“With not enough young workers entering the profession there’s a growing skills gap,” says Shane Betts, Head of Corporate Business for JLL Work Dynamics. “It means filling any FM role can prove challenging. But finding professionals with technology skills can be even harder.”

While the real estate industry has been slow to adopt new technologies, this is rapidly changing, with 56% of organizations planning to adopt technology for predictive maintenance, JLL research shows.

 “Employing and upskilling people with the desire and capability to use the tools available to deliver on strategic goals and improve experiences for building users is now an imperative,” says Betts.

The facilities management profession has been notoriously under-appreciated in the past, with much of its work going on behind the scenes. Now, as technology fuels more complex, agile and sophisticated facilities strategies, those fluent in its use are increasingly being sought out and recognized as vital to workplace success.

A recent survey by smart building tech firm Toggled, found while an overwhelming majority of organizations had implemented smart tech, 4 in 10 said they lacked dedicated, knowledgeable facilities staff to keep it running smoothly.

The hybrid workplace, with its fluctuating occupancy rates, requires greater agility and more tailored solutions than the standardized routines of old.

“Fixed annual maintenance and reactive plans no longer cut it,” Betts says. “Companies are competing with the lure of working from home and their buildings need to earn the commute. Factor in net zero carbon objectives and dynamic, sustainable FM is the only way to successfully deliver.”

Dynamic cleaning based on actual use, rather than set rotas, is one established example of this in action.

Betts believes tech-skilled facilities managers are increasingly valuable because they can monitor and interpret the data from sensors, BMS systems and other proptech platforms, as well as apply practical technical expertise to their location.

“By accessing and analyzing historical and real-time data they’re identifying trends and patterns, forecasting space utilization, delivering predictive maintenance and provisioning optimum levels of service,” he concludes.