Facilities Management industry urgently needs a skills upgrade - Gulf News Article

Technology disruptions, margin wars, increasing regulations and complex labour dynamics are pushing the Facilities Management business to innovate and seek out of the box solutions to maintain its viability and effectiveness. These constant changes are making the sector vulnerable and compelling the industry to explore alternative approaches to sustain and continue its growth. The industry has been under pressure to transcend beyond its conventional borders. It is contemplating ways to steer out of its current state to a more robust model that can comprehensively address all its woes that the sector is confronting. To address these challenges, upskilling is the primary driver that can counter many of these issues. However, this requires a multi-pronged strategy in many areas. The global skills shortage and waning profit margins are some of the factors building the business case for decisive action in this regard. The upskilling need is relevant, both within the businesses as well as across the FM industry. 

The industry transformation is requiring continuous learning to keep in line with industry needs and calling for the current workforce to transform and develop new skills. Hiring people with requisite skills is also becoming a daunting task. As a measure for decisive action in this regard, both companies and FM industry have to accept the reality of growing upskilling needs.

The service industry and FM, in particular, have their labour complexities, and these remain one of the foremost challenges. There is a global trend that fewer people are opting for field jobs, especially the millennials, who are mostly opting for desk jobs. There is a visible challenge specific to skill sets needed for FM at the entry-level positions as well as attract experienced resources across all levels. In technical roles, this deficit is alarmingly increasing. The majority of FM recruiters face this issue “a low number of applicants with apt credentials.” Companies are experiencing a harder time than ever in hiring qualified applicants. Data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) support these concerns with regards to the skilled jobs, and this impacts FM in particular. According to the BLS, demand for technical job openings has been increasing against availability and creating massive talent shortages for companies. FM companies are unable to recruit the right candidates with proper basic knowledge as per their needs, or they need to put substantial resources to provide for skill development of new recruits. 

The FM industry, for sure, is facing talent shortages, with the sector having difficulty in recruiting the desired talent. The talent deficit is surprising as this industry is on track to be amongst the fastest growing areas. 

Most university and college curriculums do not factor changes in building and construction technologies. Even the vocational institutes are not geared with new automation needs and have not upgraded their programs. Therefore, graduates passing out from these institutions remain unemployable and need incubation environments to uplift their skill set to become job ready and to perform with optimal productivity. 

The global impact of automation is also transforming the industry with the introduction of a new set of tools and equipment in the industry that needs definitive training and infrastructure upgrade. Both colleges and vocational institutes are implementing relevant curriculums and technology at a much slower pace compared to the prevailing market demand. 

Especially in context to the blue-collar workforce, there too is a mammoth challenge. The skilled jobs sector is under extreme pressure due to labour migration and rising demand for casual and handy jobs in urban areas. These days fewer people are joining the vocational jobs as these need a minimum set of skills before one could start a career. The other factors attributed to this situation include high school dropout levels, inadequate industry-needed skills and formal vocational education, and negative perceptions towards skill-acquiring processes. Besides, hiring these candidates without basic skill sets needs time and training efforts which also contravenes primary commercial considerations. 

Many other factors further aggravate the need for upskilling within the existing workforce. The continued pressure on margins and the frozen current pay scales are not helping to attract skilled resources as there is already a scarcity due to demand and supply. Another critical factor posing a challenge in GCC is the labour restriction on work permits and the cost of nationalization. There is an urgent need to look at options for building sustainable alternatives by attracting more nationals in technical jobs.

It is, therefore, time to build wider strategy and infrastructure for upskilling as this will address issues described above at the macro level. However, the industry is at crossroads because cost associated to mitigate the challenges mentioned earlier needs a robust commercial case. 

Upscaling needs a substantial investment in hiring costs as you need highly skilled people to kickstart upskilling through on the job orientation and upgrading the overall learning and development infrastructure. The company also has to provide for continuous learning and development for its existing workforce to keep the fast pace of industry transformation. In essence, most of these steps require immediate capital injection and thereafter ongoing financial support. 

Companies need to fix these gaps to move forward. It is suggested that companies deep dive to navigate the commercial limitations with more robust models as, without skill upliftment, no sustainable business or service delivery model can be achieved. 

I agree that this investment is critical to any upskilling initiative, but all should understand that this serves as a truly sustainable competitive advantage. However, with the given state of the industry with its cash crunch and limited profitability, it is indeed becoming difficult. The industry has to continue seeking innovation and tactical approaches across all areas, not just technology, to drive this