Sunday, June 1, 2014

The Work Of A Building Manager In Building Management

By Jamal D White


Property management has many sub branches and one of them is building management. Building management deals with supervising hard and soft structures of a built structure. This ensures security, health, safety and maintenance are at a satisfactory level. A building manager thus has the responsibility of ensuring environmental safety and health procedures are compliant with the law.

Among the important responsibilities is to cater for occupants and visitor safety. He makes sure disability access requirements are in place and ensures emergency doors are visible and exits are always lit. He also has to check if posted maps and signs contain the necessary and appropriate information and evacuation procedures. He also makes sure the interior floors are clean during winter by custodians to keep visitors and occupants safe.

A building manager also has to oversee if security and fire systems are in place. This includes checking the security systems, security staff and fire prevention systems. He may supervise security staff directly or interrogate the security chief staff. He makes sure the security and fire systems are operational and may hire experts to evaluate their conditions occasionally. He can also recommend necessary changes.

It is important for electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems are fully operational. A building manager thus has maintenance staff who undertake the necessary repairs of the building. If it is a residential building, the manager is inclined to respond to the requests made by tenants for the repair of various things within the building.

The building manager has to supervise the janitorial and landscape staff. The janitorial staff that does daily cleaning plus the groundskeepers for landscape maintenance are supervised by the building manager. This also includes those who wash and wax floors and clean bathrooms. If there is no staff the manager has to call the companies that offer the service.

Investigations after the occurrence of an accident are the responsibility of the building manager to determine the causes. He can hire professionals who will give him a detailed report of probable causes and give him recommended measures that have to be implement The manager thus has to oversee the implementation of these measures to ensure that such problems do not happen. In addition, important upgrades to the buildings are implemented through him to make the building safer.

The number of staff has to be adequate and well trained if emergencies should they occur. Sufficient fire wardens and evacuation officers are appointed to ensure emergency drills are undertaken. All this is done by the building manager. They also make changes in staff such as firing incompetent people and hiring to inadequately staffed departments. In case of an emergency, the manager should also ensure sufficient first-aiders are around.

The building manager also has to make appointments for inspection of the building. Control and safety inspections are carried out to determine the safety of the building. In addition, engineering insurance inspections of a departmental plant can be undertaken to verify if it is eligible for an insurance cover. Building managers have thus got their work cut out for them to ensure safety of a building




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