision, we have also researched some typical daily tasks and three tips to advance your career.

Short Summary

• As a facility manager, you are first and foremost responsible for the security, health, and safety of the facility you are managing.
• As a facility manager, you are responsible for a property’s or facility’s maintenance, ensuring that there are no building, electrical, or plumbing issues, for example.
• As a facility manager, you should have a close eye on environmental sustainability, something that is getting ever more important daily.

Job description

It is your facility manager’s job to ensure a commercial property’s requirements regarding health, safety, and security are being met. This way, you also ensure that a company’s employee and client needs are met. It falls under your various responsibilities to manage contracts and expert personnel – for example, electricity and plumbing subcontractors – and keep on top of property maintenance. Since this is getting ever more important, you should furthermore promote environmental sustainability.

Responsibilities

• Security
• Health and Safety
• Utility Management
• Space Management
• Property Maintenance
• Contract Management
• Technology Management
• Environmental Sustainability
• Emergency Planning/Response
• Budgeting/Financial Management

Different types of Facility Managers

• Retail Facility Manager
• Sports Facility Manager
• Corporate Facility Manager
• Hospitality Facility Manager
• Data Centre Facility Manager

Salary

As a full-time facility manager in the UK, you can expect to earn between ￡32,000 and ￡47,000 per annum. Note that the lower salary refers to your average starting salary, whereas you can factor in the higher annual wages when you have work experience in this profession. Moreover, salaries are affected by your employer and your location. Even though you may not always be able to influence who you work for and where this is valuable information to keep in mind.

Working hours

Your typical working hours in facility management range from 38 to 40 hours a week, usually from Monday to Friday. You will be happy to learn that you generally work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Later finishes do not tend to be part of your working hours. However, they may occur occasionally, for example, in case of an emergency. 

Depending on your employer, you might have to factor in weekend work, so be prepared for the odd Saturday or Sunday you have to work instead of relaxing. Also, some facilities may operate 24 hours a day, in which case you work shifts from early to late shifts.

Employers

When you look for your first job in facility management, you may be spoilt for choice since employment can be found in various sectors. Naturally, your employing company should match your interests, so make sure you know where you want to work before applying. After you have found your perfect employer fit, you can look for vacancies and job openings with corporate businesses, holiday resorts, private properties, sports facilities, educational and healthcare institutions, and the hospitality industry, to name some of the preferred options.

Qualifications

Whether you earn an undergraduate degree, complete an apprenticeship, work towards the role, or apply directly: you usually need prior qualifications to either enter an education or get hired. University and apprenticeship entry requirements tend to be A levels in job-relevant subjects, such as physics, maths, economics, and English, or GCSEs at high pass grades (9 to 4/A* to C).

Do not forget that IT proficiency is also required (we know, that is more of a soft and not a hard skill, but still). You should familiarise yourself with the most common facility management software, such as Hippo CMMS, ARCHIBUS, and IBM TRIRIGA.

Skills

Before we take a look at the soft skills you should have when working in facility management, we advise you to check the job posts. Here, you find out which competencies are required by your future employer. And do not worry – even if you are not a master of the necessary skills, you can always work on them in your job or as part of your continuous learning. For now, let’s see which three skills will likely be required of you.

Teamwork/Leadership Skills

Being a facility manager should not be a one-man or one-woman job, meaning that you work closely with a team of other facility experts. You need strong teamwork skills to ensure a harmonious work environment. This competency must be complemented by strong leadership skills. After all, you should lead by example and be neither too precious to do even the most menial job nor close your office door to your team’s needs, worries, and ideas.

Administration Skills

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every single manager’s job comes with a lot of administrative work – be it documenting, filing, and reporting issues, drafting employee contracts, or updating regulations. If you want to succeed in your facility manager job, you need to be a paper pusher, so to speak. Strong administrative skills are a must if you do not want to drown under a veritable Mount Everest of important documents.

High-Pressure Threshold

It is also a truth universally acknowledged that no job always runs smoothly and without hiccups. Throw a team with different personalities and work ethics into the mix, and you can end up with all sorts of emotional and professional challenges. And the challenges do not stop there – sometimes, it is enough for an appliance to break to notch up the pressure. Therefore, you need a very high-pressure threshold to avoid blowing a fuse at any given moment.

Career Path

Every career starts with a first baby step – and for you, this tends to be the job of an assistant facility manager. With work experience and an excellent performance record, you can advance to the role of a department manager or facility manager. If you want to reach the top of facility management – becoming a director – you have to pass a few more steps, typically, by being a regional or sector manager.

