business plan for a facilities management company

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How to Start a Facilities Management Business

How to Start a Small Business

Starting a facilities management business can get you on the path to a secure financial future but it's important to plan out the business in detail before you start. We offer a few secrets to develop the business successfully.

Wondering how to start a facilities management business? We take you step-by-step from start to success.

Get a few contracts with local office buildings and your facilities management startup will be off and running.

Getting a Handle on the Facilities Management Industry

The facilities management field is a deliberately broad business category, encompassing a diverse range of multidisciplinary specialties and job functions. Facility management companies provide maintenance and/or management services for commercial and industrial buildings. However, the scope of provided services varies widely, from daily maintenance tasks to the implementation of sophisticated environmental management systems.

Given the breadth of the industry, startup entrepreneurs in facilities management need to quickly assess their capabilities and identify the specializations they can deliver to clients. While some startups launch as full facilities management providers, others choose to focus on safety, maintenance, fire prevention, security, environmental compliance or other sub-fields as a gateway to the industry.

Guidelines for Facility Management Startups

Many facility management entrepreneurs dream about owning a large management corporation that caters to a high profile client list. Dreaming big is a good thing for entrepreneurs . . . But the most important thing is getting your foot in the door and getting your business off the ground as quickly as possible.

• Start small . In the facility management business, there is absolutely nothing wrong with starting small . For example, instead of holding out for a management contract with a major entertainment venue, launch your business with a handful of local office buildings. As your business grows, you will learn valuable lessons and establish a reputation that makes it easier to land larger clients.
• Hire strategically . While it might be nice to have an authority on green building management on your staff, a more strategic hiring approach might be to hire an individual who has above average skills in multiple management disciplines so the hire can be deployed on multiple types of job sites.
• Build a portfolio . Income is great, but every client you acquire should have strategic value for your portfolio. It takes time and effort to identify, target and secure specific clients in your market. However, the payoff will be a client portfolio that demonstrates an increasing scope of responsibilities and a robust client list that can be mined for referrals .

How to Write an Effective Facilities Management Company Business Plan

A business plan isn't just another startup formality. It's a core business document that will guide your facilities management business's decisions and activities on a go-forward basis.

Accuracy and an eye for detail count when writing a business plan. To be reliable, your business plan can't include best guesses or intentional exaggerations.

The more effort you invest in the details of your plan, the greater the payoff you will receive from your efforts. As a further guide, consider what the experts say about business plan writing .

Look Over the Competition

Prior to launching a facilities management business in your town, it's worthwhile to find out how you will fit in the competitive landscape. We've provided the link below to help you get a list of local competitors nearby. Just enter your city, state and zip code to get a list of facilities management businesses in your community.

• Search for Facilities Management Businesses Near You

Gain a knowledge of how existing firms have positioned themselves in the marketplace, and then design your business in a way that sets you apart from the others.

Getting Advice from Experienced Entrepreneurs

As part of your due diligence on opening a facilities management business, it's essential that you learn as much as you can from somebody who is already in the business. If you think owners of nearby facilities management businesses will give you advice, think again. What's in it for them?

On the other hand, an individual who has a facilities management business in a different city can be a great learning resource for you, as long as they don't view you as a competitive threat. Many business owners are happy to give advice to new entrepreneurs. Our estimate is that you may have to contact many business owners to find one who is willing to share his wisdom with you.

Where do you find a facilities management business manager who is willing to advise you because you live in different cities?

Simple. Let your fingers do the walking by using the link below.

• Research Facilities Management Business Owners In Other Cities

Guidelines for a Facilities Management Business Acquisition

It's fairly common for facilities management business entrepreneurs to gain entry through a business acquisition.

Although buying a facilities management business offers several advantages for startup entrepreneurs, there are still several key factors to consider . First and foremost, it's important to make sure the business is the right fit for your personal and professional goals.

Once you have determined that the facilities management business is an appropriate match for your goals, you will need to skillfully negotiate on price and perform a thorough due diligence process before you finalize the deal.

Explore Franchising Options

The odds of achieving your top business goals are much greater when you franchise in lieu of doing everything yourself.

As part of your process in starting a facilities management business, it's worthwhile to determine whether there are good franchise opportunities available that might increase your chances of success.

The link below gives you access to our franchise directory so you can see if there's a franchise opportunity for you. You might even find something that points you in a completely different direction.

• Real Estate Franchises for Sale

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Table of contents, unveiling the ultimate facility management business plan.

• 2 April, 2024

Introduction to Starting a Facility Management Business

When considering starting a facility management business, it is crucial to have a solid understanding of the field and the benefits it can provide. Facility management services play a vital role in supporting business activities by effectively managing and maintaining various aspects of a facility, allowing companies to focus on their core services and improve overall service quality.

Understanding Facility Management

Facility management encompasses a range of services aimed at creating and maintaining a secure and efficient environment for businesses. It involves the management and maintenance of business processes, ensuring that facilities operate smoothly and effectively. This includes tasks such as maintenance and repairs, security management, space planning, energy management, and more.

By outsourcing facility management services, businesses can leverage the expertise of professionals in the field, benefiting from their specialized knowledge and experience. This allows companies to optimize their operations, streamline processes, and enhance overall efficiency. An effective facility management strategy creates a safe, functional, and productive environment for employees and customers alike.

Benefits of Starting a Facility Management Business

Starting a facility management business presents numerous benefits for both the business owner and clients. Some of the key advantages include:

Enhancing Efficiency and Reducing Costs : A well-managed facility can significantly improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. By implementing effective maintenance programs, optimizing space utilization, and utilizing energy-efficient practices, businesses can streamline their operations and achieve cost savings.

Improving Workplace Safety and Security : Facility management includes ensuring workplace safety and security, which is crucial for the well-being of employees and the protection of assets. Implementing robust security measures, conducting regular safety inspections, and maintaining compliance with regulations contribute to a secure working environment.

Optimizing Space Utilization : Facility managers can analyze space utilization and make recommendations to optimize its usage. This may involve redesigning layouts, implementing flexible workspaces, or identifying underutilized areas for repurposing.

