FM Careers Spotlight Interview: Tom Page, Regional Director, VIVO Defence Services
Over the next few months we'll be introducing an FM Spotlight series where many leading professionals in the sector will be talking to our Co-Founder & Director, Michelle Connolly. Michelle discusses how they got into FM, the projects they've worked on, and how various choices and changes have impacted their career.
Tom Page, Regional Director at VIVO Defence Services kindly gave us his time to talk about his FM career.
Women make up around 21% of the FM workforce according to an IFMA survey. An IWFM survey gives a more charitable estimate for the UK sector, with a 34/66 percentage split of women to men. Regardless of the exact numbers, it is agreed that the sector is male dominated. In areas like electrical engineering and security there is even greater disparity – women make up just 1% of electricians and 11% of frontline security personnel.
The skills shortage across FM will continue to be a focus of 2024. The FM sector will grow at a faster rate than the average UK market rate, therefore any lack of talent will continue to cause constriction on this growth.
Comment from 300 North given to Facilities Management Journal for their recent article: Addressing the recruitment shortfall within FM in 2024. For further discussion on how to tackle the skills shortage in the FM sector, please visit their site.
The FM sector has continually seen stable growth despite difficult economic headwinds in recent years. In terms of recruitment and the talent shortfall we continue to see in the sector, businesses have adopted a number of strategies to bring in the talent they need. Retention is a large part of this, and this year we have seen many businesses address and improve their approach to ESG and CSR internally in order to boost employee satisfaction and engagement.
Over 70% of employees consider the employee benefits on offer from an employer when applying for and when considering leaving a job. A good benefits package can make an employee feel supported in their role and can provide transformational development opportunities. It is also a vital part of talent attraction.
Navigating PFI Handback: Key Strategies for Successful Contract Completion
The shape of contractual relationships in PFI are changing as many contracts enter the advised 7-year handback window and new teams come in to manage the handback, and personnel are reassigned to meet demand. As the industry completes more handbacks, the aim is to create a central space for data sharing that will provide solutions and best practice models, as well as best practice recommendations for contract completion.
Skills shortages in facilities management are still causing headaches for hiring managers who continue to have some long term vacancies on the books. This has led to hiring managers considering different approaches to filling roles; including drilling down on which skills are absolutely essential, looking at candidates from other parts of FM or alternate sectors, offering significant training and development packages, and evaluate candidates based their soft skills where appropriate.
National Careers Week focuses on bringing young people into the world of work. It aims to provide children, teens, and young adults in education visibility of a large range of roles across all sectors. The Facilities Management sector has invested time and resource into showcasing the sector for this age group and is working to increase the talent pool of young people to help encourage the next generation of professionals into FM.
2022 was a year of records for the recruitment industry, with vacancies hitting record highs in the summer and unemployment hitting record lows. The amount of people economically inactive rose too, as people left the workforce due to long term sickness and early retirement. The overall map of employment in the UK showed people moving much more between roles with employment figures maintaining high levels throughout the year, and we expect this to continue through 2023, despite some economic uncertainty.
We are delighted to announce our partnership with the new Yorkshire-based, FM dedicated job board – FM Recruiter. The new site was launched in November, and is the latest edition to the Business Daily Group which include media and recruitment arms covering the Facilities Management and Rail sectors.
