Last night the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) took the gloves off in its battle with the other professional bodies to represent facilities management in the UK and worldwide. Launching its Global Strategic Facilities Management (FM) Guidance Note at its impressive Parliament Square HQ, the organisation set out its stall to be the one body to represent FM.
The guidance note aims to help drive professionalism in the sector worldwide and cement FM’s role in the achievement of wider corporate objectives. It offers best practice guidance to FMs and corporate real estate professionals on developing, implementing and evaluating a strategic property management plan. Sections in the document cover the understanding of corporate vision and adapting strategies to wider business objectives. This will ensure FM practitioners are given the skills to directly contribute to business plans and therefore become valued leaders in their field.
The note was put together by RICS’ Strategic Guidance Working Group, with input from UK and global bodies, including the British Institute of Facilities Management, CorenetGlobal UK Chapter, Abrafac, the Business Services Association and the Hong Kong Institute of Housing, all of whom have small logos on the front cover of the heavily RICS-branded document. BIFM CEO Gareth Tancred and COO James Sutton attended the launch together with Facilities Management Association CEO Chris Hoar (whose own organisation is about to disappear into the newly-merged but as yet unnamed FM body) and a host of FM press, to see RICS assert its position.
And if the Guidance Note wasn’t enough of a demonstration of RICS’ superior position, Johnny Dunford, the organisation’s global commercial property director, also announced its partnership with Workplace Law to produce a series of case studies on the FM industry. The case studies, which have been discussed for some time by other professional bodies and individuals within FM, will aim to demonstrate to people outside the sector the contribution that strategic FM can make to corporate aims and objectives. David Sharp, Workplace Law’s MD said that there is widespread agreement within FM management circles that FM needs to prove its value. The case studies, which aim to educate and inspire, will tell the FM success story to business. They will be launched in January.