Ensuring Business Continuity : Facility management plays a vital role in maintaining the continuity of business operations. By implementing disaster recovery plans, conducting regular equipment maintenance, and ensuring backup systems are in place, facility managers help minimize disruptions and keep businesses running smoothly.

Implementing Sustainable Practices : Environmental sustainability is a growing concern for businesses. Facility management can help implement sustainable practices such as energy-efficient lighting, waste reduction programs, and water conservation measures. By focusing on sustainability, businesses can reduce their environmental impact and enhance their public image.

By starting a facility management business, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to provide essential services to businesses across various industries. By understanding the field of facility management and its benefits, aspiring business owners can lay the groundwork for a successful venture.

Planning for a Successful Facility Management Business

To ensure the success of a facility management business, thorough planning is essential. This section will cover the key components of planning for a successful facility management business, including defining the problem and opportunity, analyzing options and solutions, planning implementation and evaluation, stakeholder engagement and alignment, as well as incorporating innovation and best practices.

Defining the Problem and Opportunity

The first step in planning for a successful facility management business is clearly defining the problem or gap that the project or initiative aims to address. This could be related to the performance, efficiency, compliance, sustainability, or quality of the facility management services or assets. It is important to gather data and evidence to support the claims, aligning the problem and opportunity with the organization’s strategy and objectives. Identifying the problem and opportunity allows for a focused approach to developing solutions and achieving desired outcomes.

Analyzing Options and Solutions

The second step involves analyzing the possible options and solutions to address the identified problem and opportunity. This analysis should include comparing costs, benefits, and impacts of each option. Methodologies such as cost-benefit analysis, life cycle costing, or return on investment can be used to assess and evaluate the options. It is crucial to consider the risks and uncertainties associated with each option to recommend the most feasible and desirable solution.

Planning Implementation and Evaluation

The next step is to plan the implementation and evaluation of the chosen option or solution. This involves outlining the scope, schedule, budget, resources, roles, responsibilities, key performance indicators (KPIs), targets, and milestones to measure progress and outcomes. It is important to monitor, report, and communicate the results and impacts to relevant stakeholders and audiences. By establishing a comprehensive implementation and evaluation plan, the facility management business can ensure the effective execution and continuous improvement of its operations.

Stakeholder Engagement and Alignment

Demonstrating stakeholder engagement and alignment is another crucial component of planning for a successful facility management business. Engaging with key stakeholders, both internal and external, and aligning the project or initiative with their interests, expectations, and concerns is essential. By involving stakeholders in the development and delivery of the project, and ensuring alignment with the organization’s vision, mission, values, and culture, the facility management business can foster collaboration and support.

Incorporating Innovation and Best Practices

Lastly, a successful facility management business plan should highlight how the project or initiative incorporates innovation and best practices in facility management. This includes showcasing the use of new technologies, methods, or approaches to enhance facility management services or assets. Following relevant standards, guidelines, or frameworks in the industry is also crucial. Providing examples or benchmarks of successful facility management projects or initiatives in other organizations or sectors can inspire innovation and drive continuous improvement.

By carefully considering and incorporating these components into the planning process, a facility management business can set a solid foundation for success. It ensures that the business is well-prepared to address challenges, seize opportunities, and deliver high-quality facility management services to meet the needs of its clients and stakeholders.

Setting Goals and Objectives for a Facility Management Business

To ensure the success of a facility management business, it’s essential to set clear goals and objectives that align with the organization’s mission and vision. These goals should focus on enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, improving workplace safety and security, optimizing space utilization, ensuring business continuity, and implementing sustainable practices.

Enhancing Efficiency and Reducing Costs

Enhancing efficiency and reducing costs are fundamental goals for any facility management business. By streamlining processes, eliminating waste, and implementing best practices, facility managers can optimize operations and maximize resource utilization. This includes effective planning and scheduling of maintenance activities, implementing energy-saving initiatives, and adopting technology solutions to automate manual tasks and improve overall efficiency. According to UpKeep , enhancing efficiency and reducing costs are key goals that can be achieved with actionable implementation strategies.

Improving Workplace Safety and Security

Ensuring a safe and secure work environment is paramount for a facility management business. Facility managers should prioritize the implementation of safety protocols, regular equipment inspections, and proactive measures to prevent accidents and injuries. This includes maintaining proper ventilation systems, conducting regular risk assessments, and providing adequate training to employees. By focusing on workplace safety and security, facility managers can enhance employee well-being, reduce potential liabilities, and create a positive work environment.

Optimizing Space Utilization

Optimizing space utilization is essential for maximizing the efficiency of a facility. Facility managers should strive to make the most of available space by analyzing occupancy patterns, identifying underutilized areas, and implementing space management strategies. This may involve reconfiguring layouts, implementing hot-desking or flexible workspace arrangements, and utilizing space management software to track occupancy and utilization rates. By optimizing space utilization, facility managers can create a more productive and collaborative work environment while reducing unnecessary rental or maintenance costs.

Ensuring Business Continuity

Business continuity is a critical objective for facility management businesses. Facility managers should develop robust plans and protocols to ensure the continuous operation of essential services, even during unforeseen events or emergencies. This includes implementing backup power systems, establishing emergency response procedures, and maintaining regular communication channels with stakeholders. By prioritizing business continuity, facility managers can minimize disruptions, protect assets, and maintain a high level of service reliability.

Implementing Sustainable Practices

In today’s environmentally conscious society, implementing sustainable practices is an important goal for facility management businesses. Facility managers should strive to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations by implementing energy-efficient measures, waste reduction initiatives, and green building practices. This may involve adopting renewable energy sources, implementing recycling programs, and promoting water conservation. By prioritizing sustainability, facility managers can contribute to a healthier environment, enhance their organization’s reputation, and attract environmentally conscious clients.

