FM services sector is on the up

According to the latest quarterly report from the CBI Service Sector Survey, the FM services market has seen a healthy boost in levels of business. 48% of companies surveyed reported a rise in business volumes, 22% increased selling prices and 47% an overall increase in profitability.

The UK services sector remains the largest part of the economy, accounting for about three quarters of economic activity and this increase in activity is mainly as a result of the wider economic recovery and improved confidence.

The other key development in the market is the recent trend in outsourcing and shift away from single service contracts towards bundled services and total facilities management packages. Private and public sector clients are now looking  to reduce procurement costs through seeking ‘one-stop-shop’ solutions, a trend which  is expected to continue.

What does this mean for the sector and how does this translate for recruitment? With the recent return to positive growth, the FM sector is now expected to continue developing with a predicted forecast of £23.2 billion by 2018.

In response to this companies are now required to upskill their existing workforce and attract new talented recruits capable of adopting new technologies in order for businesses to maintain their competitive advantage in the workplace.

Macallam remains well positioned within the FM arena to assist with any potential recruitment needs either on permanent or interim basis.

For a private and confidential discussion, please call 01423 704154 or email enquiries@macallam.com

Graduate Recruitment

                    

Most of the large FM companies have established and well structured graduate degree programmes, however not all facilities management businesses have adopted this approach and despite passion in this area there is still a limit in commitment to sign up to these schemes.

Colin Hall ex Managing Director at Richard Ellis stated that the talent void in the industry is something that he is personally passionate about and he has discussed with a number of clients the potential to set up a talent development programme for post graduates. The concept of this programme would be that they could move the graduates around various roles in both client and provider organisations. The level of interest is always high but the commitment to actually sign up to such a scheme has been limited to date.

Facilities Management service providers seem to be doing a lot to develop talent, a representative of Serco explained the programme which they have in place to develop graduate talent. This involves graduates being provided with a structured training programme which is tailored to their needs and will support them in gaining membership of their professional institute. By doing this it will allow graduates to gain experience in a range of different areas of the business and take responsibility at an early stage, this helping develop talent. Balfour Beatty, another leading FM service provider allows graduates to work alongside experienced engineers to learn and develop their technical skills and progress over time, tackle strategic projects and develop operational management skills. This process will also allow graduates to work towards a facilities management qualification.  David Toone, MD at G4S states that on a regional basis, they have a talent management programme through all levels of management and employees are invited or encouraged to be part of this programme.  G4S FM has a policy to promote and recruit internally as well as incorporating a clear succession planning programme. Through their Employment Development Reviews, employees and managers jointly identify short, medium and long term career paths and ensure that competency and training programmes compliment these career aspirations.  Each FM service provider has a different approach to programmes they have in place, however they all are providing something to develop talent. However, not all FM service providers have the resources to develop talent, ‘Property and Change solutions’ are in a market which expects a high level of intellectual leadership and experience therefore the opportunity for graduates is fairly limited.

Richard Greaves of Voomeroon Ltd states that the profile of FM as a career option needs to be raised.  Companies delivering FM as their core business have some fantastic graduate development programmes, but these are not designed to produce FMs, per se.  Rather, they are designed to develop individuals who show the potential to become senior managers within the business. However, Facilities Management has many of the disciplines that the well rounded manager needs. From purchasing to project management, from people to premises, from planning to performance, all of these skills are required within today's competent FM.  So a good grounding in FM will give graduates the generic skills they need to manage effectively throughout their career.  

Many FM service providers are giving graduates the opportunity to progress their careers rapidly. Serco, a leading FM service provider, places its graduates straight into one of the company’s teams under the direct supervision of a team leader who will take responsibility for overseeing their progress. In addition, a mentor will be appointed to help guide graduates during the early years of their career helping them progress. A representative from G4S states that as their company is continuing to grow, there is a lot more opportunities available for advancement.  People are at the heart of everything they do and wherever possible they commit to promoting from within. This means that many graduates have experienced rapid progression through the business.

