Facilities Management Trends

What facilities managers need to know

Workplace modernization and technology advances change the facilities management landscape every day. Adept Facilities Managers have to constantly rethink how they balance both their responsibilities, the workspaces they manage, and evolving facilities management trends.

As California’s leading commercial mover and workplace change expert, we stay on the pulse of facilities management trends and challenges. Here are the evolving trends that facilities managers must get ahead of in the coming year.

Leveraging technology for more efficiency

More and more, Facilities Management teams are using data to gain quantifiable business intelligence on real estate data, performance, company profit, and productivity. Consider the common need to measure such things as:

• Expenses of different facilities projects, and their rate of efficiency
• Cost per employee (workstations, changes, upgrades, updates)
• Inventory management: what’s in storage and how to manage it efficiently

Executives want to know this stuff—often on a quarterly basis. The best way to gather it? Partnering with a technology-driven vendor that can track and manage performance data.

Sustainability is not optional

Projects that hit the trifecta of being time-, cost-, and environmentally efficient are becoming more and more the norm. Governments encourage them. Employers and tenants demand them. And projects don’t have to be as ambitious as 100% solar-powered offices. Smaller changes in operations—such as partnering with vendors committed to a green agenda, shredding and recycling unwanted files, disposition of unwanted furniture through recycling or reuse, and opting for reusable plastic moving containers all can make a difference.

Workplaces get safer

Thinking beyond fire drills and floor captains is what sets apart truly outstanding facilities managers from the rest. Workplace safety encompasses everything from uncluttered hallways and storage rooms, plentiful defibrillators, and clear badging protocols for employees and visitors.

Incomplete workplace safety practices can result in unnecessary risk and expense. Getting employees properly educated in security procedures and using vendors who adhere to high safety standards can help insulate a company against unnecessary risk and expense.

Collaborating with other teams

Certainly, facilities managers interact with all departments in a company—however, don’t be surprised if you work more and more with IT and HR. In the former case, both teams need to cooperate in order to implement smart building technology and manage performance data for building operations. In the latter, HR will often set the tone in how facilities managers can help support a productive workforce in terms of office amenities, comfortable workspaces, and provisions for mobile workers.

Balancing public and private space

Employees need to be productive, healthy and happy. While a lot of press has called attention to the pros and the cons of open office plans, companies that are committed to the well-being of their workforce need to strike a happy medium between cost savings, collaboration, and helping people get their work done in a distraction-free setting.

Workspaces have to fit the user

Sit/stand desks aren’t just for offices anymore: they’re for school classrooms too. And with enhancements like monitor arms and keyboard trays, it’s clear that user or employee wellness is not a fad—it has become the standard. Increasing employee comfort and reducing repetitive injuries that drive up company healthcare costs is simply smart business. Stay ahead of the curve on anything from installing ergonomic furniture to creating a cost-efficient, safer office.