BIFM Announces Potential Name Change!

BIFM will celebrate their 25^th anniversary this year and will mark this with the ‘manifesto for change’. BIFM Chair, Stephen Roots, unveiled this ‘manifesto for change’ which is to change the name of The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM), to “raise professionalism in the industry”. Including ‘workplace’ in the name has been done to work towards establishing facilities management as a chartered profession.

Why Workplace?

As a business specialising in 8 sectors, one of which being real estate, we have been acutely aware of the current trends in office space. Flexible space is becoming increasingly more popular and with technology developments allowing people to hot-desk, work from home, cafes, almost anywhere, there needs to be a real incentive and value to commit to a long lease.

Office space is costly and tenants are demanding more from this, they want access to F&B units, retailers, break-out areas, modern art scenes and interior and perks such free fruit, coffee or discount cards. This is where BIFM’s new manifesto for change comes in. Facilities Management needs to be more than just the best price or how many people you can fit into a given space, it needs to now expand it’s offering to embrace modern technology to identify ways of increasing productivity, minimise costs and optimise performance. The step has been done to recognise the joint responsibility of FM, IT and human resources, and demonstrate what the FM industry is capable of.

Workplaces of the future are changing, and Facilities Management has the opportunity to play a big part in this and raise the profile of the professionals within the sector. The institute will now be helping members improve their skills and their status to meet the needs of modern organisations.

The new name, IWFM, is reliant on members supporting this name change through a vote which will take place on 5^th July 2018 – what will it be?