FM service providers are beginning to recruit more graduates straight from university.  However there are still high levels of competition to gain places on the graduate schemes and therefore expectations for graduates are quite high.  Serco’s representative stated that they look to take candidates directly from university - looking for bright enthusiastic graduates with a science or engineering related degree. Similarly Balfour Beatty looks for graduates with a degree in construction or engineering of at least a 2:2 standard. In recent years, G4S FM has tended to recruit via TUPE or recruitment of existing skill sets in the external market. However, they are now actively developing both a school leaver and graduate programme to accommodate growth. This will also include gap year students.  This seems to be positive news for graduates looking for employment straight from university.

Facilities Management job roles are always changing, however with the recent state of the economy more Business Development Manager Roles are being created. A good sign for students, as it clearly displays that the large FM organisations are looking to win new work and grow. However opportunities for Business Development roles have been going on for a few months now so may be we could be expecting a boom of operational vacancies?  Colin Hall from Property and Change Solutions says that the churn in the industry is extremely high driven by the outsourcing model. Account management roles tending to be the most lucrative and highest churn.

Business operations, development and leadership roles also seem to experience high levels of churn. Within the client organisations the FM leadership roles tend to be more robust, however for the career to develop beyond FM experience in real estate and business support then operations is required.  Roles tend to fit into two categories: technical skills and management. On the technical side, they are seeing development of stand-alone roles in subject matter expertise such as Health and Safety, CSR, Information Security, Energy & Environmental, Workplace Advice, Risk Management and Project Management. On the management side, the growth has been around specialist bid management (aligned to large scale government outsourcing), increasingly complex commercial modelers, change management and customer-facing skills. The most precious resource is around those that can combine one of more of these management skills with ease.  Students considering a career in FM need to consider their skill set before jumping straight into the industry, a lot of the larger FM service providers have high expectations due to the increase in demand of applications.  Balfour Beatty have high expectations of graduates demanding that they have achieved a 2:2 and can pass pre-employment checks, therefore the main thing to consider is whether you are suitably qualified. Colin Hall also stated that Business Relationship management is far more important for an FM business than technical skills. FM is about service so customer facing and management skills are essential.  Services are rarely delivered on a silo-ed basis so being a good team player certainly helps. Commercial and financial skills are also very important. There are many opportunities in Facilities Management it being such a wide and diverse area, so the ability to strategically develop service delivery for the mutual benefit of your employer and/or a client is a very important skill. Finally, the ability to communicate verbally and formally through business cases, presentations, reports and informally over a coffee all add to an FM’s effectiveness.  FM is not a 9 - 5 job and commitment to the role is a must as you can be called upon at any time to resolve a critical issue.  If you are not passionate about what you do and what you are trying to achieve for your client’s/employer’s organisation, it will show.

By Macallam & FM World 

M&E and The Market State!

Things still seem tight in the M&E sector, but we are getting reports of greater activity and starting to see some movement.

There seem to be some nice contracts coming up in London, but clients and Main Contractors taking advantage of the competitive situation by extending tendering lists, sometimes to as much as 15!

A number of Developer contacts are telling us they are very busy with Pre-Planning and Planning applications, so if they are busy now then we should see things picking up in 2012.

At Macallam, we have been busy in the maintenance, FM, energy, logistics sectors, and Natural resources and Oil & Gas have performed well, however we want to maintain our contracting relationships for future. We have also seen more work coming from the Middle East and Saudi.

Many UK Companies have been restructuring their sales teams, looking for better resource with the skills to get upstream in client discussions, influence earlier and engage around the value and benefits propositions to clients – going back to original selling concepts, not just process/ tendering!

Where is the top line growth going to come from and how to deliver the targets has been a challenge for most, and getting the right people in place to deliver it.

Alongside that, we have been doing more Finance work – some Group FD/CFO roles and some senior divisional Finance positions; possibly seeing a trend for finance and commercial coming to the fore as work is won at smaller margins? Acquisition activity in some sectors is gaining momentum, and a real need for people with wider and multi-functional business skills sets in the present climate.

We hope to see more opportunities and work from the M&E sector across all functions moving forwards, and re-establish our relationships. If your situation has changed, please update us and we can keep you informed of our work and news.

If we can help you with any roles or advice, please get in touch.

