Facilities Industry Trends-Survey Results

In 2004, six leading facilities management organizations and publications partnered to conduct the largest and most comprehensive industry-wide survey. The organizations that collaborated on the study are the International Facility Management Association, FMLink, the Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE), The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA), The Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA), and Building Operating Management magazine. The survey was housed on FMLink.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives for this study were as follows:

• Capture industry demographics
• Gain a better understanding of facility organizations managed by the respondents
• Identify current and future issues relevant to the industry
• Determine to what degree responsibilities have changed over time
• Identify work challenges and ways to improve work

Executive Summary

The survey respondents were mostly of a senior level. Most managed multiple facilities and three-quarters managed facilities over 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters).

Recent responsibility changes. The largest increases in responsibility in the last year were in the areas of disaster planning and recovery, the management of additional facilities, and the addition of computer-aided facilities management technology.

Budgeting. More people experienced an increase in their budget than a decrease (43% to 32%), but those managing larger facilities had a much greater decrease than those in smaller ones.

Facility challenges. The largest facilities challenge was balancing the facilities budget. Deferred funding and the maintenance backlog are also issues. Balancing the budget is seen as even more of an issue today than just a few years ago. Time to complete work also is more important today, although much more of an issue for those managing smaller facilities than larger ones.

Today's top priority. The top-priority topic for today is dealing with aging buildings and/or building equipment. This was a much greater issue for those managing over 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters) than others.

Tomorrow's issues. Outsourcing and the changing demographics of the workforce were seen as the largest issues of the future that impact facilities.

FM skills needed. The most important skill needed by FMs was not in any of the technical competency areas, but rather that of customer service, listed by nearly 10% more respondents than any other.

The survey was run from March 31 through April 30, 2004. With a sample of 3,140, the margin of error at the 99% confidence interval to these findings is one percentage point. This means that for a given statistic, the chances are 99 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 1% from the results that would have been obtained if the survey had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by this sample.

Key Findings

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the respondents were employed as in-house facilities managers, and 13% worked for companies that provided outsourcing services to FMs. Eighty-five percent (85%) worked in a supervisory capacity. Ninety percent (90%) of the respondents managed more than one facility, and 65% managed more than five. Ninety-one percent (91%) managed more than 100,000 sq. ft. (9,000 sq. meters), 59% managed more than one-half million square feet (46,000 sq. meters), and 40% more than one million sq. ft. (93,000 sq. meters). Bottom line: most respondents were of a senior level and managed multiple facilities.

Does size matter?
There were some interesting differences depending on the size of the facilities managed. For many survey questions, size did not matter. For those where size mattered, there were some that had a gradual change from small to large amounts of space managed; for others, the responses were very consistent up to a certain size facilities, and then a different but consistent number for facilities over that size. We identified where there were such differences in the findings presented below.

The size of the facilities surveyed and the number of responses for each grouping:

• Less than 100,000 sq. ft. (9,000 sq. meters): 264 (9%)
• 100,000 - 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters): 433 (15%)
• 250,001 - 500,000 sq. ft. (46,000 sq. meters): 452 (16%)
• 500,001 - 750,000 sq. ft. (70,000 sq. meters): 264 (9%)
• 750,001 - 1,000,000 sq. ft. (93,000 sq. meters): 276 (10%)
• 1,000,000 - 2,500,000 sq. ft. (232,000 sq. meters: 498 (18%)
• Greater than 250,000 sq. ft. (232,000 sq. meters): 618 (22%)

Top responsibilities
The top responsibilities handled were contract administration (72%), construction management (71%), energy management (68%) and move management (63%). These were followed by disaster planning and recovery (61%), space planning (61%), managing additional facilities (56%), strategic planning (56%), security (54%), and furniture management (51%). All the rest were below 40%.

To study recent change, the survey asked which responsibilities were added in the past year. This question yielded very different results, with 18% stating that they had added disaster planning and recovery, and also the management of additional facilities; 16% added computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) technology. There was between a 6% and 11% increase in twelve other responsibilities over the past year.

Differences related to facility size (CAFM). For those who managed more than 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters), at least 40% were responsible for CAFM. For those under 250,000 sq. ft., less than 30% were using CAFM. But there were more people at the lower numbers than the higher ones who have been adding CAFM to their responsibilities in the past year, indicating that the technology is becoming either more needed, easier to use, or more cost effective for managing smaller facilities than it has been.

Differences related to facility size (security, space planning). Less people in facilities marked security as a responsibility when they managed facilities greater than one million sq. ft. (93,000 sq. meters), and less people marked space planning as a responsibility when they managed greater than 2.5 million sq. ft. (232,000 sq. meters). The reason for this may be facilities-related, or it may be just that in larger facilities, more workers become specialized and tend to focus on just one or two of the key facilities areas.

Facilities budget
Although facility professionals' responsibilities may have expanded in recent years, their facilities budgets have not (there was a slight trend toward increased budgets). About one-quarter of the respondents (26%) stated their budgets stayed the same, while 37% experienced a 1%-10% increase, and 26% experienced a 1%-10% decrease. Six percent (6%) saw a greater than 10% increase, and another 6% saw a greater than 10% decrease in their budget.

