Education programmes of job
Business Administration Quantitative Methods MSc
Business Administration MBA
Nature of work
Your playground as a Facilities Manager will normally include a web of departments and teams. You should be able to handle many activities related to central services (reception, security, maintenance, mail, recycling …etc.) as well as various hands-on tasks. Consultancy forms great part of your job.Your main responsibilities revolve around the following:
preparing documents to put out tenders for contractors;
managing projects and coordinating work of contractors;
investigating feasibility of options for new premises;
achieving maximum value of money by calculating and comparing costs for required goods/services;
planning for future development in line with strategic business objectives;
managing change to ensure minimum disruption to core activities;
liaising with tenants of commercial properties;
ensuring the building meets health and safety requirements;
planning best utilization of space and resources for new or current buildings;
checking that work has been completed satisfactorily and following up on any deficiencies;
coordinating one or more teams to cover various areas of responsibility;
responding appropriately to emergencies or urgent issues as they arise.
Environment of work
As a Facilities manager you will typically work 5 days a week. However, you might have to work longer hours if you have tight deadlines or emergencies. Sometimes 24-hour operations might require shift work.Hopefully you like being on the move because your job entails a lot of visits and sometimes traveling to far locations and spending some nights away from home. Besides, you might have to relocate if you are working on a long-term project.
Do you think it is a hard job? Actually, it seems so but let’s see if the following idea makes you feel it is worth it. In return to all the hard work you will be doing, you will get additional benefits often include a pension scheme, private health care, performance-related bonuses, company car or car allowance and profit share or share save schemes.
Also you will have work opportunities in both the public and private sectors, and if you wish to travel abroad, there may be opportunities for overseas work waiting for you.
Professional life
Becoming a successful Facilities manager cannot happen overnight; it is not easy to handle so many tasks and locations at once. In order to be able to reach this level of proficiency you should understand all the details related to your job from bottom to top. This can only happen when you start as an assistant manager and focus on one operation as a first step, like catering, cleaning or maintenance. Then you can progress to being the department manager and then move into general management where you become in charge of all the operations. You might start with regional and sector management roles before achieving director level.Moving to a larger company which has more managerial roles can open new horizons for you and help you climb the career ladder. You can even take up other general management jobs if you prove your flexibility, multi-tasking and client-management skills as well as your ability to juggle tight budgets.
If you knew how to seek and seize opportunities to work with different operations and functions, one day you might be able to move into a higher level of proficiency and set up your own consultancy business.
As for the salaries facilities managers get, they range between xxxxxxxxx
Getting the job
Any discipline you choose can be accepted in this domain. However, the best qualification is undergraduate degree in Facilities Management. If you want to duplicate your opportunities of getting this position, here are some tips to help you out.Subjects like Building Management, Construction, Surveying, Business Studies, Engineering, and Property can improve you for the position.
You can reinforce your education with related work experience in order to stand out and be ahead of other candidates. How do you do that? Think of having early work experience while studying in college. You can go for a placement year in industry, part-time job or vacation work, for example. Any experience in related areas such as management, building or construction will also be helpful. In this way you will have a perfect combination of education and practical experience when you graduate, which will be the key for you to enter the world of Facilities Management.
Skills
Along with the academic qualifications, your job as a facilities manager requires certain skills. To help you out, we have provided you with a list of the most important skills you will need in order to be successful in this job.As a facilities manager you should work on improving the following skills :
organization and systematic thinking;
strong numeracy and the ability to understand financial data;
research skills and the ability to draw information from various sources, including people;
IT skills;
clear and concise writing skills and the ability to handle long and complex documents;
interpersonal, relationship-building and negotiation skills;
spatial awareness and the ability to work with diagrams;
flexibility and the ability to work on more than one task at a time.
Sources and references
If you need any further information on what is provided in this file, you can visit the following websites: www.ifma.org , IFMA - International Facility Management Association
www.fmassociation.org.uk, The Facilities Management Association
www.prospects.ac.uk
Arab Standard Classification of Occupations, 2008, Ed. Arab Labor Organization
Summary
As a facilities manager, your main responsibilities revolve around ensuring the organization has the best working environment for employees and their activities, and focusing on using best business practice to improve efficiency by reducing costs and increasing productivity. Your responsibilities are wide and varied; they involve strategic planning as well as day-to-day operations regarding premises.You will be in charge of procurement and contract management, building maintenance, catering and vending, health and safety, security, and space management.
You will find employment in all sectors and your job title can have many names, such as operations, estates, technical services, or property manager.