By Duncan Carter, Macallam

Prepare your self for the top job

As the Facilities Management sector emerges from recession Duncan Carter, Managing Director at Macallam, reflects on how companies can recruit and retain the best executive talent and how managers can prepare themselves for a top job.

Rather than cutting back on talent development in a downturn, the best companies  are focusing on developing leaders who will not only survive and thrive in the current downturn, but will be well positioned to grow as the economy improves.
And this is no different for the Facilities Management sector which, up until recently, has had a poor record at developing executive talent.

However, many FM companies are missing a trick internally by failing to nurture middle managers as leaders of the future.
This includes valuing leaders who can achieve results through others; holding senior managers accountable for commitments; having a formal process for identifying individuals for leadership roles and aligning talent management to a clear business strategy.

Chief executives recently responding to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ most recent annual global survey said it is important to achieve a viable balance between short-term survival and building for long-term success. And they saw access to, and retention of, key talent as the single most important issue in sustaining such success.

Meanwhile, companies with stronger leadership development have up to 7% higher profits than competitors and 85% of the 20 top performing companies hold their leaders accountable for developing talent.

However, in FM middle managers seeking to progress often lack the basic tools to demonstrate their credentials and, more crucially, a personal development programme that will help them achieve their career goals. Moreover, they don’t understand what their superiors are looking for as part of their wider talent management programme.

It is a widely held view within FM that the next swathe of middle and senior management talent will have to be recruited from outside the industry, as it just doesn’t attract enough graduates for development. Historically there has been a trend to promote good engineers and 'hands-on' operational individuals into management roles, with widely mixed results.
Part of the problem stems from the FM sectors obsession with basic operational and technical abilities rather than wider strategic and leadership competencies.

To attract the best people, FM needs to raise its 'brand awareness' and provide structured career paths into strategic roles.  In some cases FM has been seen as a smaller side show to larger civil or construction companies and as a result talented graduates seek out positions in the parent business.

However, a number of successful FM companies have recognised the need to identify and nurture talent through the ranks. For instance, Interserve FM has developed its 'Leadership Edge' programme to further the careers of its top 40 managers within the company, and some of its competitors have similar systems.

This is a step in the right direction, but talent acquisition needs to start at the lower ranks - apprentices and graduates being given the experience and opportunity to progress quickly. Within ten years a new breed of manager in the FM industry will emerge driving forward one of the fastest growing global industries.

If the sector is to continue to thrive there must be a cultural shift in how FM manages and nurtures its talent. And one area ripe for development is graduate recruitment but this will require FM companies to be more proactive in their recruitment policies and ensure that the right brand messages are being communicated to the audience.

Senior managers must be more open to change and innovation, and embrace the fact that sometimes an engineer with many years experience may not be the answer. A fresh approach is required. At Macallam we have developed our Talentrack scheme to identify, track and appoint high potential/high performance candidates from inside and outside the Facilities Management industry and this is now seen as very valuable by most of our clients.

Recently Macallam carried out a 'dipstick survey' of several senior executives working in the FM sector to gauge their thoughts on how to get to the top in the FM profession.
In general most agreed the reality is that not everyone can be the chief executive. However, people of all levels can rise through the ranks when they can demonstrate that they are comfortable as leaders and can show good people skills.

Steve Thomas, former Interserve HR Director noted: "As someone who has come from outside the FM sector I have been surprised how far behind the sector is in offering opportunities for managerial development - for instance by offering established qualifications which demonstrate a level or professional ability and competence.

Mike Fellowes, recently of Babcock Infrastructure said ambitious managers need to display their leadership qualities: "You have to show that you’re committed to making a difference - you need to walk the talk. Be realistic about the challenges and the obstacles you will need to overcome and resources you will need to get you there."

So if you’re looking to progress your career in FM what qualities should you be nurturing and displaying? It is quite simple. First, you need to show leadership and develop your people skills. Second, do not get too bogged down in operational matters and understand the bigger commercial and strategic aims of your company. Third, be consistent in your delivery - your staff will thank your for it, your superiors will applaud you for it, and the client will be happy.

All these principles apply to other industry sectors it’s just that FM has not yet caught up with them yet which means the opportunities are huge for those who are willing to embrace them.

By Duncan Carter, Macallam