Setting clear goals and objectives in these areas is vital for the success of a facility management business. By focusing on enhancing efficiency, improving workplace safety and security, optimizing space utilization, ensuring business continuity, and implementing sustainable practices, facility managers can create a well-rounded and successful business that meets the needs of both clients and stakeholders.

Budgeting and Cost Management for a Facility Management Business

Effective budgeting and cost management play a crucial role in the success of a facility management business. By carefully planning and monitoring expenses, facility managers can optimize resource allocation, prioritize maintenance and repairs, control costs, and ensure long-term financial stability. Let’s explore the key aspects of budgeting and cost management in the context of facility management.

Importance of Budgeting and Cost Management

Budgeting and cost management in facility management have far-reaching implications for overall operational effectiveness and efficiency. They impact resource allocation efficiency, prioritization of maintenance and repairs, operational performance, cost control and reduction, preventive maintenance strategies, strategic planning, decision-making, vendor and contractor management, compliance and risk management, asset lifecycle management, sustainability practices, performance monitoring and reporting, stakeholder communication, and long-term financial stability.

Types of Budgets in Facility Management

Managing a facility management business involves various types of budgets, each serving a specific purpose. Some common types of budgets in facility management include:

• Operating Budgets: These budgets cover day-to-day expenses, such as utilities, maintenance, cleaning services, and staffing.
• Capital Budgets: Capital budgets focus on long-term investments, such as renovations, equipment purchases, and facility upgrades.
• Cash Budgets: Cash budgets track the inflow and outflow of cash to ensure sufficient funds are available for ongoing operations.
• Master Budgets: Master budgets consolidate all the individual budgets to provide an overall financial plan for the facility management business.

Gathering Data and Historical Information

To prepare an accurate budget, facility managers must gather relevant data and historical information. This includes reviewing past financial statements, analyzing expenditure patterns, and identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to facility management. By leveraging this data, facility managers can make informed financial decisions and allocate resources effectively ( LinkedIn ).

Estimating Maintenance and Repair Costs

Estimating maintenance and repair costs is a critical aspect of budgeting and cost management in facility management. Facility managers can conduct site inspections, create maintenance schedules, and analyze cost drivers and trends to make accurate cost estimations. By understanding the projected costs for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades, facility managers can allocate funds appropriately and ensure the facility remains in excellent condition ( LinkedIn ).

Budget Monitoring and Control

Once a budget is established, facility managers must actively monitor and control expenses to ensure adherence to the financial plan. This involves implementing tracking mechanisms, analyzing budget variances, taking corrective actions when necessary, maintaining financial transparency, optimizing budget allocations, and enhancing budget accuracy. Budget monitoring and control allow facility managers to effectively manage costs, prevent crises, and make adjustments as needed to stay within budgetary constraints ( LinkedIn ).

By prioritizing budgeting and cost management in a facility management business, facility managers can make informed financial decisions, optimize resource allocation, control costs, and ensure the long-term success and profitability of the business. This strategic approach enables facility managers to effectively manage facility operations while maintaining financial stability.

Market Research for Facility Planning in a Facility Management Business

In the process of starting a facility management business, conducting thorough market research is essential for effective facility planning. Market research provides valuable insights into various aspects that can impact the success of your facility. In this section, we will explore the importance of market research in facility planning, gauging community interest and feasibility, assessing market competition, and executing the vision for the facility.

Importance of Market Research in Facility Planning

Market research plays a crucial role in the facility planning process. It helps in gathering data and analyzing information that is vital for making informed decisions. By conducting market research, facility management businesses can gain a clear understanding of the needs and preferences of their target audience, allowing them to tailor their facilities to meet those demands. Without the right market research, bringing a facility planning project to completion can be challenging ( Sports Facilities Advisory ).

Gauging Community Interest and Feasibility

One important aspect of market research in facility planning is gauging community interest and feasibility. This involves conducting feasibility studies and assessing the practicality of the project based on market conditions. By understanding the community’s needs, preferences, and potential client base, facility management businesses can ensure the viability and success of their facilities. Gauging community interest helps in aligning the facility’s offerings with the demands of the target market.

Assessing Market Competition

Market research also helps in assessing market competition. By evaluating existing facilities in the area, facility management businesses can understand their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. This knowledge can be incorporated into the facility planning process to make informed decisions and differentiate their offerings from the competition. By identifying gaps and opportunities in the market, businesses can position themselves effectively and develop a competitive edge ( Sports Facilities Advisory ).

Executing the Vision for the Facility

The ultimate goal of market research in facility planning is to aid in executing the vision for the facility. While an inspired vision is important, market research ensures that the vision can be realized and contributes to the success of the facility. By aligning the facility’s offerings with market demand, businesses can attract and retain customers, drive revenue, and achieve their goals. Market research provides valuable insights that guide the decision-making process and contribute to the overall success of the facility ( Sports Facilities Advisory ).

By conducting comprehensive market research, facility management businesses can make informed decisions, identify opportunities, and mitigate risks. This research helps in understanding the needs and preferences of the target audience, gauging community interest, assessing market competition, and executing the vision for the facility. Incorporating market research into the facility planning process is crucial for the long-term success and sustainability of the facility.

Facility Management Planning for Success

To ensure the success of a facility management business, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive facility management plan. This plan acts as a roadmap, guiding the management and utilization of physical resources to achieve business goals. In this section, we will explore the key components of a facility management plan and the steps involved in its development.

Developing a Facility Management Plan

A facility management plan is a specific document that outlines the strategies and goals for managing an organization’s physical resources, such as buildings, equipment, and furniture. It serves as a blueprint for designing, constructing, maintaining, and upgrading facilities to maximize their value and contribute to the overall success of the business ( POC System ).

Essential Considerations for a Facility Management Plan

Several essential considerations should be taken into account when developing a facility management plan. These considerations ensure that the plan addresses the unique needs of the facility and aligns with the business objectives. They include:

• Safety and Security: Incorporating measures to enhance workplace safety and security, ensuring the well-being of employees and visitors.
• Open Communication: Establishing effective communication channels to facilitate feedback, address concerns, and foster a collaborative environment.
• Maintenance: Implementing a proactive maintenance strategy to minimize downtime, reduce repair costs, and prolong the lifespan of assets.
• Business Continuity: Developing strategies to ensure the uninterrupted operation of critical business functions in the event of disruptions or emergencies.
• Space Utilization: Optimizing the use of available space to maximize efficiency, enhance productivity, and support the evolving needs of the organization ( POC System ).

