The First Facility Management Blog

The BIFM Awards have launched for 2010, giving facility managers (fms) in Great Britain the chance to get involved in one of the top events on the UK’s facility management (FM) calendar. Winners are announced at the BIFM Awards, the biggest networking event in the UK.

These Awards recognize more than just the work that fms do. There are 13 category headings, and the awards are given for excellence in the field of FM where it can be demonstrated within the context of the category criteria.

The categories are:

• Facilities Manager of the Year;
• Student of the Year;
• Communications & Marketing;
• Public Sector Excellence in FM Team;
• Corporate Occupiers Excellence in FM Team;
• Innovation in Customer Service;
• Overall FM Industry Impact;
• Innovation in Products;
• Sustainability & Environmental Impact;
• Innovation in Technology & Systems;
• Property Investors Excellence in FM Team;
• Impact on Organisation & Workplace; and
• FM Excellence in a Major Project

The judges for 2010 will be lead by Oliver Jones, chief executive of The Asset Factor and a partner with EC Harris. Oliver leads a highly experienced team to decide upon the winners, based on specific criteria.

Oliver says, “The BIFM Awards present a great opportunity for teams and leading individuals in our industry to be recognized against the very best of the competition. To win an Award is a powerful message to the employers of in-house teams, to the clients of outsourced teams, and to all staff and team members at all levels. With our leading industry representatives as judges, the only question is: Who can stand out and show the excellence our industry is capable of?”

Anyone who takes a serious interest in where they and their profession are heading should view the BIFM Awards as an essential part of their education and continuing professional development, and as such, worthy of prestigious acclaim. The Awards highlight an area that the FM and their teams have made a real impact

To nominate a colleague or company, visit this link. The closing date for entries is Friday, April 30, 2010. The BIFM Awards dinner will be held on 11th October 11, 2010 at The Grosvenor House Hotel, London and celebrate the increasingly strategic profile of FM, highlighting the key role it plays in the success of public and private sector organizations.

Founded in 2004, ABRAFAC, the Brazilian Association of Facilities, celebrated its fifth anniversary last year. The association now represents more than 450 members from across Brazil. ABRAFAC has worked to raise the profile of both those working in the field and the facility management (FM) profession as a whole.

The formal concept of FM began to be used in Brazil around the middle of the 1990s. Although the activity is well established within large organizations and continues to evolve and gain status, FM still remains to be totally understood by local Brazilian organizations.

Brazilian facility managers (fms) have been enthusiastic in the search for both professional and organizational development, and since the 80s (before the formal adoption of the title of FM, many informal support groups came into existence, each aimed at promoting the exchange of experiences, benchmarking, and good practice. Today’s fms are now tasked with working within the additional framework of the organization’s wider environmental and social objectives and are therefore involved in corporate sustainability in its widest sense.

FM is also the subject of formal qualifications, ranging from a variety of introductory operational/vocational courses promoted and supported by ABRAFAC, to a formal MBA at POLI/USP (one of Brazil’s most respected universities), now in its seventh year.

In other international FM news, Stan Mitchell was honored in October 2009 with the BIFM Award for Overall FM Industry Impact. As BIFM Chairman from 2002 to 2004, he played a key role in the restructuring of the Institute during a period of rapid growth and change. He was also a key player in the workshops, discussions, and negotiations that culminated in a series of meetings in Philadelphia in 2005 to establish the Global FM alliance.

2006 BIFM Award Winners

Each year, the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) celebrates the accomplishments of the profession during its annual awards dinner. The organization, which has been providing information, education, training, and networking services for over 12,000 facility management FM professionals since 1993, will hold its event on October 12, 2009, at Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

The BIFM Awards recognizes more than just the work that facility managers (fms) do. They identify the evolution of FM as an industry, and the awards categories for this year have been updated to reflect that. The 2009 BIFM Awards categories and nominees are:

Corporate Occupiers Excellence in FM Team:

• The Co-operative
• EC Harris
• HSBC
• Shop Direct Group
• SPIE Matthew Hall/Lilly

Innovation in Customer Service:

• Carillion
• Kajima Partnership
• NB Entrust
• Sodexho
• Taylor Woodrow

Public Sector:

• Babcock DynCorp Ltd
• Balfour Beatty Workplace
• EC Harris LLP

FM of the Year:

• Andy Ratcliffe, Amey
• Belinda Fordham, NB Entrust
• Jan Healey, Balfour Beatty Workplace
• Liz Shimmin, Capgemini
• Manjit Parmar, MITIE

Impact on Organization & Workplace:

• Barclays Bank PLC, Barclaycard House
• Claremont, GSH Forge House
• EC Harris, Department for Children, Schools and Families
• Morgan Lovell, Santander

Innovation in Products:

• Creative Space Management
• Initial Washrooms

FM Excellence in a Major Project:

• Fiducia, for LFH
• Initial Integrated Services for Johnson & Johnson
• Royal British Legion
• Serco for Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals
• VFA for BBC

Sustainability & Environmental Impact:

• Carillion
• Centre MK
• Hochtief/Dell
• Mailsource
• MEPC
• Middleton Grange Shopping Centre
• MITIE

Innovation in Technology, Systems & Services:

• GSH
• NJW
• OCS
• Space Data Technology

Communications & Marketing:

• Europa/Thurrock Council
• Initial Washrooms
• Middleton Grange Shopping Centre
• Sheperd FM

Last month (5/6/09), Elsevier  published Frank Booty’s Facilities Management Handbook, 4th Edition. This book gives a complete overview of the role of the facilities manager, including the relevant legal compliance, strategic policies, and best practice information needed to ensure the safe, efficient, and cost-effective running of any facilities function.

