1.1 Who are you?
The workforce who manage and maintain building services in Australia’s mid-tier commercial office buildings are experienced. Over 70% of contractors who responded to the survey have more than 10 years experience in the commercial property sector.
Participants who responded to the survey are well qualified to manage and maintain commercial building services. Facilities managers hold a range of trade (45.3%), diploma (38.1%) and degree (35.0%) qualifications, while 86.9% of contractors hold a trade qualification.
* Totals add up to more than 100% because participants may hold multiple qualifications
Contractors who service HVAC systems in mid-tier commercial office buildings are dominated by small-medium enterprises (SMEs). A higher proportion of facilities managers who responded to the survey reported working in multinational enterprises. This has implications for knowledge dissemination.
Those who manage and maintain on mid-tier commercial office buildings are represented by a wide range of professional organisations. However a substantial proportion of participants reported not belonging to any organisation, which may have implications for keeping up to date with professional development training and industry standards.
* Totals add up to more than 100% because participants may hold more than one membership
1.2 Where are you?
The geography of work is particularly important in servicing commercial office buildings, where the building stock, climatic zone and regulatory context all vary between states. A higher proportion of participants working as facilities managers and engineering/systems specialists reported that their work was located in metropolitan centres on the eastern seaboard. This may have implications for where technical expertise and specialist building management capability is most concentrated.
Participants were asked to specify the geographical context where most of their work takes place: Capital city CBDs, Capital city suburban area, and Regional cities and towns.
1.3 Workload and relationships
The work of managing and maintaining commercial office buildings varies between different role types. A majority of participants working as facilities managers and contractors report servicing between 2-10 buildings per week, though workload varies by urban, suburban or regional context in each state (see Sections 2 and 3).
Participants across all role types report that informal knowledge sharing is an important part of being able to carry out their jobs. A high proportion of participants working as contractors and facilities managers rely on their own experience (see 1.1 above for levels of industry experience) as well as that of more experienced colleagues and in-house experts. Support offered to the industry around education and training needs to take these informal knowledge networks into account.
Building and maintaining relationships is important in any service-oriented sector. Below are the key relationships involved in procuring building management and maintenance services.
Awarding work or winning work can be influenced by several factors. Below is a ranking of factors that impact the engagement of contractors by facilities managers, and the factors that contractors view as important in winning work.
