NEWS & ANALYSIS FMJ.CO.UK
ASSOCIATION NEWS
FM MUST CHAMPION EQUALITY FOR ALL
Lucy Jeynes, MD of Larch
Consulting, is a highly
experienced infrastructure
services expert, with a
reputation built on solving
facilities management
challenges using innovative
solutions. Voted a Pioneer of FM and one of the
20 Most Influential Women in FM, Lucy is a Fellow
of the RICS and a founder board member of the
new IFMA UK Chapter. Here Lucy explains how FM
needs to reinvent itself in order to appeal to new
generations of potential FM professionals.
What challenges are women facing in FM?
In terms of both gender and race, FM is very
diverse. There are plenty of women working at
operational level for example, as cleaners, catering
assistants and security guards. But that diversity
is not found at the top – there is very little female
participation in higher management in FM.
This is changing slowly, but much more needs
to be done to ease the path of women wanting
to move up the management ladder. I think our
industry is doing an excellent job of recruiting
women at lower levels, but it is critical that we
continue to engage with them as they aspire to
take up more senior positions.
How does this need to be addressed?
Facilities Management is a really rewarding career
and accessible to anyone who enjoys a lively,
THE SECRET OF CHANGE IS TO FOCUS ALL OF YOUR ENERGY
NOT ON FIGHTING THE OLD, BUT ON BUILDING THE NEW
8 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019
busy work environment and wants to get things
done. It’s not just engineering any more, which
used to be a huge barrier for women because the
UK has the worst record in Europe for training
female engineers. Now that there is so much more
emphasis on human relationships, soŽ services
management, team working and productivity, FM
is no longer reliant on what traditionally used to be
fairly gender specific skills.
However, FMs working at an operational level can
rarely work flexible hours or from home. They need
to be in their facility. Very oŽ en a facilities manager
will need to get in early to make sure everything
is ready for when the rest of the workforce arrives,
and they need to stay late to finish any ongoing
works, or hand over to a night shiŽ . Even when
they do reach home they will almost certainly be
on emergency call-out if there are floods, break-ins
or power outages and so on. People just don’t work
a short day, or short week in FM.
Unfortunately, this kind of career just isn’t
conducive to happy family life, so it is no surprise
that women leave the profession when they are
starting families. Of course, parenting isn’t just
an issue for women, it is an issue for parents.
Millennials have very di‹ erent expectations of the
workplace, so this issue is going to a‹ ect both men
and women in the very near future.
In fact, I believe that employers now need to
be much more supportive of men who want to
take an active part in parenting, rather than just
making the assumption that this is the woman’s
role. This will open up career prospects for women
in disciplines such as FM, where flexible working is
di‹ icult to implement.
Isn’t flexible working a prerequisite these days?
This is a challenge for both men and women.
People are now regarding their lives as a holistic,
connected journey. Yes, they want to make a
di‹ erence at work, but they also want to make
a di‹ erence to their families and friends too.
The best companies will probably still be able to
employ the best people, but those people will tend
to be intelligent and multi-dimensional. Precisely
the kind of people who don’t want to spend
80-plus hours sat behind a desk every week. The
challenge is keeping these people satisfied and
rewarded.
Certainly, our industry is moving away from
an emphasis on managing assets and towards
supporting people. I now see our role as helping
companies to recruit and retain the best people by
providing them with workplaces and workspaces
where they can excel. An environment where they
will want to stay, regardless of their gender or
background
What di‹ erentiates one employer from the next
for them will be culture and workplace. This is
where FM can really make its mark.
I’ve talked a lot about
change in this column
and elsewhere over the
months. This one-line paean
to positive thinking from
Socrates jumped out at me
while reflecting on what has
probably been the busiest and most exciting
year in our Institute’s proud history; and as I
look forward to what will most certainly be a
full-on first year in IWFM.
It wasn’t only for IWFM’s own change that the
Socrates saying struck me so much. I’ve been
thinking about culture change more broadly.
Starting with our own journey for sure, but also the
wider culture change that’s so important for our
profession to realise its potential.
We’ve said a lot about the time having arrived
for FMs to seize the workplace opportunity, we’ve
also seen research telling us that FMs are seeking a
higher status and a better professional profile. I’m
confident that the changes we’re making at IWFM
will create the conditions for that to happen but
what else needs to change?
The latest research report by Ellison and
Pinder of 3edges Managing Facilities or Enabling
Communities published last month looks at the
culture of the profession to make sense of where it
is now, where it is in the future and what it needs
to do to get there. And it presents FMs with some
challenges. Explaining what culture means in
practical terms it seeks to improve the “cultural
competence” of those working in our profession
and importantly “provide ideas and tools that may
help them reflect on their own work situation and
consider how they may address the challenges
they face in their work”.
This may sound heavy but it’s not. Nor is it a
fantasy, it’s more down to earth than that. It’s
where the positive thinking bit comes in; it’s about
thinking and acting di‹ erently. It’s about being the
change we want to see.
If the facilities management profession aspires to
be di‹ erent, the research argues, then FMs have to
decide which aspects of their culture to keep and
which to leave behind. They need to think and act
di‹ erently. I daresay we’ve all at times expected
to be better understood or recognised, but the
truth is that’s beyond our control. What is squarely
within our control is what we do and how we do it
and why we do it, so that people see us di‹ erently
and behave di‹ erently towards us.
Quite rightly, Pinder and Ellison have provided
food for thought for professional bodies too. They
say that if our profession is to change then the
competency frameworks underpinning it need
also to change. In fact, they’re spot on in their
warning that if our frameworks don’t evolve they’ll
actually work against the advancement of our
profession by anchoring it in the past, limiting FMs’
status and identity. So, I’m pleased to know that
we have this in our sights. We’ve revised our new
look Standards Handbook to include components
on culture and organisational behaviour and a
root and branch review forms a key part of IWFM’s
ten-point plan. So, here’s
to 2019. I’m building on
the new. I hope you will
be too.
IWFM CEO, Linda Hausmanis