5 Things Facilities Managers Must Do to Gain Respect & Clout

by James McDonald on March 12, 2015
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Facilities management is often an invisible field. You provide the infrastructure that allows an organization to run smoothly. When your job is running smoothly, it’s hard to see that you’re doing it, and it’s only when mistakes happen that employees notice that there’s a problem. However, facilities management issues need to be on the agenda when organizational decisions are made. Here’s how you can place facilities management on the table.Coming out of the shadows: facilities management is an integral part of workplace systems.

1. Maintain an Inventory

What goes where? Who’s using what room? Tracking your buildings and other material assets is a core part of your job, and it’s your responsibility to do this as well as possible. When a company understands what its assets are and how they are being used, they can use this valuable data to make changes that will result in more efficient use of materials or space. Your position is not just about purchasing and allocation, it’s about data management.

2. Work With Management on Budget Changes

Budget cuts can seem like a painful annual ritual, and they’re certainly a challenge to your ability to manage your facilities. As you enter budget season, be aware of areas that you could streamline and investments that could make everyone’s job easier. Be ready to talk: being proactive about budget changes helps you gain respect. Investments such as asset tracking software may come at a cost, but the efficiency you gain can be financially worthwhile. If you’re not sure what to measure, check out our free guide: The 8 Metrics Every Facilities Manager Should Measure.

3. Help Meet Sustainability Goals

Speaking of efficiency, there’s a way that you can be efficient in your facilities management and help your company meet its green goals. By tracking and managing the energy and materials used in your buildings, you can highlight areas for improvement. If a retrofit or a better design for a new building will save your company money, it’s your job to bring this up with management, helping them meet their green bottom line.

As a facilities manager, you can help retain employees by providing a smooth working environment.

4. Help Attract and Retain Talented Employees

While access to facilities and resources may not be what your new hires think of on their first days on the job, the workplace environment is important for employee efficiency, comfort, and enjoyment. Whether you’re working to provide a diversity of spaces within a wide open workspace plan office environment or struggling to find enough meeting rooms for employees on certain days of the week, when you do your job well it makes everyone else’s workday much smoother. Make this part of your job visible and encourage employees and management to share feedback about how their working environment can help them be more productive and happier in their work.

5. Be the Master

While other managers may work to manage clients or staff, your job is to manage facilities and all that occurs in them. Your corporation’s physical assets are just as important as your human resources, and you are the expert in this field. Whether it’s collating data or contributing to the organization’s bottom line, your input is a valuable part of corporate decision-making. If you’d like to change buying practices or convert to more energy-efficient heating, make a statement and back it up with your data and your years of facilities management experience.

As a facilities manager, your work often goes unnoticed, but your contributions to discussions about efficiency, sustainability, and staffing are valuable. If you’re working to increase your efficiency in facilities management, iOffice offers tools to help you improve your information flow. Bring respect to your position by collecting data and making business-savvy recommendations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James McDonald

James McDonald is a sports enthusiast, brother in Christ and once swam in a tank with the infamous TV sharks.

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