As facility management professionals around the globe celebrate World FM Day today, many are looking back at the challenges and achievements they’ve faced over the past 12 months due to the global pandemic, extreme weather, and other circumstances. And they look forward to continuing to provide safe, comfortable, and efficient facilities to their customers, whatever the industry and wherever the location.
Introduced in 2009, World FM Day in 2021 is highlighted with this theme —Celebrating FM: Standing Tall Beyond The Pandemic. This annual day of recognition was established by Global FM, a worldwide group established in May 2006 by the coming together of the leading facility management associations of the day “to collaborate and further their common objectives.”
John Carrillo CFM, IFMA Fellow , and current Chairman of Global FM, shares this sentiment: “As people from around the world begin to emerge from their homes and return to the built environment to work, learn, worship, and play, we are witnessing an incredible phenomenon for facility management. With a renewed importance being placed on human health and safety coupled with building sustainability and resilience, the facility manager today has been thrust into the center of the ‘Return To’ conversation. This year’s World FM Day is special to me since celebrating the work of FM has never been so important to all peoples of this world. Happy World FM Day!”
This year especially, facility management teams and colleagues working across multiple sectors and service offerings have been called upon like never before and with demand for resilience, compliance, flexibility, and adaptability.
States World FM: “We are all extremely proud of all those working in our profession and industry and for their immense efforts that have allowed business, governments and societies to continue to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible and as circumstances have permitted. FM teams have stood at the forefront in making environments and digital platforms available to meet unanticipated demands and have been significantly important in keeping many sectors operating. The FM profession and industry has been in the spotlight for enabling the built environment, business and society to be open and transparent in an often shuttered and closed world.”
For its part, the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) offers a World FM Day microsite that features ideas and resources on recognizing the important role the profession has throughout so many aspects of everyday life. Visit the IFMA site here.
Visit the Global FM site, and its World FM Day 2021 landing page for more on what facility management professionals around the globe are doing on this day and throughout the month of May.
