What is facilities management? Hard FM and soft FM explained
Facilities management is the work of keeping a building safe, compliant and working for the people who use it. Hard FM covers the building and its systems; soft FM covers services such as cleaning, waste and grounds.
What does facilities management include?
In practice, facilities management brings together everything a building needs to function: servicing plant, fixing faults, carrying out statutory tests, cleaning, waste, security systems and the outside space. The facilities manager's job is to make sure all of it happens on time, to the right standard and within budget.
What is hard FM?
Hard FM is the physical building and the systems inside it: heating, ventilation and air conditioning, electrics, plumbing and water, fire alarms and emergency lighting, lifts, access control and the building fabric. Much of it is driven by law, because many of these systems need regular inspection and certification.
What is soft FM?
Soft FM is the set of services that make a building clean, pleasant and usable: cleaning, washroom services, waste and recycling, window cleaning, grounds maintenance and winter gritting. These are usually specified by frequency and checked through quality audits.
How are FM contracts structured?
Some organisations buy each service separately. Others bundle several services into one contract with one helpdesk, which is often called integrated facilities management. A typical bundled contract has a fixed monthly fee for planned work, agreed rates for reactive jobs and a spend limit above which work is quoted first.
Questions
Is facilities management the same as property management?
Not quite. Property management deals with leases, rent and tenants. Facilities management deals with the building's operation and upkeep. On many sites the two work closely together.
Do small businesses need facilities management?
Every business with premises has maintenance and compliance duties. Small businesses often start with one or two services, such as compliance management and cleaning.