The Top 5 Challenges Faced by Facilities Management
The facilities management industry has evolved significantly over the last few years, as it constantly has to adapt to changes in how people use commercial spaces and offices. The responsibilities of facility managers are vast, and range from maintaining safety to managing complex building systems.
As the sector continues to change and grow, new challenges as well as opportunities for innovation crop up. In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at the top challenges faced by facilities management today and offer insights into how some of these obstacles can be effectively tackled.
1. Increased Labour Costs
One of the most significant challenges for facilities management is the cost of labour. It’s currently projected by BCIS that between now and 2027, labour costs will rise up to 25.6%, so facility managers need to figure out how to balance these costs while maintaining operational efficiency. Tasks like commercial cleaning, security, and maintenance are particularly labour-intensive, so this can make it tricky to find ways to cut costs without sacrificing service quality.
Many traditional cleaning programs rely on fixed schedules rather than real-time needs, which often leads to inefficiencies, with cleaners spending unnecessary time in spaces that don’t require attention. This is where Infogrid’s Smart Cleaning Pro comes in, offering a solution designed to maximise the productivity of cleaning teams. Smart Cleaning Pro uses occupancy data to identify areas that need attention, ensuring that cleaners focus on spaces that matter most. By deploying cleaners efficiently, FM teams can reduce unnecessary labour, trim down costs, and focus their resources on high-value areas that require immediate attention.
2. Real Estate Market Fluctuations
The constant development within the commercial real estate market presents unique challenges for facility managers. These shifts, influenced by economic conditions, workplace culture changes, and broader societal trends, directly impact how facilities are managed.
According to CBRE’s UK Mid-Year Market Outlook 2024, the office sector continues to change as businesses adapt to hybrid work models. Office take-up was 18% below the 10-year average in the first half of 2023, signalling reduced demand for traditional office space. This trend highlights how market forces reshape real estate and, by extension, facility management.
Impact of a Market Downturn
During a market downturn, companies often reduce their physical space, leading to lower building occupancy. With fewer tenants, revenue from leasing declines, straining facility managers who must maintain operations with reduced income. There was a reported 64% drop in UK office investment in the first half of 2023, exacerbating this pressure. Despite shrinking revenue, fixed costs like maintenance, utilities, and cleaning remain unchanged, forcing managers to optimise operations while controlling expenses.
In these periods, companies also delay upgrades or expansions, making it more difficult for facility managers to maintain ageing infrastructure. The challenge becomes finding strategic ways to manage buildings efficiently with constrained budgets.
Impact of a Market Upswing
In a market upswing, demand for commercial real estate increases, leading to higher occupancy and more complex operational needs. While overall office investment has slowed, CBRE noted resilience in prime office spaces, which have seen rising demand. This adds pressure on facility managers to handle larger, busier spaces.
Higher occupancy strains systems like HVAC, plumbing, and security, and increases cleaning requirements. Facility managers must ensure these systems can handle increased usage without compromising quality. Efficient scaling, while maintaining sustainability, becomes critical to prevent breakdowns or inefficiencies that could lead to costly repairs and tenant dissatisfaction.
3. Tight Competition Impacting Margins
Facilities management has quickly become a highly competitive industry, with providers now trying to balance a drive from customers to cut costs with the need to ensure high quality services that deliver high customer satisfaction. The rise of outsourcing in FM services has put downward pressure on margins, compelling providers to offer competitive pricing while often juggling to not compromise on service quality.
As competition intensifies, facility managers must find ways to differentiate their services. Smart Cleaning Pro enables FM teams to deliver a cutting-edge cleaning service that stands apart from traditional methods. With features like automatic attendance logging, task validation, and real-time reporting, facility managers can offer clients complete transparency and proof of service completion. This level of insight, combined with efficient resource allocation, helps FM providers offer superior services while controlling operational costs, giving them a competitive edge in the market.
4. Hybrid Building Use
The shift to hybrid working models, where employees spend considerably less time in the office, has altered how commercial spaces are used. Currently in the UK, approximately 44% of companies have now adopted a structured hybrid work model. While this approach to work has been incredibly popular among workers, it has created some issues for FM services. Hybrid usage often results in unpredictable building occupancy, making it difficult for facility managers to plan and allocate cleaning and maintenance resources effectively. Cleaning entire rooms and even floors that remain unused wastes time, labour, and materials.
Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be a problem: Infogrid’s Smart Cleaning Pro is designed to address the complexities of hybrid building usage. Using proprietary IoT sensors, the system continuously monitors space utilisation, providing FM teams with real-time data about where occupants are and which areas require cleaning. By focusing efforts only on spaces that need attention, facilities teams can dramatically improve efficiency, cut waste, and ensure cleaning operations are always aligned with actual building usage. This not only optimises resource allocation but also helps deliver a cleaner, more comfortable environment for those in the office.
5. Delivering Healthy, Hygienic Spaces Amid Complex Challenges
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining healthy and hygienic commercial spaces has become a top priority for facility managers. Employees and visitors now expect significantly higher standards of cleanliness to feel safe and comfortable in shared environments. Recent workplace hygiene statistics reported by Chela highlight just how critical this issue is
For example, 68% of workers used to accept that they would share germs and viruses in the office. This behaviour contributed to 38.8 million lost working days in the UK, costing the economy £16.2 billion annually. Post-COVID, however, attitudes have shifted drastically, with increased demand for visible and effective commercial cleaning protocols. Facility managers are now under pressure to maintain rigorous hygiene standards, especially as 86% of employees say workplace cleanliness affects their productivity and well-being.
One of the key challenges is addressing workstation hygiene, which is often overlooked. Workstations are some of the dirtiest areas in an office—10 million bacteria live on the average desk, making it 400 times dirtier than a toilet seat. Furthermore, 60% of office desks contain the bacteria Staphylococcus, which can lead to illnesses ranging from mild infections to severe complications. The average office keyboard harbours 7,500 bacteria per square inch, while a computer mouse contains three times more germs than a toilet handle.
Balancing the need for heightened hygiene protocols with cost efficiency is a difficult task for facility managers. Traditional cleaning routines often fail to address real-time cleaning needs, leading to unnecessary cleaning of low-traffic areas while high-traffic spots remain dirty. Infogrid’s Smart Cleaning Pro offers a solution to this challenge by using occupancy data to guide cleaning efforts. This technology allows facility managers to focus resources on high-traffic areas, ensuring both cleanliness and cost-efficiency. Smart Cleaning Pro’s automation capabilities also streamline cleaning processes, saving time while meeting the elevated hygiene standards of today’s workplace.
Overcome Facilities Management Challenges with Smart Solutions
It’s evident that the facilities management industry continues to face complex challenges, from rising labour costs to the need for maintaining hygienic spaces in a post-COVID world. However, with the right tools and strategies—like Infogrid's Smart Cleaning Pro—facility managers can tackle these issues head-on, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and delivering a safer, healthier environment for building occupants.
Ready to optimise your facility management? Book a Smart Cleaning Pro demo today to see how it can transform your operations.
