Hard (technical) Services – Used to describe property and grounds management and can include, management of lifts, doors, plumbing, lighting, landscaping, catering equipment, fire systems, power, gas, water and all fabric aspects.
A popular analogy is turning a building upside down and whatever remains is Hard FM.
Soft (support) Services – Could be considered as the people-based part of FM. Soft services centre around providing the best, comfortable, useful and productive services within the building and can include, post room/courier services, events, cleaning, catering, security, front of house, porterage, internal plants, office management.
This is only a snapshot of hard vs soft FM.
You can only be exceptional in one of those areas?
Gone are the days in my mind where Facilities Managers on the ground can only be good at one or the other. A Technical Manager is more than capable of managing catering or front of house teams and an Operations Manager can manage a team of engineers.
I am a Senior Facilities Manager by experience. My bias does lean towards what is described as support (soft) services but I have managed technical departments too, engineering, security, fire life safety and if I do say so myself, I’m rather good at it despite not having technical qualifications.
I will admit, I'm not the one you want leading a black building test, nor am I capable of repairing a faulty lift, I don't even think I'd trust myself to go around doing PAT (portable appliance testing) on the office equipment but I know enough to understand that I need the right people with the specific qualifications in my team to be able to provide that service, I know how to get the best out of them, support them and I will always get my hands dirty (where practicably safe to do so)
Let's look at these two types of FM in historical terms, in its plainest form.
Soft services were considered the girl role and hard services was considered the boy role, thankfully times are changing if but slowly.
Women were considered to be better at managing the cleaners, the receptionists, recruitment, the "delicate" not too taxing parts of management. I can only describe it as being akin to a 1920's housekeeper. I was once referred to as a manager of fixtures or furnishings *eye roll, bites tongue...OFF*
The same has gone for men, managing hard services, meant they were tough nuts, good with their hands and were incapable of understanding or delivering the 5* standards or experiences expected for a front of house team, Poppycock!
What FM is, is just this, a function that looks after all the peripheral areas of an organisation to allow the organisation to focus on their core activities, whether that be a tech company, banking, a chain of coffee shops or a hospital. FM has no gender, nor does it have many boundaries, it’s everywhere.
What is THAT business’s core function?
That is what we contribute to. This is why we are the unsung heroes, and I say that with pride because if we do our job well enough, we can go unnoticed.
If something goes wrong within that business's built environment, it is us that gets called to deal with it, as quickly and quietly as possible, we are front line but we’re also behind the scenes.
Our strategic FM functions are no less than Oracles, whether hard or soft, we anticipate, plan for, prevent and future proof our clients/customers, to again, ensure the continuation of their primary business.
We are all in FM.
There are many of us, and I was one once, who was in the dark that I was in the facilities field.
Everyone from the cleaner replenishing the hand towels, the shop assistant providing support to a customer, the barista making your coffee, the contractor painting your office, the window cleaner, the online tech support trying to troubleshoot your Wi-Fi issues and the doorman at the hotel, are ALL facilities operatives.
"facilities management has no gender"
I was on a recent journey up north to see my best friend, and I get anxious when travelling so I must get to my outbound station at least an hour (ahem two) before the train departs.
I travel, LNER from Kings Cross London, I was completely underwhelmed by the staff that I asked for assistance from at the information booth, they were station staff and clearly, I was interrupting their gossiping.
However, I approached the team in red, as they were referred to and they were extremely helpful and engaging.
I watched the comings and goings of the LNER teams for a bit and smiled, these were my peers. The gentleman from gate catering, changing over the catering car snacks, the cleaners waiting with their trolleys on the platform, ready to clean after the disembarking guests before the next set of travellers. The driver, the conductors, one of whom was a trainee, the man emptying out the waste from the on-board toilets. There was an affinity and I wondered; do they know what part they are playing in my journey today and more than that, do they realise they are managing a facility.
As I walked along the platform looking for my carriage, a lady in uniform was clearing rubbish from the seats, she looked up, saw me looking at her, went to look away and I smiled and nodded and mouthed good morning. She smiled, nodded and waved back.
As small as my gesture was, I wanted her to know that I'd seen her and acknowledge her.
As we go about our day-to-day life, we don’t always realise what it takes to get that train from A to B, we don’t see the invisible strings being pulled and the large operations and strategy teams that sit behind that. But that is the nature of the industry I’m in and it’s a fascinating one.
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