As the UAE’s FM industry grapples with the recession, one thing stands out – the need for
qualified people to run the show. Muhammad Sekagya finds out why.
Industry leaders have been navigating through these financially challenging times and many have made analytical approaches to the status and future of facilities management (FM) in the wider GCC market and the entire Middle East. With UAE standing at the cornerstone of the region’s facilities management industry, some analysts have projected the AED33 billion FM market to grow to almost AED40 billion by 2010, on an increase of between 10 and 15 percent.
Looking back at the recent past (2005) when the UAE’s FM market was projected to be worth AED2.5 billion, by a leading construction research firm in UK; it is worth mentioning that this industry is set to thrive despite the global financial collapse. It has always been believed that the FM market, at all odds, would continue to thrive despite the financial downturn in the property industry.
However, a senior executive from Macdonald Company, a UK based firm specialising in the recruitment of professionals for the property sector, looks at the GCC FM market from a rather different perspective.Having been involved in the GCC property recruitment industry since 2006, Macdonald and Company penetrated the market via its Dubai office. In 2007, the company introduced the FM desk at its Dubai office, purely dedicated to sourcing, outsourcing and headhunting FM professionals for the company’s Middle East clients.
thus we spend a lot of time building relationships with them. Today, we have recruited well over 200 property management professionals in Dubai.”
She noted that “when we began sourcing FM professionals for our clients in this region, the market was very much at its youthful stage thus role titles were not as clearly defined as the more developed FM markets. By 2007 and 2008; those definitions became clear and clients began asking for soft FM professionals for their cleaning requirements; or the hard FM professionals for technical jobs. FM recruitment has therefore been developing at a fast rate. Unfortunately, the recession has had an impact on the market’s growth.”
In her analysis and from her perspective as a recruiter, the country’s facilities management industry is not as firm as it is believed to be. During such uncertain economic times, it is a natural trend that all companies and organisations aim at maximizing savings while cutting costs. It is therefore a bitter truth that in-house facilities management (FM) departments and outsourced FM service providers have always been among the first victims to reduce staff numbers or put a hold on recruitment whenever companies, especially the ones with shoestring budgets, are restructuring their cost cutting strategies.
“Facilities management is one of the areas in the property market that has been hit hard during the recession. Whenever companies think of reducing costs, the first thing to go, in their opinions, is FM. A number of candidates were made redundant during the recession.”
She emphasized the detrimental effects of the recession to the Middle Eastern infant FM market by noting that “although we have managed to hit our targets, our clients requirements lessened throughout 2009.”
Like any other industry player, however, Danielle acknowledges that this region’s FM market should have thrived during the recession, given its immense value to the property industry. “Both in-house and outsourced FM teams are very influential in not only maintaining buildings and saving costs; but also strengthening the life cycle of facilities. In the long run, when so many players enter the market, those who cannot maintain their facilities to the highest service level will lose tenants to those with well maintained buildings.
Furthermore, FM is an important aspect of property sustainability. Jessica La Faucheur, the FM recruitment consultant at Macdonald Company, added that companies should consider recruiting FM consultants and managers at the construction stage of any development. “If an FM Consultant is involved at the beginning stages of a building’s development, the management and maintenance of that building once completed becomes easier, in comparison to a project which did not have an FM consultant during its conception stages.”
“Someone should work with the designers and the architects right from the beginning. This in turn will allow the FM players to create suitable strategies and procedures to manage the property successfully upon completion for example: efficient waste management, how energy can be saved, how the building would be cleaned from the outside and how it will be accessed at heights etc.”
Recession-proof?
“Not true.” Mick Dalton, the general manager of Dubai-based Marafeq Facilities Management and a past chairman of British Institute of Facilities management, also retaliated to the belief that the regional FM industry will always thrive, despite the global economic slow down.
He said: “Facilities management is not, at least in my opinion, recession proof, and whilst some sectors of FM will make opportunities out of the downturn in the economy by providing cheaper services - this will inevitably be at the consequence of quality levels and innovation which should be at the core of FM delivery. The competition from copy- cat-start-up FM companies doing pricing and not delivering will hurt everyone. This has also resulted in service providers taking advantage of clients by telling them they can offer FM services ‘xyz’ and when on site only do ‘a+b’ leaving out C. In the long run, this gives all FM companies a bad image, compromising the turgidity of the industry during the recession.
However, according to Dalton, facilities management is so diverse that some areas, like energy management, are poised to do even better in this climate than in boom times. But on a general perspective, much of the market will suffer. “Either individual FM companies will not sustain any pay increases, others will get more work for the same pay, or they will be expected to drive harder terms with their suppliers.”
Whether it is the macro environment of business, or the micro environment of a specific organization; the bottom line should be to improve operational efficiency at the core of FM delivery. But it is certainly clear that many businesses will be looking hard at opportunities across the board to rationalise service supply and to make savings wherever they can - necessitating the need for the right selection of candidates for FM positions.
It is therefore evidently clear that, despite the fact that many professionals have been made redundant during the economic recession, there is still enough room for candidates with electromechanical backgrounds. This has been concretized by Dalton’s opinion about the best cost cutting strategies for FM service providers.
“We have to look hard at supporting our clients with value adding opportunities, energy savings and smart solutions.”
What it takes
Over the past few years, a candidate from a maintenance background was in demand. However, today “education plays an important role when it comes to specific FM categories that a client might be looking for. Say, for hard FM, mechanical engineering backgrounds are preferred,” according to Danielle Le Faucheur.
“If we are thinking of sourcing for FM consultancy professionals, they should be at least degree qualified and they have to come from a consultancy background. Consultancy is different from operation. It is a niche area.”
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