Practical Facilities Tips, News & Advice.
Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI (GenAI), is quickly and quietly revolutionizing facilities management. More and more, facilities managers are harnessing AI for rapid, informed building operations decisions and leveraging GenAI to boost operational efficiency. Rooted in automation, AI’s potential to save thousands of working hours across an entire workforce has mass appeal, helping to […]
Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies and NEST, an integrated facilities management company, are joining forces to launch the Skilled Trades All-Star Program, a dynamic initiative aimed at guiding Philadelphia-area youth towards promising careers in the skilled trades. The initiative kicks off with a series of educational events at Citizens Bank Park this season. The urgency […]
In a “seismic shift,” higher education institutions upped their facility reinvestment game by more than 26% year-over-year in 2023, according to a new report from Gordian. The 11th edition of the “State of Facilities in Higher Education” report reveals the significant facility investments over the past year have reduced the spending shortfall to 34%, closing the […]
In Part 1 of this two-parter on industry predictions, former “Faces of Facilities” guests forecast the top challenges of 2024. That was the bad news. Now here’s the good news: Opportunities abound! For Part 2, industry insiders were asked to identify the No. 1 opportunity for facilities managers in the new year and offer advice […]
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part series on 2024 predictions. A link to Part 2, covering the industry’s biggest opportunities, can be found below. With such a diverse and demanding job, facilities managers are constantly facing challenges old and new. Case in point: Consistent budget constraints and a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime global […]
Globally, commercial buildings are experiencing a number of dynamic challenges. Following the impact of the COVID pandemic, tenant needs and behaviors have drastically changed. The cost of property has grown as interest rates continue to escalate in an ongoing effort to curb inflation. At the same time, the energy crisis has raised operating costs and […]
Facilities management (FM) costs are slated to rise again in 2024 but moderately compared to a spike in 2022, according to a new report from CBRE’s Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) business. The report expects FM costs to increase 2.5% in the U.S. in 2024, down from a forecast gain of 3.3% in 2023 and a […]
Employee retention, customer satisfaction, and tech adoption are among the top issues for commercial cleaning contractors going into 2024, according to a new survey. Aspire Software, a ServiceTitan company, has released a report providing insight into the challenges and opportunities facing contractors across the commercial cleaning industry. These results highlight survey responses from more than 1,000 contractors nationwide. […]
Business leaders are itching to solve the labor shortage puzzle—and for good reason. In critical trades like plumbing, HVAC, construction, and manufacturing, there’s been a 70% decline in labor force participation since the end of 2019 due to the aging workforce. Today, the average facility worker is 51 years old. As older employees retire, there […]
The Great Resignation and the high number of workers retiring over the last several years have led to labor shortages at many workplaces across the country. While some of those positions will be filled, it’s likely those replacements won’t have the same depth of knowledge as their predecessors. To help solve this problem, facilities managers […]