Optimizing space utilization is a crucial aspect of facility management planning. By utilizing space efficiently and maximizing the space utilization rate, businesses can make the most of their available resources. This includes implementing key metrics for space usage analysis, identifying underutilized areas, and exploring opportunities for flexible workspace arrangements. Effective space utilization contributes to improved employee productivity and reduced costs, making it a significant consideration in facility management planning.

Steps for Successful Facility Management Planning

Developing a facility management plan involves a series of steps to ensure its effectiveness and alignment with business goals. These steps include:

• Identifying the Current State: Assessing the existing facilities, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
• Prioritizing Objectives: Determining the objectives that align with the organization’s overall business goals and vision.
• Creating an Actionable Plan: Developing a detailed plan of action, outlining the strategies and tasks required to achieve the defined objectives.
• Implementing the Plan: Executing the plan systematically, allocating resources, and engaging stakeholders to ensure successful implementation.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Regularly monitoring the progress of the plan, evaluating its effectiveness, and making necessary adjustments to optimize results ( POC System ).

Leveraging Automated Software for Facility Management

In today’s digital age, leveraging automated software can greatly enhance facility management planning. Software solutions, such as POC System’s Space Management Software, provide advanced features to streamline facility management processes. These tools offer functionalities to maximize space utilization, track maintenance schedules, manage assets, and generate insightful reports. By integrating automated software into facility management practices, businesses can improve efficiency, enhance communication, and achieve their facility management objectives more effectively ( POC System ).

By developing a well-structured facility management plan that addresses essential considerations, optimizes space utilization, and leverages automated software, businesses can set themselves up for success in the facility management industry. This plan serves as a valuable tool to guide decision-making, ensure operational efficiency, and contribute to the overall growth and sustainability of the business.

Components of a Successful Facility Management Business Case

To create a compelling and effective facility management (FM) business case, several key components need to be considered. These components help to define the problem, analyze options, plan implementation, engage stakeholders, and incorporate innovation and best practices. Let’s explore each of these components in detail.

Defining the Problem or Gap

The first component of a successful FM business case is defining the problem or gap that the project or initiative aims to address. This could be related to the performance, efficiency, compliance, sustainability, or quality of the FM services or assets. It is essential to use data and evidence to support claims and align the problem and opportunity with the organization’s strategy and objectives. By clearly defining the problem, decision-makers can understand the significance of the proposed solution and its potential impact ( LinkedIn ).

The second component involves analyzing the possible options or solutions to address the identified problem and opportunity. This analysis should include comparing costs, benefits, and impacts of each option. Methodologies like cost-benefit analysis, life cycle costing, or return on investment can be utilized to assess the feasibility and desirability of each option. It is also crucial to evaluate the risks and uncertainties associated with each solution to recommend the most suitable one for the FM business case ( LinkedIn ).

Planning the implementation and evaluation of the chosen option is the next important component of a successful FM business case. This involves outlining the scope, schedule, budget, resources, roles, responsibilities, key performance indicators (KPIs), targets, and milestones. By clearly defining these aspects, the progress and outcomes of the project can be effectively measured. Monitoring, reporting, and communicating the results and impacts to relevant stakeholders and audiences are crucial for successful implementation and evaluation.

The fourth component of a successful FM business case focuses on demonstrating stakeholder engagement and alignment. This involves engaging with key stakeholders, both internal and external, and aligning the project or initiative with their interests, expectations, and concerns. It is important to involve stakeholders in the development and delivery of the project and ensure alignment with the organization’s vision, mission, values, and culture. Clear communication and collaboration with stakeholders enhance their support for the proposed solution and increase the chances of successful implementation ( LinkedIn ).

The final component of a successful FM business case is incorporating innovation and best practices in facility management. This involves showcasing the use of new technologies, methods, or approaches to enhance FM services or assets. Adhering to relevant standards, guidelines, or frameworks in the industry is also important. Providing examples or benchmarks of successful FM projects or initiatives in other organizations or sectors helps to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed solution. Incorporating innovation and best practices adds credibility to the business case and increases the likelihood of approval ( LinkedIn ).

By including these components in a facility management business case, you can create a comprehensive and persuasive argument that highlights the problem, proposes a suitable solution, and aligns with stakeholders’ interests and industry best practices. This approach increases the chances of success and support for your facility management project or initiative.

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How to start a facilities management company?

Most people think that starting a facilities management company is a difficult and complicated process, when in reality it can be quite simple. All you need is a passion for helping people and a desire to see things run smoothly and efficiently. Here are a few tips on how to get started in the facilities management industry:

1. Find a niche: There are many different types of facilities management companies, so it’s important to find a niche that you’re passionate about. Do you want to focus on hospitals, office buildings, or schools?

2. Get certified: Many clients will only work with facilities management companies that are certified by an accredited organization, such as the International Facility Management Association (IFMA).

3. Know your business: You need to understand the business of facilities management inside and out. What services will you offer? What are the trends in the industry?

4. Create a marketing plan: How will you let potential clients know about your company? You need to have a plan for marketing and advertising, whether it’s online, in print, or through word-of-mouth.

5. Hire a team: You can’t do everything yourself, so it

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to start a facilities management company will vary depending on the specific circumstances and goals of the company. However, there are some key steps that all successful companies take when starting out.

1. First, research the industry and get a clear understanding of the different types of facilities management companies, their services, and how they operate. This will help you determine what type of company you want to start, and what services you want to offer.

2. Once you have a clear idea of the kind of company you want to start, you need to develop a business plan. This should include your goals and objectives, your target market, your marketing and sales strategy, your financial projections, and your operating procedures.

