Facilities & Estates Management Live: The future challenges and opportunities for the FM sector

In a panel session on the future challenges and opportunities for the FM sector, i-FM’s David Emanuel was joined by Workplace Strategist Debra Ward, Julian Harrison, Business Unit Director of MyFM, Siobhan Jared, Customer Experience Lead for Kings Cross Estates and Richard Wilson, FM Consultant and former Head of Estate Management at Wimbledon. Here is a summary of the discussion.

FM COMMUNICATOR’S VIEW
DAVID EMANUEL

“What I want to do is challenge perceptions as to what the future of FM is likely to hold. Is it facing an existential crisis and threat? Is it a sustainable, viable and thriving sector attracting new recruits? Have we failed to truly professionalise ourselves and gain necessary influence in the boardroom? We tried rebranding to Workplace and Facilities Management [WFM] and that has had a limited effect that’s just caused more confusion and probably less engagement. The promises of chartership to increase credibility seems to have backfired, with the IWFM further away from achieving that than they were eight years after they announced it. Real estate requirements have drastically changed, with remote working, hybrid working and the increasing use of third spaces with people, buildings and technology now offered a different way.

What’s keeping our panel up at night?”

THE WORKPLACE STRATEGIST’S VIEW
DEBRA WARD

“PwC’s CEO came out recently with the new definition of stability, which is ‘the ability to create agility in the face of hostility and volatility’, and I think that’s true. What’s really starting to creep up with our teams is a focus on health and wellbeing, particularly mental health. The rate at which technology is advancing is 74 per cent faster than our ability to adapt to it, so burnout is coming. AI is a great enhancer, and I use it every single day but does that mean we’re going to do less work, or does it just mean that we’re going to have to work more, consume more content and have greater responsibility, opposed to actually making our lives easier? If we’re getting time back, are we using that time to reinvest in ourselves and our teams or are we expecting more?”

THE FM CONSULTANT’S VIEW
JULIAN HARRISON

“I think one of the biggest challenges now is the gap between the success of the organisation and the role of Facilities Management in driving that success. We’ve been talking about this for 25 years, and it’s boring, frankly, but the big change has been Covid and technology. Pre-Covid, the default was an office, but that’s no longer true, meaning FM needs to get far more serious about proving the direct relationship between organisational success and its contribution. I would say most of the clients that we work with don’t really see that, and if we’re just an overhead, we’re there to get cut. I think the role of FM, whether that’s through a service provider or client side is to understand that and be tougher on ourselves. For example, KPIs are often introspective and risk averse when they should include staff retention, organisational staff retention, staff welfare and staff productivity.”