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Working in the facilities management industry

Find out what skills you need, opportunities available and how to get help in finding a job in the facilities management industry.

• About jobs in the facilities management industry

Text version

Lee Wiltshire, Carillion: "We're a soft facilities management service provider. Soft facilities is all types of services provided to the hospital other than the clinical so we do all the cleaning, catering, security, grounds maintenance etc. We've got 16 different services we provide to the hospital employing over 900 people in total and those services are vital to the operation of the hospital."

Julia Featherstone, Carillion: "We've had all sorts of people come and join us. We've had people coming recently that's been managers in the past and just lost their jobs and now they've become a housekeeper. And they are really enjoying it. I know it is probably completely different to what they would be doing but it's something new, a new challenge and you know, so far it's been quite good."

Steve Butt, Carillion: "I was unemployed for six months. I'd been looking for work in that time purely in the retail sector. I was a retail manager by trade, that's what I knew but there was just nothing around at the time. I'd apply for 40 or 50 jobs at a time and been for several interviews just looking for work. I chose the job at Carillion because I wanted to still keep in with the customer stroke patient approach that I had with my handling skills of people but there was also a different avenue that I could go down and hopefully progress in Carillion."

Julia Featherstone: "I first joined working for the NHS as a PSA and that's ten years ago and now I'm a team leader so there's always career opportunities if you wish to do so. A lot of our staff go on to be healthcare support workers because when you’re working in that sort of environment you hear of vacancies become available."

Lee Wiltshire: "Our applicants need to be able to work within a hospital environment. It's not the same as any other job place so people need to be aware of what they are going to come in contact with. They are going to be in contact with patients and staff and visitors a lot, so good customer care skills are required and staff need to be able to follow instructions and work processes as required within a busy modern hospital."

Nigel Patterson, City Facilities Management: "We're a facilities management company that is providing a customer service to 350 ASDA stores across the country where we clean everything in an ASDA store and we maintain everything that needs fixing. In the engineering side of the business we're looking for skilled engineers. We employ over a thousand of them. They can be electricians. They can be H vac engineers, refrigeration engineers, landscapers, joiners, etc. Those skills we need right across the land and in every store. In the cleaning side of our business it is about service related people who understand about giving customer service, who've got a passion to keep the store clean."

Derek Sarath, City Facilities Management: "Because there's more cleaning than you think. You come into contact with chemicals, you have to be taught that. You can go to NVQ Level 2 cleaning chemicals."

Nigel Patterson: "Currently we have about 100 vacancies for cleaners across the country and we have about ten vacancies for engineers but that situation is probably changing as I'm talking to you now and tomorrow the vacancies could well be different to what they are today. If there is someone out there that's been out of work for a long time or has a disability and is looking to return to work, we want to help you return to work if we can along with Jobcentre Plus."

Derek Sarath: "I'd come through a period of ill health. Been out of work a few months. No way of knowing how to get back into work because of my ill health and I was recommended by an adviser at the Jobcentre in Liverpool to go to a place called Remploy. Which I'd heard about but never used before. When I went down they put me at my ease and I told them about my disabilities and the problems I had and they said at ASDA it's okay, you’ll be alright you'll be eased into a job, there will be nothing too stressful and you'll be okay. Which is what they said would happen and it turned out right."

Lee Wiltshire: "My advice to people who are looking to get back into work is to go along to the Jobcentre and get involved with a Local Employment Partnership. The work trials, the pre-employment training can really open up their mind to trying some different work. We've had people come into our areas of work who perhaps had never done the type of work before but really enjoy it and are likely hopefully to stay with us for some time to come."

Nigel Patterson: "It is great to meet people every day and to have something that you can be proud to do day in day out as against being at home and maybe doing nothing. Work is a social activity and a social activity makes life more enjoyable."

Derek Sarath: "Job satisfaction comes from me getting out of bed and have something to do for the day rather than sit in watching telly all day. So I'm back at work and I feel like I'm useful now whereas before I felt like I was useless."

Steve Butt: "I'm happier now than what I've ever been. I'm not as stressed, there's no problems at all I come to work happy, I go home happy."

Working in the facilities management industry

Find out what skills you need, opportunities available and how to get help in finding a job in the facilities management industry.

• About jobs in the facilities management industry