Facility managers must play an active role in building the next generation of facilities workers. 

For facility managers entering the workforce, the world is their oyster. Good paying and interesting jobs are plentiful as a shortage of skilled workers leaves gaps in an aging workforce. Unlike the more well-known trade jobs such as plumbers, electricians or mechanics, facilities management often flies under the radar. Even if high school students and those entering the workforce are open to the trades, most don’t even know facilities management exists. Raising awareness for the industry is critical in encouraging the next generation of facilities managers.

“The job market is flush; there are lots of opportunities within facilities management,” says Alana Dunoff, strategic facility planner and educator, AFD Professional Services, and adjunct professor at Temple University. “My emerging leaders, my students, they’re having no trouble getting jobs. Some of them are getting multiple job offers, and I don’t have enough students to fill the positions that come knocking at our door.”

An aging workforce is partially to blame for this workforce gap, but Dunoff emphasizes awareness around facilities management is a bigger part of it.

“As it stands today, it’s still a relatively young profession, and I think that people still don’t fully know what it is and what it does,” she says.

The Covid pandemic created some awareness as organizations began to understand the value of having someone who could offer maintenance services and support, but this understanding has only scratched the surface on a large problem. Expanding on the importance of the job will fall to today’s facility managers who must remain engaged and passionate about attracting the workforce of the future.

Early education makes the biggest difference

Keith Watkins, director of facilities for the City School District of New Rochelle, certainly has that passion, passed on from his father who worked as a custodian for many years. This love for the job has culminated in a series of educational programs in his school district, which give students the opportunity to explore new interests and develop early skills.

One of these initiatives is a summer internship program for the City School District of New Rochelle. The internship, which more than a dozen students applied to last year, is given to a rising senior who job shadows Watkins throughout the summer.

“That helps a student determine if they really want to pursue a career in architecture engineering or facilities management,” says Watkins.

Watkins also runs a youth program in which the district hires 30 young people who help assist with cleaning and light maintenance. Last year the school district started an architectural engineering program at the high school, where students earn CTE credits toward their high school diploma. The students work four hours a week for 16 weeks within Watkin’s department often shadowing HVAC technicians and the plant manager.

Four students participated in the program this year, and all four told Watkins the program cemented their interest in architecture and engineering and plan to attend college for those future careers.

Engaging with students is one of the greatest joys of Watkins’ job, he says, and has allowed him to spread greater awareness about the facility management profession and influence the future workforce.

“Everyone thinks that this job is toilet cleaning and dusting,” says Watkins. “But what I try to always emphasize is we’re not managing buildings, we’re managing people.”

With a department of nearly 120 people and several ongoing educational programs, Watkins continues to grow that understanding and collaboration among every individual who enters the school.

“The benefits and the rewards of the job being provided for our students, staff and community are endless,” says Watkins. “The studies that have been done on the direct correlation and impact of the learning environment itself, as to how well the kids receive the instruction, are endless too. The studies have proven that if students and staff are teaching in safe, clean, well-lit environments that they learn better. Their test scores are proven better.

“If you can help folks understand the level of the impact of what their responsibilities are, then you see that light click and that connection. That’s the end goal for everybody,” he adds.

College recruitment a drop in the bucket

Academic programs at a college level also play a key role in building awareness around the industry, but they can only do so much. Most students are not aware of the facilities management field until they enter an adjacent program, often entering college to pursue engineering or architecture. Facility managements programs are typically part of these departments, where students can then be recruited based on their interests. This places major limitations on the reach of potential recruitments.

“If there’s only a couple 100 architecture students, I’m only going to get a certain portion of that that group who might be interested,” says Dunoff.

The students who are interested, however, are typically people interested in the built environment, who like buildings and spaces but gravitate more toward project management or the management of people.

“They realize that they can do something else with architecture other than be someone who designs buildings,” says Dunoff.

The financial outlook for facility managers is another huge incentive, Dunoff says, noting that Temple University boasts 100 percent placement for students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree in facilities management. Those students can earn an average of $55,000 to $70,000 starting pay vs. $40,000 for beginning architects.

Passing the torch

Creating mentorship programs and educating the next set of facility managers will be pivotal in building the future workforce. Rather than focusing solely on your own professional development, facilities managers need to continue engaging with professional associations that focus on developing tomorrow’s workforce.

“We’re all given the onus of not only continuing our own professional development but also helping those who have showed an interest or who are new to the position,” says Watkins. “As long as they’re receptive, that knowledge and experience really needs to be shared, and you will get a lot of that if you stay engaged with some of these professional associations.”

He adds that the ideas for many of the programs he implemented in his district came from these types of conversations.

“We support every department there is in the district, so understanding that, embracing it, and owning it and making your department the best it can be, that is my advice,” says Watkins. “That is my goal. Never stop learning and use the resources you have and make those around you better.”

But the question still remains. How do you let people know about a profession that is not on people’s radars?

“Facilities management is not very sexy…so it’s a challenging sell,” says Dunoff. “I’m doing my part to close the gap, because it is that challenging. It’s not accounting. It’s not the fashion industry. How do you connect that to the built environment?”

While the Covid pandemic brought facilities management closer to the mainstream, it’s the job of today’s facility managers to continue talking about the value they bring.

“It’s a community that likes to mentor and likes to connect and likes to train and wants to take people under their wing,” says Watkins. “There’s always something to learn. There’s always something to grow, and that makes for a great career…It’s got its share of challenges and hiccups…but it is a particularly satisfying job to know that you are helping people be successful in their spaces.”

Creating new opportunities for facility managers

While awareness around the industry continues to be a challenge, the opportunities around facilities management will only continue to evolve as the world around us changes—something Dunoff hopes will organically create interest in the field.

Solutions around sustainability and technology, for example, are increasingly falling to facilities managers, opening more doors and options for students interested in the built environment.

“When I was in graduate school, there wasn’t sustainability; it wasn’t a thing, and now you can have a job in facilities as head of sustainability,” says Dunoff. “There’s water conservation, utility conservation, there’s all these things we can be thinking about.”

Having a background in IT also makes for a great facility manager, as more technology is built into facilities.

“Our buildings are managed with our phones, so how do we think about what it takes to manage a building and a smart building and all those sorts of pieces as the world continues to evolve and building and technology evolves,” says Dunoff. “I think it opens the door more for the kinds of skill sets that we need.

“What’s out there and what’s next in FM, you just don’t even know, and knowing that it’s going to continue to evolve, makes it a really exciting career,” she adds. “It opens up the aperture to other people in business, people who have human resources backgrounds…it’s going to continue to bring a lot of diversity into the profession.”

By Amy Wunderlin, Contributing Writer

Amy Wunderlin is a freelance writer based in Fort Atkinson, Wi. 

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