Great Facilities Managers are in such big demand, and this is only expected to grow. According to a report by International Facility Management, the FM sector is currently facing a shortage of professionals and urgently needs to attract new talent to the industry. There’s been an imbalance between supply and demand for years in FM for the right people, skewed in favour of candidates. Despite being a booming, multi-billion-pound industry, the lack of skilled workers could greatly affect businesses across the country.
A great Facility Manager must be an excellent listener and be able to empathise with and understand the people who use the facilities and services. Also, someone who embraces changes and is not afraid of challenging status quo by implementing new innovative solutions that can create new cost-efficiencies, support organisational transformation or take on new cross-organisational responsibilities to support the strategic goals of the organisation. Lastly, A great Facility Manager does not see Facility Management and strategic business operations as two separate entities. Rather, a great Facility Manager is someone who knows how to tie Facility Management KPI’s to business KPI’s and understands how Facility Management can deliver business value that goes beyond daily governance and maintenance.
The FM Professional will take a leading role in organisational management. He or she will not only maintain a building but will also be the driving force behind maintaining and advancing a company’s physical assets. These industry trends perfectly coincide with millennial workforce trends. The young workforce is the first ever to have grown up alongside computers and information technology. Many young employees are highly computer literate and, as a result, are more comfortable incorporating automation in their daily lives.
Furthermore, millennials are being hired into leadership positions at younger ages more than any other generation. Millennials are more interconnected and able to use technology to leverage a wide network of individuals. There is a natural divide in millennials; while all are comfortable using technology, many are preferring leadership positions while the rest are teaching themselves to be technical geniuses at young ages. This makes millennials a natural fit for the FM Professional.
Based on their natural skillsets, millennials might be misaligned. The modern education system is designed to train students to memorise and repeat information, but companies claim that students do not know the right information relevant to job functions. Technical knowledge is not one of the top 10 most important skillets for recent graduates entering the workforce. Employers feel that interpersonal skills are more valuable because new hires can be trained in technical skills. Millennials have grown up in a world where they have immediate access to information, so memorizing information is becoming less relevant.
Education should not attempt to teach everyone to be technical experts. Instead, the primary role of education should be to help students become industry leaders, capable of aligning expertise. The technical experts will naturally reveal themselves as they are given more opportunities to leave traditional education in favour for trade schools or vocational training. It is proposed that the solution to improving millennial performance is twofold:
1. Millennials need more industry-related leadership opportunities early on in their education.
2. Companies will benefit by leveraging millennials’ technical prowess instead of expecting them to possess the same skillsets as traditional FMs.
There is a gap between what millennials know today and what companies expect them to know. College graduates do not possess the right skillsets to begin working as FMs immediately. The younger workforce is not drawn to the FM profession because the industry does not leverage their strengths and interests. The best way to mitigate these issues is to create a pipeline that introduces millennials to the industry and allows them to work with professionals early on. This pipeline should expose students to real-world challenges faced by FMs and help them learn valuable leadership skills instead of only technical skills. Leadership driven students will receive real-world experience, and technically-minded students will find guidance early on to begin vocational training.
Attracting millennial talent to facilities management requires understanding their priorities in the workplace. A Gallup report found that 21% of millennials have changed jobs in the past year. Why? Because not many— only 29% - report being engaged at work, or emotionally and behaviourally connected to their job. Therefore, hiring millennial FM talent and keeping them involved the industry requires creating an engaging, purposeful, balanced and technologically-savvy working environment.
In general, millennials have a strong sense of social awareness and look to work for businesses that feel the same way; 88% said that a defined value and mission statement is an important factor in selecting a company, and 92% believe businesses should be measured by more than their company profits.
Therefore, FM departments should spearhead volunteer initiatives like paid volunteer days. Focussing on charitable opportunities that relate to your business, such as food banks for restaurants or clothing drives for retail stores to forge a strong connection between a business and the purposeful initiatives. Additionally, increasing facilities’ sustainability can go a long way in attracting millennials to work for a company, as well as creating a stronger sense of loyalty and commitment amongst employees overall.
With a shortage of great FM talent, it is becoming more important to introduce the next generation of Facilities Managers into the arena. We address these issues with companies and help put the groundwork in place to ensure younger talent can be developed, motivated and nurtured into key positions.
Moorcroft have worked with some of the biggest companies in the FM sector. We don’t just want to work with you, we want to understand your culture, your ambition and what kind of people fit your company. How do we do this? Well, we talk to real people and build real relationships. Technology is vital to all our work. However, it is no substitute for picking up the phone. This is what we do and our skill lies in identifying the right people – we pride ourselves on it! We have a proven track record and we strive to work with the best people for each project.
If you have a recruitment requirement, please contact Simon Moorcroft in the first instance.
Email: simon@moorcroftconsulting.com
Website: www.moorcroftconsulting.com
Twitter: @MoorcroftRec
