FM priorities in 2025

CHAIR OF INSTITUTE OF WORKPLACE AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT’S VIEW
MARK WHITTAKER
GENERAL MANAGER OF THOMSON FM CONSULTANCY

From the sustainability journey to hybrid ways of working, as reflected by the recent COP29 and COVID’s fallout, many of the trends we’ve witnessed will remain at the top of 2025’s agenda. According to IWFM research, priorities include plans for net zero, continued focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and the ongoing need to empower workplace and facilities management (WFM) professionals to drive organisational change. Anecdotally, I am hearing a great deal about the need for a renewed focus on compliance, underpinned by the required skills.

IWFM’s new report finds real progress in net zero planning, with more respondent organisations having plans implemented compared to 2023. This connects to investment. In IWFM’s Market Outlook survey this spring, respondents said carbon reduction solutions were winning, as 60 per cent indicated their organisations had increased investment there in the prior year. Encouragingly, IWFM’s new sustainability report shows that FM is having an impact on the type of investments. Despite the profession’s ‘value add’ to sustainability outcomes, however, their direct involvement in plans has progressed slowly.

In a period that has seen significant consolidation in the sector from M&A activity, IWFM’s Market Outlook report found that more organisations had increased the area of space managed in the last 12 months than has decreased. Furthermore, workspace investment is more likely to have risen than fallen.

Alongside sustainability and carbon reduction, the sector is investing in other key areas to drive productivity: technology and skills. One proof point was the innovation and talent among the IWFM Impact Award winners this year. While uncertainty and challenge remain, the research highlights the opportunities that lie ahead for those seeking to optimise workplace strategy and invest in their people and spaces.

EDI remains high on UK agendas. Poor EDI has an impact on everything from recruitment and retention to staff wellbeing and career progression. Earlier this year IWFM publicised “Beyond Buzzwords”, a report resulting from a cross-sector collaboration of professional membership and regulatory bodies including FM, about EDI’s state. It identified EDI as a professional, organisational and societal imperative but highlighted barriers to progress from the professionals who provided insight.

IWFM is working to address the facilities management diversity challenge and talent gap, knowing that tackling one will help the other. As the profession’s standard setter, the Institute seeks to understand how we can make the biggest impact, which we cannot do alone. This work is pursued in close collaboration IWFM’s EDI Focus Group to ensure we’re succeeding in our commitment.

In summary, as these major trends continue – sustainability, hybrid ways of working and EDI, the priorities should be to continue to encourage investment and empower the facilities management sector to fulfil its immense potential. IWFM will continue to follow them and through insight-based guidance, training and qualifications, organisational support and much more, to help our members fulfil their full potential. 

THE LEADING FM PROVIDER’S VIEW
MARK CASKEY
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF PROJECTS, MITIE

Working patterns continue to evolve and so do our customers’ expectations of the value they can get out of their property estates. By harnessing the potential of intelligent data and the advancement in technology and AI, we’ve been able to create far more flexible and efficient workplaces, building digital platforms that can manage everything from aligning the performance of building systems and services within buildings to occupancy levels to room booking or ordering a coffee from your desk. Improving the workplace experience for visitors.

Continuing to innovate and embracing new building technologies will be key as we all rise to the challenge of modernising workplaces, transforming lived experiences, meeting customers’ drive to reach net zero, and creating smarter buildings.

One priority topping the agenda for customers with net zero targets fast approaching, is the challenge of decarbonising their real estate portfolios, reducing harmful emissions, reducing energy and switching to cleaner energy sources.

I expect to see increased demand for green energy solutions which produce onsite power, such as solar panels and heat pumps, in the coming years – businesses are ambitious. But the next step to help customers advance their net zero ambitions and reduce reliance on the Grid is equipping them with the infrastructure to secure their energy supply. This means prioritising larger scale engineering projects including storage solutions that will enable customers to store excess energy that can be used at times when energy isn’t being produced. Similarly, connecting customers’ estates to the Grid with high-voltage grid connections will mean they can benefit from feeding energy back to the National Grid.

This year, Mitie worked in partnership with Salesforce to bring customers an ‘Emissions Intelligence’ solution allowing them to combine environmental data in one place, and connect this with other data sets, such as occupancy. The digital technology is now there, but in 2025 customers will increasingly turn to methods to collate and analyse different data sets to balance energy supply and demand and gain a greater depth of insight across their estates.

Energy independence relies on more joined-up data insights to understand where and when customers can feed energy back to the Grid, and when there is excess energy that can be stored. This means enhancing the insights customers have from across their estates, including from occupancy data from sensors and energy use data, to understand fluctuations in demand.

When it comes to building transformation, people will continue to be a key driver. The talent must be there across our industry to support changing demands. Upskilling our industry to meet growing demand for skills such as expertise in energy data analysis is therefore a challenge to meet in 2025. With the new government set to overhaul the Apprenticeship Levy, making funding available for shorter courses, there is an opportunity to fill the necessary skills gaps and speed up the delivery of innovative building and energy solutions.

With the right infrastructure, the right data and the right talent facilities management professionals can best support customers on their paths to net zero.