27.06.2018

BIFM Pay & Prospects Report: Where have all the promotions gone?

At the beginning of the year BIFM released their Pay & Prospects survey for 2017 and, as someone who spends a significant part of her working day getting to grips with the turn ons and bugbears of people employed in facilities management, it represents the motherlode.

Amongst the mountains of data gathered, analyzed and served up in bite size pieces one fact stood out; fewer than half the FMs surveyed felt their employers have succession planning and career opportunities for them.

As someone who works in recruitment and to a certain extent sees facilities management from an outsider’s perspective this is very surprising. FM appears to be a world ripe with opportunity; valued at roughly £100 billion and at the forefront of technological innovations like IoT with more people than ever supplementing their hands-on experience with BIFM qualifications and membership of professional bodies surely there is the scope to forge a career within a company?

Yet 52% of people BIFM surveyed don’t feel this is the case.

The vast majority of the people I speak to are looking for a company where they can develop their skills and then use those to contribute to and progress within that organization. Let’s face it, as much fun as I am, in an ideal world most FMs would rather redo their asset inventory from scratch than speak to a recruiter or look for a new job.

People want a long term, stable career so why is the industry struggling to provide one?

Supply & Demand

Obviously, despite the fact the industry is growing, there are only so many promotions and opportunities to go around. Companies can’t develop new roles if the demand isn’t there. Additionally when the demand IS there competition is rife for the roles.

For some on the inside FM may seem to have become a victim of its own success.

With the industry and technological developments currently happening workplace and facilities is becoming a magnet for those in other sectors to come in and “disrupt”.

Construction, IT and HR professionals are all now looking for a way to step in and leverage a way to use their skills to make a mark. I believe this migration of fresh perspectives and horizontal innovation is a good thing but it does crowd the talent pool employers have to pick from and could result in internal candidates being overlooked.

Client side vs. Outsourced

This is not just a problem for one half of the market either; I speak to people from both in-house teams and outsourced providers who experience these stumbling blocks.

Where you would expect large companies on both side of the fence to have an advantage though would be succession planning. With access to HR and rewards teams whose job is to hold staff reviews, implement development plans and map out career opportunities corporates should have a better handle on staff retention and sometimes this is the case, not always though.

So if employers can’t offer unlimited promotions to keep their staff what are their options?

The Solution

FM companies actually have a lot of solutions at their disposal. Succession planning and career opportunity isn’t confined to moving up the job ladder. Most of the people I speak to would love to stay with their current company if they had the chance to upskill or take on additional elements to their role.

The benefits to both employee and employer of doing additional training or gaining a qualification such as NEBOSH or PRINCE2 are obvious but more subtle, and cost effective, ways to increase engagement could also include being involved with project teams, mentoring other staff or taking active roles in focus groups. These options may not result in certification but the softer skills required to make these positions work are also going to benefit the individual and company at large.

As with most of these things initial investment in devising and implementing these opportunities well (“well” is the key word here) is required but, when compared against the cost of hiring new people to replace the experience you’ve lost, the return is significant.

In conclusion…

Career opportunity is a top priority for employees across all levels in facilities management yet employers are failing to recognize this and as a direct result over half of the people in BIFM’s survey are planning to leave their current company in the next year.

Whilst there is evidence in the Pay & Prospects report that this is changing with only 21% of respondents having been promoted in one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK in the past 12 months this evolution evidently isn’t happening quickly enough.

Yet promotion isn’t the only route to career opportunity. Training, professional development and more responsibility within the wider organization can all serve to provide employees with increased job satisfaction, give them additional skills and heighten engagement – all of which ultimately benefits the employer too.

The old adage about “What if we invest in people and they leave? What if we don’t and they don’t” (I’m paraphrasing, besides it’s plastered all over LinkedIn so you all know it anyway) has hung around forever because it’s true.

To keep hold of your staff you need to invest in them, keep them engaged in your company and in FM and offer them the career opportunities that will ensure they see your business as a long-term, stable option they can keep contributing to.

It’s win-win.

Alexandra heads up the Facilities Management division within CRG TEC, a recruitment consultancy with more than 25 years’ experience working on technology, engineering and communications roles.

You can get in touch with her on www.linkedin.com/in/alexfmrecruiter/ or https://twitter.com/AlexFMRecruiter

To find out more about how CRG TEC could help you with the next step in your career or for advice on attracting and retaining the best workplace and facilities management professionals in the industry visit www.crgtec.uk.com or call 0300 030 1024.