Attracting the best talent in Facilities Management is becoming more important than ever. Businesses across the country are all desperate for the most experienced and qualified FMs to help their businesses run efficiently.
Great Facilities Managers are in such big demand and this is only expected to grow. According to a report by International Facility Management, the FM sector is currently facing a shortage of professionals and urgently needs to attract new talent to the industry. There’s been an imbalance between supply and demand for years in FM for the right people, skewed in favour of candidates.
Despite being a booming, multi-billion-pound industry, the lack of skilled workers could greatly affect businesses across the country.
That makes attracting the best FM professionals to your company right now absolutely vital. And with the competition out there in a wide variety of industries headhunting just as ferociously as you are, employers have to be able to offer something more.
Experienced and qualified candidates won’t be looking for a dead-end job. They want to know they can develop and further their careers with your company. Opportunities for promotion and growth, as well as the chance to work on different projects, could be the nudge towards your company that your applicants need.
This goes hand in hand with offering regular training sessions for employees. Whether they’re extremely experienced or relatively new to FM, ongoing training is a vital requirement for any professional. Especially in an ever-changing industry like FM, potential employees want to know that they will be given the chance to refine and expand their skill set.
The best Facilities Managers are trained and experienced in a huge variety of responsibilities. Many of the jobs they’d be ideal for will all require a similar skill set and a similar level of experience. However, many of the job adverts they read will read like every other job advert. There’s no marker in there to showcase what’s great about a role. It can all be a little bit “vanilla”.
So how do you attract the most talented professionals to your role over all others? Creating genuine interest in the everyday duties of the role, and presenting the challenges and opportunities they’ll be exposed to will make your job descriptions stand out from a list of lazy adverts which use bullet points and telegraphese English.
As with the selling the role, selling the company is just as important to talented candidates. Ambitious workers want a company that is on the up. Emphasis on the company’s reputation, unique culture, and plans for the future will draw in potential superstar employees who then apply.
The best candidates will look at the big picture, not just a list of little perks. They’ll want to know about the current Facilities Team and the work they do. Any worker would like the thought of a monthly bonus but the very best manager for your company will want to consider the team they will be working with each day. Will they be a help or a hindrance?
By showcasing the cooperation and collaboration in your firm, you will be able to attract the more experienced applicants who know how important teamwork is in FM.
Your future employee should see your job advert and know instinctively that you’re looking for them. The way your job ad is worded could be the difference between highly qualified professionals and unqualified people applying for your role.
By allowing genuinely ideal candidates to see themselves in the job description, you encourage them to make the first move.
We write a lot about how our candidates need to prepare for their interviews, but it really is just as important for employers. This is especially important when competing with other companies for the best FM professionals.
Candidates can tell when their interviewer is not prepared, so make sure you present the company as organised and composed. It’s likely your interviewee has received other offers, so it is vital that you put your best people in front of them and sell the role completely to them.
The best talent rarely scours through free job boards. In order to attract the most skilled professionals, you may have to get a little more creative with your campaign. Using specialist recruitment job sites, headhunting on LinkedIn, and networking at social events are all great ways to find potential employees.
It may seem like a lot of hard work, but with so many businesses desperate to find the best FM, recruiting direct for your company requires a lot of you. However, there is an alternative.
By using an experienced and respected recruiter, you can get access to some of the best candidates across the country. When you use a specialist Facilities Management recruitment firm, like Maxwell Stephens, you also ensure candidates have all the skills and qualifications your company could possibly need.
Many talented FM professionals work with their recruitment consultants exclusively. Your agent can easily point the most suitable, most experienced and most qualified candidates in your direction.
Times are changing, not all Facilities Managers want to work long hours, in person every day of the week. By offering more flexible, hybrid roles whereby candidates can operate in a way which works best for them, you can broaden your horizons, meaning that there will be better candidates available to certain jobs. People now realise that time is more important than money, so they are willing to take pay cuts in return for a more flexible time at work, so by hiring these employees, you may actually reduce your costs whilst hiring more talented Facilities Managers.
Maxwell Stephens is the leading facilities management recruitment agency in the UK, serving clients and candidates successfully since 2006. If you’re looking for a new role, or you have a vacancy you need filling with the very best talent, please call us on 0207 118 48 48 or email info@maxwellstephens.com