3. Once your business plan is in place, you need to secure the necessary funding to get your company off the ground. This may involve taking out loans, seeking investors, or using your own personal savings.

4. Once you have the funding in place, you can start to build your team. Hire experienced facilities management professionals who can help you implement your business plan and provide the services you offers.

5. Once your team

How do I start facility management?

To start a facilities management company in the UAE, you will need the following documents:

– Copy of the investor’s passport – Copy of the local sponsor’s passport (if required) – No Objection Certificate (NOC) if any shareholder is working in a UAE company – Copy of Emirates ID of the shareholder(s) – DED registration application form

FM is responsible for four main functions: supporting people, establishing processes, facilities upkeep and improvement, and technology integration. Each of these functions is essential to the smooth operation of a facility.

FM must support the people who work in the facility. This includes providing training and support on the use of facilities and equipment, as well as ensuring that the facility is safe and comfortable to work in.

FM must also establish processes for the efficient use of the facility. This includes developing policies and procedures for the use of facilities and equipment, as well as coordinating the activities of different departments within the facility.

FM is also responsible for the upkeep and improvement of the facility. This includes maintaining the facility in good repair, as well as making improvements to the facility that will improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

Finally, FM must integrate technology into the facility. This includes installing and maintaining the equipment and systems that are necessary for the operation of the facility.

What are the 2 major types of facilities management

There are two types of facilities management: Hard Facilities Management (Hard FM) and Soft Facilities Management (Soft FM). Hard FM deals with physical assets such as plumbing, wiring, elevators, and heating and cooling. Soft FM deals with non-physical assets such as janitorial services, security, and landscaping.

A facility management company is responsible for the management and maintenance of a variety of buildings and facilities. The duties of a facility management company include managing manufacturing and industrial buildings, office buildings, retail centres, parks, sports facilities, hospitals, hotels, arenas, and many more. A facility management company works to ensure that all of the facilities under its care are well-maintained and functioning properly. In addition, a facility management company may also provide services such as event planning, security, and janitorial services.

Is facility management in demand?

Facility management is a field that is in high demand. Companies that specialize in maintenance or facility management are always looking for skilled facility managers. Both public and private companies need facility managers for their maintenance or facility management departments. If you have the skills and experience, you should definitely look into a career in facility management.

The CFM certificate is a great way to improve your career and earning potential. Many professionals have seen a significant salary increase after earning their CFM certificate, with an average of $6000 in the first year. The CFM certificate is an industry standard for excellence and is a great way to improve your career prospects.

What are the 4 pillars of facilities management?

Facility managers play a vital role in ensuring that all four pillars of facility management are in place in order to create a well-run, efficient and safe environment.

People are the most important pillar of facility management, as they are the ones who carry out the day-to-day tasks and operations within a building. Without the right team in place, a facility would quickly become unmanageable.

Processes are the second pillar of facility management and refers to the systems and procedures in place to ensure that all operations within a facility are carried out efficiently and effectively.

The building itself is the third pillar of facility management and refers to the physical structure of the facility, including the condition of the building and the maintenance needs.

The fourth and final pillar of facility management is technology. Technology plays a vital role in facility management, from providing security and surveillance to automating tasks and operations.

There are a variety of facilities in the commercial and institutional sector, each with their own unique purpose. Office buildings are typically used for businesses or government offices, while hospitals are designed for medical care. Laboratories are used for scientific research, and hotels are used for lodging and tourism. Restaurants serve food and beverages, and educational facilities provide instruction. Industrial facilities are used for manufacturing, production, and storage.

What is the daily routine of a facility manager

The facility manager is responsible for the overall operation of the facility. This includes planning all facility activities, controlling schedules, managing contracts, developing work standards, and evaluating both employees and external contractors. The manager must also hire and organize all personnel, develop work schedules, and implement appropriate policies and procedures.

What are the 4 main functions of a facility manager?

Facilities management is a term used to describe a range of activities and services delivered to support the needs of an organisation. The four main functions of facilities management are recognised as being:

Facilities upkeep and improvement – ensuring that buildings and equipment are well maintained and fit for purpose;

Supporting people – providing a safe and comfortable working environment for employees;

Establishing efficient working processes – ensuring that workflows are efficient and effective;

Strategizing and integrating technology relevant to the company’s needs – ensuring that technology is used effectively to support the business.

What Makes a Great Facility Manager?

A great facility manager has the ability to see the big picture and understand how facilities fit into the overall scheme of things. They’re always looking for ways to improve the workplace and make positive changes that will benefit the business as a whole. They have a keen eye for detail and are always on the lookout for opportunities to make things better.

What qualifications do I need to be a facilities manager

The skills required to be a successful business manager include customer service skills, business management skills, administration skills, the ability to be thorough and pay attention to detail, knowledge of economics and accounting, patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations, and the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure.

A facilities manager is someone who is responsible for the upkeep and day-to-day operations of a facility. This can include everything from cleaning and maintenance to security and event planning. Synonyms for facilities manager include facilities administrator, facilities helpdesk lead, and facilities supervisor.

Is facilities management a stressful job?

Facility management can be a very stressful job, with a lot of challenges that can be unpredictable and ever-increasing demands. However, it is important to remember that it is a very important job that helps to keep our facilities running smoothly and efficiently. With the right attitude and a commitment to excellence, anyone can be a great facility manager.

An Enterprise Asset Management System (EAM) is a computerized system that helps organizations manage their physical assets, such as buildings, equipment, and vehicles. An EAM can help organizations keep track of their asset inventory, schedule and track maintenance activities, and monitor asset performance.

An EAM can be a valuable tool for facility managers, as it can help them to more effectively manage their facility and its assets. An EAM can help facility managers to identify and track assets, schedule and track maintenance activities, and monitor asset performance. By using an EAM, facility managers can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their facility management operations.

What is the profit margin for facility management

The average margin is less than 5% while some companies struggle to make 1% or 2%. This is because the 5% margin is the average of all companies, while 1% or 2% is the margin of a specific company. The reason why some companies have a hard time making a profit is because they have a lot of expenses, such as labour, rent, and materials.