This new edition reflects the greater awareness of sustainable practices, as well as bringing the book up-to-date in line with changes to legislation. Complete with checklists and sources of further information, the book offers easy-to-find practical advice to this broad and complex field.

The Facilities Management Handbook will be essential reading for professionals responsible for facilities, services provision, and health and safety in the workplace. The contents includes:

• Foreword (Written by Richard Byatt, on behalf of the BIFM);
• Part 1: Complying with the Law (health and safety law; law on staff, casual, and contract workers; property law);
• Part 2: Managing your business effectively (financial management; risk management; business continuity; outsourcing; transport policies; IT and communications); and
• Part 3: The Built Environment (workplace facilities; space design and management; access, safety, and security; and maintenance and repair).

One of the largest events on the 2009 FM calendar is the Facilities Show, in association with BIFM, and it will take place from May 12-14 at the Birmingham NEC. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the UK’s leading facilities management event will offer more educational content, industry renowned exhibitors, and innovative features than ever before, with over 120 exhibitors.

Highlights of this year’s show will include the return of the Sustainable FM Academy after its launch last year. BIFM will also be hosting a day in The Facilities Show Theatre, where visitors will have the opportunity to hear from “rising fms” and participate in a Q&A session with the Institute’s Chairman, Iain Murray, and chairs of other BIFM regions.

Ian Fielder, CEO of BIFM, says, “The Facilities Show 2009 celebrates 10 years of bringing together market leading providers with thousands of FM professionals. The show represents one of the great networking events of the exhibition calendar. Visitors experience the momentum of a progressive industry and a rapidly developing profession that is instrumental in driving facilities management forward.

“BIFM’s association with The Facilities Show reflects a profession which has come of age. As the UK’s leading institute, representing the interests of those who practice facilities management and those who work in organizations supplying facilities management related goods or services, we look forward to welcoming you to this year’s premier exhibition event.”

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) was founded in 1993. As a provider of information, education, training, and networking services for over 12,000 members – both individual professionals and organizations, it is is considered by many to be the “natural home” of facilities management in the UK.

After several years of evaluation, BIFM has made a move to ensure its professional qualifications are the preferred choice for facilities managers. BIFM recognized the shortcomings of its existing education structure and worked closely with individual members, employers, asset skills, and other stakeholders to develop a new suite of FM qualifications. In December 2008, the BIFM Board formally approved the new suite of FM qualifications which will be submitted for accreditation in the first quarter of this year.

The main goal of the new credentials will be to provide more flexibility and greater recognition for individual achievement, thereby encouraging take-up and accelerating the “professionalization” of facilities management. Importantly, the new qualifications are “standalone,” and candidates can enter at any point in the structure.

Valerie Everitt, BIFM’s director of professional standards and education, said: “I am delighted with the progress BIFM has made towards implementing its education strategy. The new FM qualifications to be introduced in 2010 will help to ensure that employers have the right skills to support the success of their business. As the majority of those studying for qualifications do so while holding down a full time job, the framework of core and optional units will also provide a more accessible way of gaining a step up the career ladder.”

Yesterday (5th November) has historic resonance in the UK and especially in London. On that day in 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes, with his co-conspirators, was tried as a traitor for plotting against the government - in current terms he was a political terrorist. He was later hanged, drawn, and quartered.

The tradition of celebrating the foiling of this plot with bonfires and fireworks developed. Bringing us right into the modern era, Guido Fawkes is now the avatar for a popular right-wing political blog of “plots, rumours and conspiracy.”

This 5th November, the UK woke to the news that Barack Obama had won an unprecedented victory in the US presidential election. The word “historic” was being used by commentators across the political spectrum and security, at home and abroad, will be one of the new President’s toughest challenges.

In a small way, the FM community here celebrated its own history yesterday. Guests gathered at the reconstructed Globe Theatre (Shakespeare’s “wooden O” from Henry V) on the south bank of the Thames, to applaud 20 Pioneers of FM.

The event was organised by FM World (the magazine of the British Institute of Facilities Management) to recognise those people that helped to create and steer the profession and industry over the past 30 years.

They included consultants, directors of FM, academics and business leaders. BIFM’s chairman Iain Murray (just 40 this year), paid tribute to their work and acknowledged that his career had been built on the foundations they laid down.

As the conversation flowed, the talk was of politics (several of my friends and colleagues had stayed up to watch the U.S. results come in), of change but also of continuity. Many essential issues from the early days of facilities management remained the same - talking to users, getting the experience of running facilities back into the design process, doing the best with constrained budgets.

FM has always been forward looking but now and again it’s good to glance back at where you’ve come from!

Full coverage of the Pioneers of FM will be on the FM World Web site from mid-December.

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has adopted a new mission statement, following a review by the Institute’s Members’ Council. The new wording was recommended by the Executive and endorsed by the BIFM Board on 28th February 2008.

The new mission statement reads:

Following the adoption of a new medium-term strategy and business plan at the end of 2007, the Board concluded that the existing mission statement, agreed in 2004, should be reviewed to ensure it reflected the primary purpose and direction of the Institute.

New BIFM chair Iain Murray said, “In addition to summarizing an organization’s reason for being, a mission statement should have two key attributes – it should be short and it should be memorable. BIFM’s new mission statement meets all three criteria.

It encapsulates the ambitious aims we have set for ourselves, and I’m confident that we have the right team and the resources to take the facilities management profession forward.”

The new mission statement was formally announced on July 1, 2008.