Need to Solve your FM Recruitment Challenges?

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06 January 2017 | Updated 01 January 1970

According to FM services company, Almeda Facilities Ltd, the FM sector employs around 10% of the UK working population and is worth an estimated £111 billion each year. At the same time the sector suffers from a number of specific recruitment challenges.

So what are the key challenges?

• There is a lack of technical facilities managers along with a lack of suitable undergraduate courses to attract new young blood into the industry. The majority of facilities managers are an aging demographic who will be retiring over the next 10-15 years. This expertise will be lost from the sector and their replacements are not coming through into the industry at the rate they need to.

• Another challenge is the huge staff turnover among the lower paid, lower skilled, facilities professionals. This is a vicious circle where low wages and repetitive work, lead to a further deskilling of job tasks to combat the high staff turnover, which causes staff demotivation leading to higher staff turnover.

• The sector attracts a large number of workers from overseas leading to challenges for management in the form of language difficulties and legal permission to reside and work in the UK.

• In addition, the National Minimum Wage increases each April put a massive strain on those businesses employing large numbers of lower paid individuals such as cleaning companies.

• Another recruitment challenge in the FM sector is the lack of awareness of the variety of roles that exist. And for those that do work in the sector there are no clearly defined pathways for career progression. This deters talent being attracted to the sector creating a barrier for people applying for jobs within FM and making recruitment even more of a challenge.

What’s the solution?

While there will never be one single solution for challenges as entrenched as those affecting the FM sector, the next FMCentral meeting will be focusing on this area.

Guest speakers, Chris Wilmshurst, from Morgan Hunt, the public sector specialist recruitment agency, will be sharing his experiences of recruiting in the FM sector and how to attract the best talent. And I (Sarah Bentley), from Spaghetti Junction, will be addressing the benefits and logistics to providing proper training to motivate and engage staff members.

If your business is suffering from retention and recruitment challenges in the FM sector and you’d like to discover some solutions, come along to the next FMCentral meeting on Tuesday January 17 at Silverstone (in the building pictured). For full details and to book your place, visit www.fmcentral.co.uk

Article written by Sarah Bentley | Published 06 January 2017

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