What skills knowledge and character traits are necessary to succeed in facilities management?

Published in

CloudApper

2 min readOct 15, 2020

Creating a productive facility management plan rests in the hands of a skill full Facility Manager. The basic technologies and processes of facilities management are evolving, as a result, the lack of skilled personnel is constantly increasing. Unfortunately, finding the right talent requires that companies understand the key facility management skills essential to successful facilities management. Here are the top skills that can empower a facility manager to succeed:

Analytical And Problem Solving

Facility managers deal with a lot of issues and information and as such, they need to possess an analytical mind. They could be analyzing financial data for managing budgets, working on configuring offices to improve tenant experience, or dealing with contractors on a maintenance issue. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills are essential.

Leadership

Facility managers need to set goals, be good organizers, and focus on adding value to their employers, tenants, and landlords. They must motivate their colleagues and external suppliers and contractors and constantly measure and manage their performance effectively.

Technology Skills

As technology plays an important role in how facilities run, managers need to be comfortable with it. They should be aware of the facility management technologies and at least have a basic understanding of using software solutions like asset and work order management (CMMS), booking software, user access control, CRM, etc.

Decision Making

Facility managers should have the ability to make quick decisions, sometimes with limited information. They need to have sound skills in delegating tasks as well as ensuring that meaningful and fair assignments are given to the team.

Financial and Business Management

Facility managers should be able to analyze and leverage all important data such as facility spend, contractor performance, quality of service, customer feedback and be able to adjust their services on an ongoing basis, as-needed.

Networking

Must be adept at networking across the entire organization including HR, Operations, IT, Finances, and others. It is important to put their interpersonal skills at work and build solid relationships across the organization they support.

Industry And Economy Awareness

Understand economic and industry trends, and be aware of what is happening around them. There are always trending topics in the industry like agile working, work-from-home, new and innovative technology, new ways to improve customer experience, which they should be aware of and analyze their applicability against the facilities they manage.

In the modern business world, efficient management of facilities is critical to remain competitive. No business can afford to ignore the importance of having a good facility manager in order to survive in today’s market. And an efficient facility manager can do even better with a facility management application that provides better control over their operations and a distinct edge over competitors.