Educational Background

To become a UK facility manager, you should look into the following two options: completing an undergraduate degree, for example, a Bachelor’s in facility or building services management, which you can follow up with a Master’s degree. We recommend that you look for practical experience during your studies, for instance, by doing an internship.

If you want a hands-on approach to be a part of your education, an apprenticeship could be the better option for you, such as the following: a facility management supervisor advanced apprenticeship, a facility manager higher apprenticeship, and a senior and head of facility management degree apprenticeship.

If you want to work towards the role, you should discuss doing a Level 3 Diploma in Facility Management. This is also useful when you apply directly and already have some experience in a field relevant to facility management.

Entry Level

We know – if it was down to you, you would jump straight in and work as a facility manager right from the start. Even though your entry-level position as an assistant facility manager might not be your dream come true, it is an important position to hold. It not only gives you the chance to gain work experience, but you also get the opportunity to dip into different aspects of facility management. What better way to find out where your personal and professional strengths lie!

Continuous Learning

Before we explore some options for your continuous learning, we recommend that you check whether your employer offers in-house training on the job. This is a fantastic opportunity to improve professionally and shows your commitment to the job. That said, supplementing your ambition and drive with the relevant qualifications benefits you as well. 

You can earn level 2 to 7 qualifications with the IWFM (Institute of Workplace and Facility Management). If you want to become a chartered surveyor with the RICS Facility Management (FM), you need an undergraduate (and postgraduate) degree which has been accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Possible Requirements for Facility Managers in the UK

Depending on your exact job and your employer, you must have the following: your qualifications earned through the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety (IOHS) and your qualifications earned through the National Examination Board in Occupational Health and Safety (NEBOSH). This can be the case if you work in a hazardous work environment that handles chemicals and heavy machinery, for example.  

A Day in the Life of a Facility Manager

Information, information, information – we are sure your mind practically boggles with all the facts it now has to process. We are also sure that you would love to know for which daily jobs you use your qualifications and skills. In this section, we therefore look at three daily tasks waiting for you in facility management.

Facility Inspection

Inspecting “your” facility is one of your first jobs of the day. Let’s say you work in a holiday resort. Inspection can include anything from checking the pools, and houses where issues have been reported and ensuring that all green areas are free of weeds and appropriately watered and taken care of. If need be, you have to delegate maintenance jobs to other members of your team, for example, the resort’s handyman, plumber, gardener, or pool cleaner.

Open Door Policy

Since you are the manager, you should promote an open-door policy which encourages your employees/your team to come to you with any problem, worry, or idea they have. It is not only important to get to the bottom of potential professional challenges. You need to be made aware of any issues and problems in your facility just as much. Ideally, your office is always open for a quick chat – but if this eats into your day too much, you can equally implement daily or weekly team meetings to discuss all goings-on.

Emergency Response Planning

Yes, your facility should be managed so efficiently and well that emergencies just do not occur. But welcome to real life – they will, even though we hope that will only be once in a blue moon. Nonetheless, you need a backup plan, your emergency response plan. It would be best if you brainstorm and draft it with your team. After you have come up with your Plan B, you need to communicate it with your team.

Tips for Thriving as a Facility Manager

Whether you start in facility management with an educational background or have worked towards this role: thriving should always be one of your ambitions and goals. You already know some of the most beneficial and required qualifications. But what other ways are there for thriving in facility management? This is what we look at in this section:

• Understand your facility
• Look to the future
• Environmental sustainability

Understand your Facility

Judging by your possible employers, facility management can take place in different sectors and, therefore, come with different setups and requirements. To thrive in facility management, you need to understand your facility, its goals, needs, objectives, and business aims. Yes, this is a lot of balls to juggle – but they give you the insights you need to both run and manage your facility successfully and to thrive in your job.

Look to the Future

Be it a holiday resort, an educational institution, or a restaurant, cafe, or hotel: forward planning is another way to thrive in facility management. For this, you must research and develop viable plans with a projected timeframe in which you want to achieve the set goals. These can range from extensions and expansions to a facility revamp. Keep in mind that your strategic planning must go hand-in-hand with your company’s overall goals. They should also be customer-focused to meet your clients’ needs and expectations as well.

Environmental Sustainability

Also, try to invest time, research, effort, and money into environmental sustainability. Even though it is a lot of work – and can be quite the obstacle to overcome with your directors – it will be worth it. Not only will our planet thank you for it but also your facility’s budget. Look into solar panels that can replace old-fashioned ways to get electricity. Look into the possibility of charging stations for electric or hybrid cars, and invest money into other ways of self-sustaining your facility. We can guarantee you – this will put your facility and you on the map. 

Frequently Asked Questions