6 Critical Benefits of Facility Management Training

We’ve all seen how the facility management community benefits from practitioners reaching out and seeking advice from fellow FMs to troubleshoot and tackle their toughest facility challenges. Knowledge sharing continues to benefit and advance the FM profession.

While IFMA has helped train facility managers across the globe, we’ve seen that the most successful and cohesive teams benefit from one common investment—training their facility management team together to achieve effective facilities management.

Here are six benefits of facility management training for your organization:

1. Each facility manager communicates better

Imagine a critical facility problem. Whether that’s a cybersecurity issue, a major impact on your physical structure, or a safety and security threat, there isn’t time to waste. You need to have a plan and contact the most important people on your team to jump into action.

When your entire team has had the same high-level training, they share a mutual vocabulary, skillset and understanding of how to communicate effectively with each other. Not only does this reduce time and money in emergencies, but it helps the facility run more smoothly day-to-day.

In any situation, your facility team can lean on the collective problem-solving skills learned in training, to efficiently and effectively work together as a team, streamlining facility operations.

2. Your facility managers feel more confident about their facilities management skills

Knowledge is powerful, and it builds confidence. Empowered facility teams make better decisions that influence the success of integral strategic initiatives.

Your facility team impacts the financial health of an organization, the physical and emotional health of occupants and plays an important role in achieving ESG benchmarks.

Training your team together not only affects your bottom line but it fosters confident employees who are more motivated to invest in your organization’s success because you invested in their professional development, leading to maximum efficiency.

3. Your facility team attracts and retains better talent

Training opportunities attract great talent, but group training can help improve the overall morale of a team, which increases talent retention.

According to Indeed, the cost of hiring a new employee can range from $4,000 to $20,000 not including salary or benefits. When you commit to the entire facility team’s learning opportunities, you send a clear message that every member of the facility team is integral, worth investing in and a valued member of the team, which is essential for providing high-quality facility management services.

4. Your facility team builds a solid succession plan for the long-term health of your facilities

It’s no secret that succession planning is vital to the progress of facility management as a profession. In the 2021 Global FM Salary and Compensation report, IFMA found that the average age of an FM is 50 with the average respondent planning to retire in 16 years.

Every facility is unique, with its own specialized challenges and history. A vital part of succession planning is ensuring that more senior-level team members train and pass on valuable knowledge to their team about the ins and outs of their facilities before retirement.

Group training is the perfect opportunity to gather FMs with different skill sets on their team and bond over the shared experience of training while ensuring that important information about facility maintenance isn’t lost over time.

5. Your facility team stays on top of sustainability trends

According to The Climate Group, building emissions are responsible for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s no surprise that facility managers are tasked with the responsibility to measure the impact of their facilities’ sustainability metrics.

As sustainability and ESG research develops, companies across the globe are forced to quickly adapt to new regulations. To help facility managers with this task, IFMA has ensured our training is updated with the latest sustainability initiatives to set FMs up for success. Regularly training your team on this topic ensures a more sustainable future for your facilities and cost savings for your organization.

6. Your facility team establishes better facility performance standards for improved facility performance.

One of the top challenges for facility managers is how to monitor and report their facility data. Often facility managers don’t know where to start with benchmarking data.

When your facility team works together to track and report important figures, including asset tracking, they’re more likely to have a thorough picture of what aspects of your facility can be improved. When you improve your facility's performance standards, your team can showcase their impact on your organization’s triple bottom line.

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