Emerging Careers in Real Estate Services – Facilities Management

14. Jun, 2012 by Parijat Thakur 11 Comments

With corporate outsourcing on the rise, career opportunities in Facilities Management (FM) have taken a quantum leap forward. The FM industry in India is a massive employment generation juggernaut, riding on the impetus being provided by the rapid entry and expansion of multinational IT/ITES giants and the BFSI sector, among many other industries. Surprisingly, the Government has not yet made any serious efforts at involvement in this massive employment-generator.

Dearth Of Talent

The available pool of already-absorbed human resources in the Indian FM sector currently does not exceed 25,000. One-sixth of this talent pool is controlled by Jones Lang LaSalle India alone. There is a huge disparity between demand and supply when it comes to trained FM professionals in India, and the gap is widening with a shortfall of 5000 with every passing year.

The demand for people to work in the FM sector is specific to trained professionals. To a large extent, the onus lies on institutions to develop and offer the right courses in India. Internationally, Facilities Management is already a discipline that is taught at universities and institutions. Considering the dire need for properly qualified FM operatives in India, the industry is now at a point where nothing less than the global standard will serve in the long run.

Training For Facilities Management

While the nation still awaits its first comprehensive FM education courses, industry leaders such as Jones Lang LaSalle already provide various training modules in addition to technical skills training. Because of the exacting nature of the Facilities Management vertical, these modules incorporate a number of necessary soft skills apart from technical training.

Some of these are:

Time Management
Self-motivation
Relationship building
Credibility enhancement
Workplace conflict resolution
Problem-solving
Managerial competence

As a career orientation, the Facilities Management industry is definitely a superior option to some of the default choices that motivated young people often make these days. For instance, it offers far greater stability and superior growth prospects than BPOs. Few other industries extend to graduates the opportunity to directly interact with leading multi-national clients in leadership capacities.

It is always gratifying to watch young people in our Facilities Management teams expand their careers by exploring international opportunities in more mature markets where FM is already an established industry.

While formal training is certainly preferable, aspiring FM professionals do not require previous exposure to the Facilities Management industry in order to launch a career in this lucrative vertical. At Jones Lang LaSalle, we have had professionals join us after equivalent experience in other industries.

The career opportunities in the FM sector are variegated, and candidates will invariably find one which is ideally suited for their individual temperament and career objectives. These include: