OPINION
CONFIDENT FUTURE
A new frontier of work awaits and 2022 will
be a pivotal year for the FM profession. By
the time this magazine issue goes to print, the
UK government may have set out its plans for
‘living with COVID’, including changes to the rules
around testing and self-isolating. Meanwhile,
businesses have been developing their own post-
COVID property and workplace strategies, and
they will need facilities managers to help guide
them through this challenging period.
First and foremost, FM teams will play a crucial
role in helping rebuild confidence in workplaces by
showing employees that they are both safe and able
to support their changing needs in an increasingly
hybrid work environment. Last year, a JLL global
survey of more than 3,300 ož ice workers(i) found
that 63 per cent of the workforce want to keep the
possibility to alternate between diž erent places of
work in the future, with the majority wanting a mix –
three days a week in the ož ice and two days a week
working remotely on average.
10 FEBRUARY 2022
MANAGING THE CHANGING WORKPLACE
The new dynamics of hybrid work, including far
greater fluctuance in building occupancy rates, will
significantly impact the infrastructure, systems,
and services that facilities managers oversee. They
will also give FM professionals a critical role in
an increasingly competitive talent attraction and
retention landscape.
Recently, media reports sparked fears of a ‘Great
Resignation’ sweeping the world. One survey by
recruitment firm Randstad UK(ii) found almost a
quarter of employees planning to find a new job
within six months, while the Ož ice for National
Statistics(iii) revealed that nearly a million UK
workers switched jobs between July and September
2021.
Many commentators claim the factors driving
these numbers are unsurprising: stress caused by
the pandemic, the shi¢ to remote working, and the
impact on work-life balance. And there’s certainly
evidence to back these conclusions. According to
the JLL research, 36 per cent of global workers,
spanning all industries, lack energy while working
and struggle to remain motivated and engaged
in their job — heaping the pressure on facilities
managers to devise a hybrid work strategy that
meets their employees’ changing needs and
manages the transition to new ways of working
ež ectively.
Growing appetite for speed, flexibility and agility
is also driving the need for more ‘on-demand’
services and the technology to support new
working patterns, providing FM with an opportunity
to transform core services such as M&E. As an
example, cutting-edge smart engineering practices
can leverage real-time asset data to give facilities
managers a better understanding of how building
services can be more ež ectively controlled in a
hybrid work environment.
STARTING YOUR SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY
Another top priority for companies in 2022 is
sustainability. COP26 showed that businesses
are now outpacing policymakers on net zero
commitments by setting targets for 2050 or sooner
in response to growing demand from customers,
investors, employees, and communities.
The built environment contributes around 40 per
cent of global carbon emissions, providing facilities
managers with another opportunity to drive change
and lead any decarbonisation ež orts. The net zero
journey is long, but every initiative must begin
with a thorough understanding of a building’s
carbon output and its assets’ performance. Again,
smart engineering can track energy consumption
data from equipment, lighting, and energy
meters within a single system, giving businesses
a clear sustainability baseline for active process
improvement as well as future strategic asset
management.
Of course, there’s more to sustainability than
decarbonising buildings. The pandemic has
highlighted the urgent need to create regenerative
workplaces(iv) that support mental, social, and
physical health. As evidence, employee demand
for better indoor air quality at work has grown
exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic,
while groups such as the British Council for Ož ices
and the Royal Academy of Engineering have called
for better ventilation in the UK’s building stock.
Better indoor air quality would not only stop
viruses from spreading but would also help
employees feel more productive, energised, and
engaged at work. From the facilities manager’s
point of view, this creates the potential to make a
diž erence through installing smart environmental
controls that can adjust factors such as lighting,
heating or humidity in real time, especially useful
for any businesses attempting to implement a
hybrid working model.
Facilities management has the skills and tools to
establish itself as an organisational leader in 2022.
Whether the switch to hybrid working, the net zero
journey or employee wellbeing, FM can become the
change agent that businesses need in the new world
of work.
David Whiteley, Head of Sales and Solutions at Integral
believes that in a changed world the prime remit of
the facilities management sector will be in delivering
conƛ Gence in tKe Sost&29,' ZorNSOace
REFERENCE NOTES
(i) www.jll.ca/en/trends-and-insights/research/workerpreferences
barometer
(ii) www.randstad.co.uk/about-us/industry-insight/greatresignation/
(iii) www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/
peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/
employmentintheuk/november2021
(iv) www.jll.co.uk/en/trends-and-insights/research/
regenerative-workplace
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