Lack of facility information availability is a major issue that can lead to a number of problems. Field teams may not be able to access essential data, and leadership teams may not have a clear view of operations. This can make it difficult to make informed decisions and support the team. It is important to have systems and processes in place to ensure that information is available when it is needed.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to start a facilities management company will vary depending on the specific industry and business context. However, there are some general tips that can be followed in order to ensure a successful start:

1. Research the Industry and Your Target Market: It is important to have a clear understanding of the facilities management industry and the specific needs of your target market. This will help you develop a tailored and effective business model.

2.Create a Business Plan: A well-crafted business plan is essential for any new business, and this is especially true for a facilities management company. This document will serve as a roadmap for your business and should be created with input from industry experts.

3. Build a Strong Team: A successful facilities management company will require a team of skilled and experienced professionals. It is important to carefully select individuals who have the right mix of skills and personalities to work well together.

4. Secure the Right financing: While it is possible to start a facilities management company with limited capital, having access to the right financing will give you a significant advantage. Be sure to put together a comprehensive financial plan that includes funding for start-up costs, operating expenses

The best way to start a facilities management company is to first gain experience in the industry. Look for opportunities to get involved in facility management projects and learn as much as possible about the field. Once you have a good understanding of how facilities are managed and what goes into the process, you can start to develop your own company. There are many things to consider when starting a company, so be sure to do your research and develop a solid business plan. With a well-planned business and a passion for helping others manage their facilities, you can be successful in the facilities management industry.

Wallace Jacobs

Wallace Jacobs is an experienced leader in marketing and management. He has worked in the corporate sector for over twenty years and is a driving force behind many successful companies. Wallace is committed to helping companies grow and reach their goals, leveraging his experience in leading teams and developing business strategies.

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How to Develop a Successful Facility Management Plan

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Facility management refers to planning and overseeing all the physical resources of your organization, such as buildings, equipment, furniture, and more. To ensure good facility management, you first need to create a plan to design, construct, maintain, and upgrade your facilities to maximize their value and achieve your business goals.

A facility management plan is a specific document that outlines the strategies and goals for managing your organization's physical resources.

A successful facility management plan can help you minimize costs and efficiently manage your physical resources. For example, a facility management plan can help in real estate decision-making by providing insight into your planning, design, and space management operations.

What Should You Consider for Your Facility Management Plan?

Developing a good facility management plan is easier said than done, as the factors around it can differ based on your company's goals. Nevertheless, you should consider these universal tips:

Provide Safety and Security

The safety and security of your employees, visitors, and assets should be your top priority when developing a facility management plan. You can achieve your organization's safety goals by implementing access control measures such as key cards, alarm systems, and CCTV cameras throughout the facility.

Another important element of creating a safe and comfortable workspace is adhering to safety regulations such as having fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, and wayfinding maps to exits in case of emergency.

■ Create an efficient wayfinding system with these best practices

Improve Communication

It's essential to ensure open communication between occupants, stakeholders, and other parties involved in your facility management. This can help clarify everyone's objectives and establish an open dialogue so that everyone's informed of any changes or improvements to the facilities.

In addition to boosting employee satisfaction , open communication will also allow your collaborators to express their concerns and doubts so you can address them before they turn into bigger issues.

Ensure Maintenance and Business Continuity

Planning for preventative maintenance, analyzing the elements that need maintenance or repair, creating budgets for these tasks, and preparing for unexpected problems are all key aspects to ensure your operations are uninterrupted.

To plan for maintenance and potential issues, you should consider implementing advanced maintenance management systems to better track and manage your assets. This will help to reduce costs and unexpected breakdowns to keep your business running smoothly.

■ Regular maintenance can allow for better facility management reports 

Optimize Space Utilization

 Space utilization is an important factor to consider when developing a facility management plan because optimizing space usage within your facility can boost employee productivity and reduce costs. Important space usage factors you should consider include:

• Office layout : Choose either an open or closed office layout based on your specific business needs.
• Design choices : Ensure your design creates an inviting environment within your facility while making the most out of the space.
• Eco-friendly spaces : Green workspaces can lower costs with more efficient energy use .
• Furniture and equipment : Make sure these elements are placed in the best positions where employees can easily access them and actually use them.
• Space flexibility : Opt for flexible workspaces that can easily be changed depending on your needs.

Taking these factors into account when calculating your space utilization rate can help ensure all areas of your facility are used to their full potential.

■ Ensure maximum space utilization using these key metrics 

4 Basic Steps for a Successful Facility Management Plan

If you're not sure where to start, take a look at these four basic steps for creating a successful facility management plan:

1. Identify the Current State of the Facility

By identifying the current state of the facility first, you create a baseline from which you can make decisions about budgeting, repair needs, and space utilization. It also provides insight into areas that need improvement, enabling you to focus your efforts on these critical points and maximize efficiency.

2. Prioritize Objectives

When developing a facility management plan, it's important to ensure it aligns with your overall business objectives to prevent wasting resources and halting progress.

If your business goal is to become more energy efficient, any facility improvements you make should reflect this goal. This could involve changes to the facility layout and implementing green workspaces.

By prioritizing your objectives, you can make sure your organization's efforts are focused on the right areas and your facility management contributes to your goals.

■ Improve your facility management with these essential KPIs 

3. Create and Implement a Plan

Once you've identified your objectives, you should conceive an actionable plan and set achievable timeframes.

If one of your goals is to switch to an open layout due to the benefits of open-space offices , your plan should outline the design choices, budgeting requirements, and furniture and equipment placement while specifying the expected completion dates for each point.

Once you have a plan in place, you should communicate it to everyone involved so they can perform their duties mindfully and with clear direction, thereby maximizing productivity and ensuring your objectives are met within the established timeline.

4. Monitor the Plan

Regularly monitoring the facility management plan is important to identify any shortcomings or inefficiencies and establish a success rate. This should involve regular check-ins with employees, creating maintenance reports, and changing the layout as necessary.