Differences related to facility size. There was a continuous difference in what happened to the facilities budget depending on the size of the facilities managed. 31% of the people managing facilities less than 100,000 sq. ft. (9,000 sq. meters) felt their budget remained the same, while only 20% of those at the other end of the spectrum (greater than 2.5 million sq. ft. (232,000 sq. meters) responded that way. On the other hand, only 15% of those managing the smaller facilities felt their budget decreased, while 32% of those in the larger ones saw a decrease. Bottom line: people managing larger facilities were more likely to see a decrease in their budgets than those managing smaller facilities.

Largest FM challenges
The biggest challenges being faced in facilities today are very similar to those from three-five years ago, according to the respondents. The top six issues were the same, and ranged from being mentioned by 43% down to 22% of the respondents:

• Balancing the facilities budget (43%)
• Deferred funding / maintenance backlog (32%)
• Meeting customer / tenant expectations (30%)
• Lack of time to complete work (28%)
• Understaffed (24%)
• Upper management's lack of understanding of the role of FM (22%)

The biggest increases from a few years ago (i.e., the challenges appear to be getting more serious) related to balancing the budget, and the lack of time to complete work (both increased over 7%). The largest decreases were concerns regarding mergers and acquisitions (7%) and the lack of training (6%). Most other changes were 3% or less.

Differences related to facility size. The only response that seemed to matter based on the size of facilities managed was the lack of time to complete the work. This was checked by about one-third of the respondents managing less than one million sq. ft. (93,000 sq. meters), and then dropped to 21% for those managing more than 2.5 million sq. ft. (232,000 sq. meters). It seems as if those managing facilities over one million square feet have more staff who are able to contribute to the overall workload.

Topics of high priority
The top-priority topic on today's FM agenda is aging buildings and/or building equipment (56%). A distant second is acquiring and maintaining quality staff (41%), followed by a diminishing facilities budget (36%), energy management (34%) and growth/expansion (32%).

Differences related to facility size. Three topics had wide differences, depending on size of facilities managed. Aging buildings and/or building equipment was of much greater concern to those managing more than 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters), with close to 60% of those in larger facilities noting this topic, while only 45%-50% of those in the smaller facilities noted this topic.

Both the diminishing budget and contingency planning / disaster recovery were different as well. The diminishing budget was of more concern to those in the largest size facilities (increasing as an issue from 30% to 40% of those responding), while contingency planning decreased as an issue from 37% to 18% as the facility size increased.

What do FMs want to change?
When asked for the one item they would like to change the most about their work, FMs were divided, with 22% wanting the addition of more staff and 17% wishing that management had a better understanding of their work. The rest of the responses were had much smaller percentages and included: recognition of contributions, better defined responsibilities, closer ties to other functional areas, and more input in decisions (all between 9%-11%).

Facility issues of tomorrow
Looking ten years into the future, the survey participants predicted outsourcing (43%) and the changing demographics of the workforce (38%) would be the largest issues that would impact facilities. These were followed by increased globalization (30%) and company mergers (30%).

Differences related to facility size. Outsourcing increased slightly when facilities exceeded 250,000 sq. ft. (23,000 sq. meters).

Skills needed by FMs
The most important skill needed by FMs, as perceived by FMs, was customer service, mentioned by 40% of the respondents. A distant second and third were operations and maintenance (31%) and communications (29%), respectively. All the rest were 21% and below, and included: project management, general management, financial, strategic planning, energy management, negotiation strategies, technology, real estate and security.

How to keep up with the profession
Most FMs keep up by reading FM publications (77%), with 42% visiting FM Web sites. In terms of interacting with others, 60% attend seminars and workshops, 49% attend conferences, and 41% attend local association meetings.

Only 14% have taken e-learning or self-study courses, but 34% said they would be very likely to do so in the future and 51% said they would be somewhat likely. Most of the reasons given for those who have not undertaken any courses whatsoever have been time constraints (43%) and cost (23%).

Differences related to facility size. There were large differences in the responses that related to learning by interacting with others. Only one-third of those managing small facilities (less than 100,000 sq. ft. (9,000 sq. meters) attended conferences; this jumped to 46% when facilities were larger than 100,000 sq. ft., peaking at 53% once facilities exceeded 750,000 sq. ft. (70,000 sq. meters).

Those attending seminars and workshops increased from 51% to 63% once the size of facilities managed went over 100,000 sq. ft. And those attending local association meetings also increased from 34% to 42% at the 100,000 sq. ft. level.

Other Sampling Information

• 79% are male and 21% are female
• 46% manage a budget exceeding $5,000,000
• 72% focus on operations and maintenance, 55% facility planning, 51% architectural/engineering/construction, 47% space management and planning, 41% administrative services, 39% environmental health and safety and 27% real estate

Methodology
The six sponsoring facility management organizations sent out invitations via e-mail to 87,499 addresses. The e-mail addresses were provided by IFMA, AFE, APPA, BOMA, FMLink and Building Operating Management magazine. The invitation included a link to a survey housed on FMLink's web site. The survey took about 12 minutes to complete. By April 30, a total of 4,017 people responded to the survey. Of that number, 3,140 completed the survey. The results presented here are based on the 3,140 who completed the survey.

Detailed Results of the Survey
FMLink has presented a summary of the results in this paper. Should any readers wish to receive via e-mail the detailed results for each question, please write to info@fmlink.com and write "Detailed Industry Survey Results" in the Subject line of your e-mail. The detailed results will be sent as a Microsoft Word attachment. The percentages for each response to each question will be stated.

Should there be any questions about the survey methodology, please write to info@fmlink.com and write "Industry Survey Question" in the Subject line.