Facility Manager Jobs
A Facility Manager is a multi-disciplinary job responsible for managing a building in order to facilitate the flow of a company's business. Facility Managers work to ensure a physically productive work environment and manage real estate assets of a company to preserve and enhance value.
History
Facility management is a relatively new field spurred on by office environment changes in the 1970s such as cubicles and computers. The first major facility management conference, "Facility Influence on Productivity" was held in 1978 in Ann Arbor Michigan. Two years later, in 1980, the National Facility Management Association was founded with just 47 members. In 1981 the group was renamed the international Facilities Management Association and is now found in 60 countries around the world with 19,000 members. IFMA splits facility management specialties into 15 councils and offers training as well as Facility Management certification.
Job Duties
Facility managers select and contract with service providers from snow removal to architects. They are responsible for site safety, clearing sidewalks and maintaining emergency alert systems. Facility Mangers often oversee a staff that can include maintainance, janitorial, food workers, and security employees. They also create and forecast department budgets and need to be familiar with business management principles.
Where
Facility Mangers are needed any place there is a building. They take care of apartment buildings and make sure airports run smoothly as well as supervise upkeep on historic buildings. Or they may work in a museum helping to manage air quality on sensitive artifacts. In hospitals, Facility Managers are central to the patient care team and help fight the spread of serious infections such as MRSA.
Education
A Facilities Management degree is not required to be a facility manager, however, a background in construction, interior design, or HVAC experience is helpful. Facility Management degrees are offered at five universities in the US; Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Ferris State University, Wentworth Institute of Technology. Only two universities have graduate programs; Cornell University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Facility Management Certification can be obtained from the International Facility Management Association.
Income
Starting salaries for entry level facility mangers with a degree earn between $40,000 and $50,000. The International Facility Management Association reports a median salary of $85,000 with some Facility Managers earning more than $200,000 a year.
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Comments
This is informative and well researched mrasey. I worked in the Facilities Department of a multibillion $ company for a while. Always something going wrong in the buildings, people too hot, too cold, water leaks, personnel relocation, cubicle construction, maintenance and repair kept our folks always busy. Never boring.
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