Sandy Smith
Facility managers impact office space decisions nearly as much as CEOs

Report Demonstrates Prominent Role of Facility Professionals in Workplace Decisions

Oct. 12, 2015
When asked in a survey who drives workplace strategy decisions, respondents gave almost as much weight to facility managers as they did the CEO.

If you think your CEO is making all the decisions about your workspace, think again. A survey released by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) further illustrates the increasingly important role facility management (FM) and real estate professionals are playing in high-level strategic workplace decisions.

Specifically, when asked who was driving workplace strategy decisions related to the implementation of distributed work, FM and real estate managers were identified in 30 percent of responses, only slightly less than senior executives (38 percent).

The revelation that FM professionals are a key driving force behind high-level strategic decisions is found in IFMA’s latest workplace strategy report, “Distributed Work Revisited.” Other key findings include an increase in the number of employees using unassigned space coupled with a decrease in the actual allocated space for that shared space. 

In addition to the full results of the distributed work survey with corresponding analysis, the report includes several case studies from organizations that have found success with distributed work strategies including eBay, Accenture, Microsoft, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the city of Calgary.

The report also offers a “Lessons Learned” section in which the real experiences in implementing distributed work strategies is condensed into useful guidance to help FM professionals succeed in similar efforts.

The complete version of “Distributed Work Revisited: Research Report #37” is available for sale online.

IFMA is the world's largest and most widely recognized international association for facility management professionals, supporting 24,000 members in 105 countries.

About the Author

Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is the former content director of EHS Today, and is currently the EHSQ content & community lead at Intelex Technologies Inc. She has written about occupational safety and health and environmental issues since 1990.

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