These steps will ensure that you can identify any issue early on and take corrective action quickly and efficiently while allowing for better decision-making in the future.

Automated Software Can Assist In Your Success

POC System: Office Space Management

When implementing a facility management plan, automated software like POC System's Space Management Software can be an invaluable asset. This useful tool offers the following features:

• Visual simulations to help with floor plan design 
• Streamlined booking of desks and meeting rooms
• Creating custom seating plans for maximum employee productivity
• Advanced analytics to evaluate the success of your objectives
• Real-time tracking of your current seating and office layout

These features can provide you with the tools you need to maximize space utilization and ensure your objectives are met within the set timeline.

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Easily Create a Successful Facility Management Plan

Creating a successful facility management plan that aligns with your overall business objectives can be highly beneficial to your organization's bottom line. This process should involve prioritizing objectives, creating and implementing an actionable plan, and regularly monitoring the facility space usage.

While this can be a daunting task, automated software like POC System's Space Management Software can make it a whole lot easier. With this tool, you can quickly develop an effective facility management plan and ensure your resources are being used in the most efficient manner.

■ Book a demo to explore POC's features

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Strategic facility planning: an overview, the process and importance

Home » Insights » Consulting » Strategic facility planning: an overview, the process and importance

Growth is the objective for most businesses. And while you plan for that growth, you need to consider, among other factors, whether you have the space to expand your business. Strategic facility planning helps organizations set the strategic direction for all further planning activities.

What is Strategic Facility Planning?

Strategic facility planning (SFP) is a structured planning process that helps organizations align their short and long-term facility plans with their business plans. The SFP process typically includes the entire real estate (network or facility) portfolio, although it can also focus on a single aspect of the plan. It is a data-driven, defensible, high-level look at what facilities and strategic solutions are needed for an organization to achieve its business goals.

Strategic facility planning is the first phase of the overarching facility planning process.

The facility planning process includes three steps:

• Strategic facility planning (SFP): a two-to-ten-year plan that defines the facility needs, at a high level, for an organization to successfully achieve their business plan.
• Master or campus planning (MP): a physical plan that organizes a site or campus, the facility and infrastructure that is needed to implement the SFP.
• Tactical facility planning: the execution of the master plan with detailed programming and conceptual design solutions. Tactical planning also includes the day-to-day workspace planning that is needed for an organization to operate.

Many organizations use “master plan” as an all-encompassing term that groups together the strategic facility plan and master plan. But there are differences between the two and it’s important to recognize them as separate steps in the planning process.

The SFP process answers questions and identifies the facility requirements needed to meet your short and long-term goals. With the right people and data, the SFP process can quickly and accurately look at an organization’s facility demands, gaps, and help guide an organization toward a more efficient and cost-effective facility strategy to inform the development of a full master plan.

Translating the business plan to a facility plan

The first objective of strategic facility planning is to clearly define the facility implications of your business plan for both the near and long term.  For most SFPs a near-term planning horizon is 3-5 years, and the long term is 6-10+ years.

For some organizations, the business plan is simple. They want to grow by a certain percent per year with accompanying revenue, expenses, and profit goals. For others, the business plan also includes strategies to respond to changing markets or demographics, a change in its distribution network, the adoption of new technologies, or perhaps potential mergers and acquisitions. For a complex organization, the list of business drivers can be quite extensive.

Given that the cost of facilities is predictably the second largest expense line item for most organizations (payroll is the number one expense), it would serve any organization well to not only have a robust business plan but to also have a dynamic strategic facility plan to understand and predict its facility expenses as the business changes.

Kicking off the strategic facility plan process

The SFP kick-off meeting must focus on communicating the business goals, assumptions to be made, and questions that need to be answered.

The SFP process begins with a review of the business plan. Some of the most important points to discuss include goals for growth, pipeline of products that will trigger that growth, as well as any other business drivers, growth initiatives and/or operational changes that are envisioned for the planning horizon (typically 3-10 years). The goal is to get a comprehensive picture of the business and where you want to take it in as much detail as necessary to be able to lay out the facility implications.

Who is involved in this initial SFP meeting? C-suite executives and directors/managers that can speak to the organization’s current and future business and operations, and those empowered to make appropriate business, operations, and facility assumptions.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF

downloadable strategic facility planning checklist for biopharma

Making assumptions

Once you have laid out your organization’s business and operational plans, the next step is to clearly define what assumptions are being made about the facilities and operations. For example, an organization with a large manufacturing operation may do all their quality control testing activities in-house. If the organization is planning to grow manufacturing, it stands to reason that the supporting testing operations may also need to grow, unless excess testing capacity currently exists (more on that later).

Alternatively, these types of testing services can be outsourced. So, what is the assumption for the future? Testing in-house or outsourced? Does a deeper study need to be triggered to compare the costs? During the kick-off meeting, develop a list of assumptions, determine if those assumptions need to be challenged, and identify potential follow-up actions. This will ultimately inform the strategic facility plan.

Here is the key – as the SFP is revisited annually (ideally), these assumptions may need to change. And that is OK. Having a comprehensive list of the assumptions at the forefront of the SFP deliverable is critical to understanding the SFP findings and recommendations, and it allows the SFP to evolve and change with changes to the business.

SFP answers strategic questions

Given that facilities are a major cost item on the expense side of the P&L, many organizations leverage the SFP process to answer strategic questions about their growth.

• For example, if an organization has an urgent need to add expand its product line to serve a new market sector, they may use the SFP process to help them answer the question, “What is the quickest, most cost-effective way to bring on new warehouse space?”  
• In the case of our manufacturing/testing example, the client may have limited lab capacity so the question to be answered might be, “ How much can we increase our manufacturing before we need new lab space?” typically followed by, “How much additional lab space is needed to support the 10-year manufacturing demand? ”
• With the rapid global spread of COVID-19, many organizations are now asking the question, “ How do I need to adjust my facilities for a pandemic?”

