Category: Training

We Need to Think About Cleaning Safety

Several years ago, a restaurant worker died while performing one of his regular tasks—cleaning a restaurant’s kitchen floor. To clean the floor more effectively and efficiently, he decided to combine two incompatible cleaning agents: concentrated chlorine bleach and an acid-based cleaning solution. An example of an acid-based cleaning solution is ammonia; however, reports of the […]

10 Ways to Make Facilities Decisions Stick

Facilities management professionals need to find ways to communicate effectively with those they are working with. “Having a process to help executives make decisions in an informed way is very important to everyone,” said Kurt Neubek, a certified facilities manager with the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA), an architect, and a Firmwide Healthcare Practice Leader […]

How Hard Facility Management Services Differ From Soft Ones

Facility management is not for the weak-willed—it is a tough job that demands a professional that is all things to all people: builder, fixer, tinkerer, mover, problem-solver, even confidante. The facility manager must navigate a schedule that serves up curveballs on an hourly basis and which is expected to run like clockwork. Part of what […]

Pro Tips for Deep Cleaning Carpets for Health

There are many types and styles of carpet found throughout commercial workspaces, and there’s one thing they all have in common. It’s the need to be appropriately cleaned for health as well as appearance. More than ever, facility managers are adjusting carpet cleaning and maintenance methods and frequencies. An essential part of cleaning for health […]

5 Biggest Challenges Facing the Facilities Management Workforce in 2022

The facilities management workforce continues to face several major challenges as the world attempts to return to normal following COVID. While attracting and retaining people in the facilities management profession have always been difficult, the worker shortage has gotten worse, and the skills gap has widened since the pandemic began. Lesley Groff, Senior Supervisor of […]

Webinar Watch: Getting Facility Decisions to Stick

How much time and money do you and your organization lose every year—or every day!—because someone has been unable to make a decision? It turns out that facility managers may have more influence on decision-making than you realize! As an architect and Certified Facility Manager with over 30 years’ experience helping people make facility-related decisions, […]

The Most Important Functions of Facility Management

In any building, the foremost objective of facility management is to provide a conducive environment that enables building users to gain the maximum benefits from being in that space. Achieving this objective requires a skillful administration of certain functions to optimize the four major areas of facility management—people, place, process, and technology. Facility management that […]

Establishing Strong Procedures for Facility Management

There’s no area of facility management that isn’t guided by one procedure or another—from attending to an endless stream of work orders to fixing a faulty HVAC unit or ordering a new batch of spare parts. Procedures are fundamental in facility management, but to do justice to this post, let’s start by briefly distinguishing between […]

How FMs Can Maximize Effectiveness in Hybrid Work Environments

In these pandemic days, everyone is talking about hybrid workplace arrangements. Nearly three-fourths of companies say they’re using or planning to use a hybrid work model, yet few articles are discussing how hybrid work will affect the role of facility managers. Hybrid working affects facility managers’ jobs in unique ways, and they will need to know how […]

Top 50 U.S. Cities for Termites, a.k.a. ‘Wood-Eating Machines’

There seems to be a changing of the guard, as the city of Angels has apparently become the city of… termites? Pest control specialist Orkin revealed Los Angeles is claiming the top spot for the first time on the company’s annual Top 50 Termites Cities list. Miami, the historic frontrunner, has fallen to second place, […]