The errand runner profession

Such tirade are pretty common in offices. To help solve these issues in a highly professional manner, organisations are increasingly turning towards facility managers.

All of a sudden, with organisations, especially software companies, call centres, back office processors, looking at hiring staff in the 1000s, the requirement for managing offices adequately and aptly is gaining steam.

Says Hem Kumar, a professional facility manager at Novell India: "In most companies the role of a facility manager starts with real estate identification, planning, forecasting and budgeting, project design, project management etc.

Thus management of various companies have realised that the facility manager is no longer just a back-end support function. With requirements for support of 24/7 becoming a basic need, he is a critical part of the organisation from the time of inception of the company. He is involved from the time the company plans to set up a facility to the actual implementation of the plan and then onwards for the maintenance of the same."

Facility management is slowly becoming more specialised and more prominent in the Indian scenario. Although in the nascent stage at present, it is slowly gaining momentum and is being recognised as a very important and critical function within the organisation.

And, life isn't easy for these facility managers. Says Sivakumar, facility manager at Star TV: "The facility manager has to have very good interpersonal skills as he would have to deal with people ranging from the CEO and other management staffs to the janitor. He has 'customers' both within the organisation and outside, whom he has to please to the best of his abilities. Cost management is another key role of a facility manager."

Comments Hem Kumar: "Facility management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology. A facility manager has to integrate all these and bring out the best in the interest of the business for the organisation. There is a lot of interaction with the HR, finance and IT functions within an organisation."

Given these, what are the qualities of a facility manager? Says Hem Kumar: "To be a facility manager, one has to have a lot of dynamism and patience. Dynanism because there is not one single day that is similar to another for a facility manager and patience because he has to deal with people and the organisational process. He has to be able to think on his feet and be ready for action at any given point of time."

With this profession constantly evolving, facility managers are getting together to trouble shoot and share best practices under the umbrella of The International Facility Management Association (IFMA).

Says Sivakumar: "IFMA is the only premier professional association for facility management. Supporting the largest community of FM professionals in the industry worldwide, IFMA members comprise over 17,500 facility professionals across 50 countries. Our members have a voice in 126 chapters and 14 councils."

IFMA in India is trying to bring together all the practising facility managers to network and share information on their current practices.

It is also attempting to bring in healthy competition in the market by ensuring that the facility manager and his partner (vendor / service provider) understand each other's needs and wants. The number of certified facility managers internationally exceeds 3,500. However, India has seen the late emergence of this profession and "there are a very few in the country." The majority of these are in Bangalore.

The expertise among these professionals has been inculcated rapidly and Paddy Menon, who was working with Cisco India as facility manager, has been deputed to Cisco Australia to duplicate the effort there.

Commenting on how one can get to become a certified facility manager, Hem Kumar said: "IFMA USA certifies facility managers by way of an exam, which leads to the certification called 'Certified Facility Manager'.

The certification program is based on real life experiences. There are some 8-9 competencies that one has to complete in this exam "" operations & maintenance, real estate, human & environmental factors, planning & project management, leadership & management, finance, quality assessment & innovation, communication and technology."

And after getting this certification, you may very well be able to explain why the roti was like a frisbee!

WANT TO BE A FACILITY MANAGER?

IFMA says a BE in civil engineering is desirable but NOT A MUST for the profession. Contact: International Facility Management Association - India Chapter, # 207, Pan Asia Business Services 23/2 Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore - 560 001. Phone: +91 - 080 - 2275308 / 2275524 / 2275525 (Extn - 207); Fax: +91 - 080 - 2275604. email: ifmaindia@vsnl.net website: www.ifma.org