IFMA and RICS Celebrate Facility Management Professionals During World FM Week and Beyond
In observance of World FM Day 2016, held on July 13, the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) commend the 25 million facility management (FM) professionals around the world for the integral role they play in shaping our built environment. With celebrations occurring across the globe on the week of July 11-15, World FM Day marks an occasion to recognize these individuals for their significant contributions to society.
Facility management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology. Practitioners within the US$1 trillion FM industry oversee 85 percent of the total cost of building ownership to ensure that facilities are productive, efficient, safe, sustainable and strategically utilized. In recent decades, the profession has advanced to become a mission-critical discipline for many organizations.
As the FM profession has evolved, the people working diligently behind the scenes to support and improve the built environment have shifted to the front lines of contributing to the achievement of major strategic objectives. On such a large stage, even minor differences in management practices translate into significant expenses and reductions in performance. This has given rise to the call for international standards and guidelines that will form the framework for the next generation of FM advances.
In response to this need, IFMA and RICS announced a landmark collaboration in April 2016. Consistent with this year’s World FM Day theme, “Empowering people for a productive world,” the collaboration was formed to enable FM professionals by connecting them to a global network of education, events, research, best practices and support. By unifying the international FM community, the collaboration is helping to secure a bright future for individual practitioners and the industry overall in service of the global public good.
For more information on the IFMA-RICS collaboration, visit www.ifma.org/ricscollaboration. To learn about the activities planned to show appreciation for FM professionals in conjunction with World FM Day, visit http://bit.ly/29wDXPM.
IFMA is the world’s largest and most widely recognized international association for facility management professionals, supporting 24,000 members in 105 countries.
RICS promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards among the 118,000 professionals who have been accredited in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure.
