Facilities management associations around the world will recognize the contributions facilities management makes to the workplace as they celebrate the second annual World FM Day on June 24, 2010.

Global Facility Management Association (Global FM) member organizations will once again hold public events on five different continents to bring attention to the important role facility management plays in building organizational performance. Activities will include governmental partnerships, networking events, award presentations, luncheons, video presentations, social media campaigns, and more, all with the goal of raising the profile of the facility management profession worldwide.

Members of Global FM once again invite all countries to join the celebration of the facilities management profession. The goal is to raise the facilities management professional profile around the globe — promoting facilities management’s ideals, not only within the profession and industry, but also among the governments and the general business community.

Global FM Chairman Steve Gladwin adds, “World FM Day is another example of how Global FM is collaborating across boundaries. We are optimistic that individual facilities managers, teams, and companies will once again use this day as a way of promoting the strategic value that facilities management brings to many organizations.”

This year debuts the Global FM Awards for Excellence in Facilities Management. The awards recognize efforts by individuals or teams within the facilities management industry—from researchers through to facility operators—who have made a positive contribution to the knowledge, practical application, and communication of strategies to improve the workplace environment and sustainable performance of their facilities.

Recipients will have demonstrated the value of their innovations or improvements to the community through sustainable outcomes in the facilities management industry. Winner announcement will take place during World FM Day celebrations.

International associations including the Associação Brasileira de Facilities (ABRAFAC), the Association des Directeurs et Responsables de Services Généraux (ARSEG), BIFM, the Facility Management Association of Australia (FMA Australia), FM-ARENA, the Hungarian Facility Management Society (HFMS), the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and the South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA) will join the celebration in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, the U.S. and in countries throughout Europe.

Staffing Trends in Facility Management

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and Today’s Facility Manager have teamed up to release a new study, the “Facility Management Staffing Report.” Providing an overview of staffing issues within the facility management (FM) profession, this report allows facility and human resources professionals to determine if they are applying sufficient support to the FM function. In addition to staffing tables, the report delves into factors that drive staffing, such as industry sector, facility size/type, and outsourcing practices.

The “Facility Management Staffing Report” is based on a survey of IFMA members and Today’s Facility Manager readers. The survey assessed staffing levels for professional, skilled trade, and non-skilled FM positions; measured total staffing levels; and identified factors that drive staffing — such as industry sector, size and type of space managed, outsourcing practices, employee turnover, and location. The study also provides a ratio of FM staff to square footage managed.

Study respondents include 1,414 facility management (FM) professionals working in 134,900 locations/unique buildings, managing 9.91 billion square feet of space. Based on these numbers, and by determining what proportion of the total FM universe these responses comprise, the report estimates that there are a total of 408,000 facility professionals working in the U.S.

Among the study’s findings:

The majority of FMs work in a service industry, followed by institutional and manufacturing settings.
More than half of FMs manage multiple buildings in multiple sites, and many manage a combination of owned and leased space.
The majority of companies handle facility planning, project management, moves/additions/changes, space planning, and operations and maintenance in house.
Services most often handled by a third-party provider are janitorial, roads and grounds, construction, food services, and security.
An average of 59.3 total staff work within each company’s FM department, including professional staff, skilled trades, and non-skilled workers.
In the past year, FMs report an annual pay increase of 2% for professionals, skilled trade, and non-skilled workers.
Four out of 10 respondents report that their total space managed has increased over the past year, indicating that FMs are doing more with less staff.

“We were pleased to derive an estimate of the current number of facility professionals, as we’ve always believed the number is much higher than what’s been reported in the past,” said Shari Epstein, IFMA’s director of research. “There are many practitioners who perform the responsibilities of managing a public or private facility full time, yet they may not have realized there is a profession that serves them.”

“We were eager to invite our audience of facility professionals to participate in this important study,” said Susan Coene, Today’s Facility Manager executive publisher. “By providing an estimate of the number of facility professionals in the field, as well as a look at the myriad duties and challenges they face every day, this report is critical to understanding the current state of facility management. Many FMs are being asked to do more with less, and the decisions they make about their company’s operations are more critical than ever.”