11 Challenges Facing Facility Managers in 2024

Editor’s Note: Some comments from this post have been edited for clarity or brevity. Thank you to our amazing online community for their contributions and their commitment to knowledge sharing.  

Facility management is constantly changing and growing as a profession. Between increased sustainability demands, cybersecurity challenges and succession planning in the field, there's always a new puzzle to keep facility management an interesting, dynamic career.

We recently asked our LinkedIn following, "What are the biggest challenges you're facing as a #FacilityManager currently?" Here are some of their top responses:

1. "I believe the key challenge we face is striking a delicate balance between sustainability goals and the need to control costs. Facilities Managers are tasked with finding ways to make buildings and facilities more energy-efficient, reduce waste and minimize the environmental impact of their operations. This may involve implementing renewable energy sources, improving insulation and HVAC systems and adopting sustainable practices such as waste reduction and recycling. Maintaining a comfortable and functional environment for occupants while also managing limited budgets can be a complex and demanding task, especially in today's increasingly eco-conscious world."

—Cale Burch, Director of Engineering at Holladay Properties

2. "The organization is striving to attain sustainability and secure green certification to attract additional investments. Despite the intent, financial constraints limit the ability to allocate sufficient capital expenditure (CAPEX) towards crucial projects that facilitate the reduction of carbon footprints and contribute significantly to sustainable practices. This presents a challenging scenario to FMs where the aspirations for eco-friendly initiatives intersect with budgetary limitations, making it difficult to undertake the desired sustainability journey."

—Vikas Phulpagar, Chief Manager Administration at ICICI Lombard

3. "One of my current challenges is prioritizing which projects to invest in when occupancy rates are still relatively low compared to pre-pandemic numbers."

—Marissa Baccam, Building Manager for Federal Reserve Board 

4. "One of the biggest challenges in FM in my 14 years of work is getting upper management to understand the value of CMMS-CAFM. No organization is ready to spend money on any computerized maintenance management system, all they want is an analog set of job."

—Engr. Stanley Okeroghene, Head of Facilities Management for American Christian Academy

5. "While there is a global push for ESG initiatives, once the low-hanging fruit is completed, companies are having a hard time budgeting or getting approval for big dollar projects despite good ROI due to low occupancy still compared to pre-pandemic numbers, especially in the leased vs owned buildings. HEPA filters, HVAC/BMS systems, CMMS systems are all beneficial but selling them to the decision-makers is no easy task."

—Robert Pettit, Real Estate Associate Manager at Arrow Electronics

6. "Most stakeholders always want to do your job for you. The trust is not there even when they already know FM is an important sector of their business, they also want to be the professional FM without having the skill sets and experience to be one. This has seriously affected the growth of most business in my environment."

—Okeowo Ayodeji, Facilities Manager at Trocadero Management Consultancy Limited

7. "One of the biggest challenges I've been dealing with since recently is making commercial/brokerage staff consider facility issues when signing leases. I'd name this as reasonable balancing of occupancy KPI vs impact to facility and costs."

—Timur Khazratkulov, Director of PM & FM at Uzbek-Oman Investment Company

8. "One of the significant challenges that Facility Managers often face is the shortage of qualified employees, especially because of the diverse skill set which is needed."

—Bartlomiej Dzięgelewski, Senior Partner & Co-owner at LOREDO Real Estate Solutions

9. "Getting key expert suppliers, carrying out necessary repairs & servicing. Resources are scarce & the load is huge! Business continuity & resilience are essential to operate."

—Ivan Scicluna, Facilities Management Consultant

10. "Getting everyone to love the facilities that we gave most of our effort to care about."

—Elsie Marie D-Lim Lee, Facilitiies Management at TaskUs

11. "The number 1 challenge is getting the budget approved without deductions and omissions."

—Georges Fares, MSc, ICIOB, AEE, MEP Operations & Facilities Manager

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