Monday, 2 June 2014

Responsibilities Of A Building Manager In Building Management

By Jamal D White


The field of property management has many areas and building management is one of them. It deals with the super vision of hard and soft structures to ensure security, health; safety and maintenance of a build structure are satisfactory. A building manager will thus have his plate full of responsibilities and roles to ensure environmental, safety and health procedures are compliant as by the law.

Catering for occupants and visitor safety is one of the top most priorities. The manager ensures disability access requirements are in place and that the emergency and exit doors are visible and well lit. Appropriate and necessary information and evacuation procedures posted on signs and maps must be checked. Making sure that custodians keep visitors and occupants safe and clean the interior floors is also some of their duties.

The building manager also has to check if the security and fire systems are in place. This means the security systems, security staff and fire preventions systems should be in place. Security staff can be supervised directly or indirectly through their security chief of staff. In addition, the security and fire systems are checked to be operational and experts are hired to evaluate their conditions regularly and can recommend necessary changes.

Electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems must also be operational. A building manager will work with relevant staff members in ensuring that the necessary repairs are undertaken. For a residential building, the manager is in ensuring that any problems tenants are addressed and repaired as soon as possible.

The janitorial and landscape staff members are also the responsibility of the building manager. Janitors who do daily cleaning are supervised alongside the groundskeepers who ensure that the lawns are well maintained. A building manager hires the employees who may wash and wax the floors, as well as clean the bathrooms. If there are no employees, it is the responsibility of the manager to find suitable people.

Investigation following the event of an accident is another duty of the building manager. He may call upon experts to give him detailed accounts of the accident and the probable causes. Then the manager can decide the appropriate measures that may need to be implemented. To add to that, if the building is obsolete, it is upon him to install the required upgrades.

The building manager has to make sure that the building is adequately staffed and that they are well trained for emergencies. Fire evacuation officers and fire wardens should also be sufficient to ensure emergency drills are under taken. The managers can make changes in staff such as firing incompetent employees as well as hiring other employees. There would also need to be adequate people who can offer first aid.

Appointments for inspections of the building are a key responsibility. The safety of the building is determined by the control and safety inspections. Additionally, for a departmental plant, engineering insurance inspections are carried out to establish the eligibility for an insurance cover. Hence a building manager has his hands full to ensure the safety of the building they manage.




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