Facilitate Magazine September 2020

Those summer nights

Be careful what you wish for, they say, and those words rang true when the beautiful weather and high temperatures we often cry out for arrived in August. Without leaving the house, I found myself sweltering in the tropics, which may have been fine if the heat hadn’t lingered long into the uncomfortable night.

But those discomforts were only a mild symptom of the far graver global ramifications of climate change if we all do not do enough, and soon enough. Thankfully, as this issue demonstrates, the brilliant men and women of our profession are leading the march towards a sustainable future, which is a source of relief and pride for me.

Challenges lie ahead; however, with challenge lies a golden opportunity to build back better post-Covid-19. Therefore, we must take a fresh look at the broader sustainability agenda and confront the challenges together.

One such challenge will be Brexit – a major theme in our findings from the IWFM Sustainability Survey 2020 in partnership with Inenco, which will be released later this month.

Another challenge includes the skills crisis our industry is expected to face due to the ending of the inappropriately but so-called ‘low-skilled’ immigration. We are working
on attracting more people to our profession, but in the meantime, the anticipated skills shortage is another reason why Workplace and FM professionals must stay on top of their game, developing skills and knowledge and pursuing career progression.

We will discuss Brexit in our ‘Navigating turbulent times’ webinar series when it returns from a summer break on 9 September, so keep an eye out for that in your inboxes and on our website under ‘Events’.

Linda Hausmanis is CEO of the IWFM