Facility Manager Responsibilities

Facility Manager responsibilities are collateral duties for most staff members assigned this role.  Few Colleges or Divisions have assigned as a primary duty the role of overseeing operations for a specific building.  In fact, a small number of staff members are responsible for a vast majority of buildings on campus:

• Currently, 13 Facility Managers are each responsible for only 1 building and 9 facility managers are responsible for the remaining 62 occupied buildings.  8 buildings do not have a designated facility manager.
• The Facility Manager’s primary concern is helping to maintain a safe and secure learning, workplace, and living environment.  They are a vital link between their College or Division and essential campus partners.
• They connect to Facilities Management (FM), the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), Environmental Safety & Health (ESH), and the University Police Department.  Facility Managers help oversee general day-to-day building operations and maintenance, communications, workplace safety, physical security, and emergency preparedness.
• Facility Managers communicate with their College or Division leadership to forecast needs, maintain budgets, develop plans, and recommend solutions to operational issues concerning their buildings.

Facility Managers are often the first point of contact for their building occupants to report maintenance, safety and security, communications, and operational issues.  Facility Manager responsibilities may include:

• Coordinating with FM on maintenance concerns dealing with water, electrical, HVAC, or mechanical systems and developing preventive maintenance schedules.
• Acting as the primary point of contact for ReADY requests, work orders, and housekeeping schedules.
• Coordinating with FM on special projects.  Facilitating workspace, classroom, lab, and living space renovations and communicating space allocations requirements.
• Arranging contracts for special maintenance and utility requirements.
• Overseeing continuity and care of specialized research or teaching equipment, classroom or lab space, materials, systems, and high value assets.
• Assisting with the continuation of teaching and research activities and coordinating with Principal Investigators (PIs) to manage potential impacts on research.
• Coordinating with DoIT on solutions for telecom concerns regarding IT infrastructure, computing, and communications systems.
• Overseeing Enterprise Asset Management for their College or Division.
• Coordinating workplace safety, roof access/safety training, and hazardous materials management.
• Assisting in physical security, crime prevention, incident reporting, and emergency preparedness.
• Overseeing physical key control and swipe-card access control.
• Functioning as an alternate office manager for their College or Division.
• Helping to plan and execute events, manage budgets, purchase supplies, and oversee asset management and disposal.
• They may hire, schedule, and supervise student workers or work study to assist with building operations.
• Maintaining a master schedule for their buildings, opening and closing their buildings based on hours of operation, and managing their building’s loading dock or receiving area.
• Communicating with other Facility Managers, exchanging information, and developing lessons learned.  Documenting operational procedures and business processes to help ensure continuity.

Because their responsibilities can touch on a wide variety of operational concerns, their Colleges and Divisions must ensure Facility Managers have the necessary capabilities.  Facility Manager knowledge, skills, and abilities may include:

• Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) standards.
• Coordinating with Procurement and Strategic Sourcing.
• Developing good working relationships with FM Work Control, Central Plant, shop supervisors, and project managers.
• Maintaining communication and cooperation with ESH and Police.
• Know how to accept, respond to, and monitor Request Tracker (RT) tickets. Requests may need to be routed to a Facility Manager. DoIT can help Facility Managers establish their own forms/queues within RT if one does not exist.
• Know about the functioning of digital signage in their buildings and seek assistance from DoIT if necessary.
• Know hot to update the campus knowledge base FAQs as needed. DoIT can provide an editing license upon request
• Know the nature, use, and location of any hazardous materials in their buildings.
• Know how to respond to reports of fuel spillage or maintenance fluid spills for work vans, cars, trucks, and multi-passenger vehicles.
• Know the location of the fire panel for their buildings and how to report alarms.
• Know their buildings’ environments to assist with first responder and emergency vehicles access.
• Know Automated External Defibrillator (AED) locations in their buildings and how to monitor and utilize these devices.
• Know department leadership in their buildings and maintain emergency contacts.
• Know the status of occupants who require special assistance during emergencies.
• Know the location of security cameras in their buildings and what they monitor.
• Know the location of evacuation rally points, assembly areas, shelter locations, and safe havens for their buildings.
• Understand evacuation, shelter-in-place, and lockdown procedures.

Colleges and Divisions are responsible for ensuring their designated Facility Managers receive the training and resources necessary to do their jobs.  These include:

• ReADY:  The FM system for building maintenance work requests.
• Request Tracker (RT):  The DoIT system for telecom work requests.
• Paw Procurement System:  The Administration & Finance (A&F) system for Procurement and Strategic Sourcing.
• 25Live:  The Event & Conference Services system for event planning.
• Access to UMBC’s Meraki security camera remote monitoring system.
• Access to UMBC’s Lenel OnGuard swipe-card access control system.
• Access to College, Division, and department-level calendars to coordinate events, training, and access.