Identifying the facility demand for the entire portfolio

While organizations often focus on the revenue-producing part of their business and facilities (i.e., manufacturing), a good strategic facility plan should evaluate the entire real estate and space portfolio to identify the entire facility demand implicated by the business plan . To continue building on our example from above, an increase in manufacturing will likely trigger the need for additional warehouse space and even offices—beyond those additional testing labs.

Developing a baseline for SFP with data-driven analytics

While the SFP process identifies what facilities are needed for the organization to meet its goals and objectives of the business plan, this can only start with a comprehensive understanding of your current facilities’ capacity and utilization. Work with the day-to-day operational managers to understand how well the existing facilities are operating and where opportunities and limitations currently exist for adding capacity and/or increasing utilization. In other words, you need to know what you have before you can define what you need.

In the case where an organization is completely new and has no existing facilities, CRB leverages benchmarks from other similar facilities to make assumptions regarding space utilization, capacity, and facility demand. In a nutshell, the SFP process lays out the facility supply, facility demand, and facility gaps for the organization for the specified planning horizon.

Leverage the organization’s space management data

In addition to talking with managers and compiling operational data, leverage a space management tool for SFP to establish the facility supply (baseline). Most organizations that have more than 250,000 square feet of facility space have adopted (and are using for tactical space planning) an Integrative Workplace Management System or IWMS . If populated correctly, this database contains helpful information for every room in every building. Most importantly, this provides quick access to floor plans, square footage, and space utilization. With this database in hand, you can quickly assess your organization’s baseline supply for the SFP and add attributes and additional data points as needed for establishing the facility gaps.

Understanding utilization and capacity of existing facilities is key

The next step is to develop a deeper understanding of both the utilization and capacity of the existing facilities and develop planning metrics that capture this information. This is where SFP can help an organization develop the most appropriate approach given the nature of the space functions and the data available. Each space function will likely have a different strategy for establishing capacity, and corresponding metrics once the current utilization is understood. Lab capacity may be driven by samples, equipment, or even headcount. The capacity of a warehouse, on the other hand, will be driven by storage pallets; and offices will most likely be organized by headcount and/or seats.

The SFP must identify, for each space function, the existing utilization and capacity as well as future potential capacity if the utilization strategy is changed. Existing and future utilization may require a deeper dive into the operations to identify specific strategies to improve efficiency and increase capacity – thus addressing the facility demand and minimizing the gaps. For example, an existing manufacturing floor or warehouse may not be efficiently organized from an equipment layout and operational flow perspective. It is not uncommon for CRB to assist companies to “re-work” their production and warehouse spaces to increase capacity and defer spending capital on new facilities.

Identifying and communicating the facility gaps

Once you determine the baseline facility supply and forecast the facility demand, you can develop the gap analysis. The facility gap analysis gets the most attention in the SFP process because it provides the unmet facility demand data. With a robust data-driven SFP process, these gaps are very defensible, providing leverage to make strategic decisions about future growth and capital planning . However, these gaps are identified based on the many assumptions you’ve made about your organization’s business drivers and operations.

Gap Analysis Chart

Re-stacking strategies allowed the square footage of the warehouse to reduce from 33 percent of the total space portfolio to 11 percent.

Case in point: CRB provided a strategic facility plan for a growing biopharma client. Our team worked with the client’s leadership to translate projected manufacturing forecasts to space and facility demands. Three major demand drivers impacted the facility gap analysis:

• Production and equipment forecasts
• Supply chain pallet forecasts
• Head-count projections

Reducing the gap by optimizing warehouse space CRB determined that additional space was required to accommodate manufacturing growth. Being located adjacent to the warehouse created an opportunity to leverage an underutilized space for this growth. Re-stacking strategies allowed the square footage of the warehouse to reduce from 33 percent of the total space portfolio to 11 percent. This provided enough space for manufacturing to add the equipment needed to meet the five-year production forecasts.

Revisiting assumptions to minimize the gaps

When the facility gaps are large, you need to revisit the assumptions made about operations and utilization. In our testing lab example from above, the lab may currently operate from 8 am – 5 pm, five days a week. Because this is the current work culture, it was likely the assumption for the SFP analysis. But what happens if a second shift is added for lab testing? Or even a third shift? Assuming this is a doable strategy and aligns with the manufacturing schedule, it could potentially reduce the testing lab space demand considerably. In this case, the organization may also explore potential outsourcing of select lab tests to reduce in-house lab demand.

The most common assumptions to be re-visited to help minimize the facility/space gaps include the following:

• Outsourcing
• Headcount reduction/automation
• Operations improvements (more efficient equipment and/or space layout)
• Shared and multi-use spaces
• Shared instead of dedicated office seats

Developing strategic facility options and scenarios

The final step in the SFP process is to lay out all the credible strategic facility solutions to address the facility gaps. You may develop solutions to correspond to different operational assumptions. There may also be a series of options that align with various real estate opportunities. Clearly define each option, and identify the pros and cons. Additionally, develop and consider both capital and operational costs.

During this process we develop and consider both capital and operational costs.

Example heat map from a gene therapy client's SFP

Once all the quantitative data about each option is defined, it is important to add any qualitative criteria that would influence the viability and success of the strategic planning options. For example, a facility planning option may work great from a space layout perspective, but the implementation of it may significantly disrupt current operations, making that option very costly. Supply chain and regulatory impacts must also be considered as appropriate. Also, worth noting are impacts to employees. When considering real estate options, for example, employees can be significantly affected if a new facility on a campus is out of a comfortable walking range from their current workspace, or if a new real estate option extends their commute distance.

Once you have identified all the qualitative and qualitative evaluation criteria, you can score and weigh the options. A heat map is a valuable tool to leverage for evaluating and comparing strategic planning options and presenting them to executives and decision-makers.

The SFP process is a thoughtful, robust, and necessary step for any organization whose business is growing or changing in some fashion. Whether you are a manufacturer looking to expand into new markets, or a university looking to change the way students learn on a campus, SFP is a necessary first step in the facility planning process.

Are you ready to better understand your business implications for your facility? Our Consulting Team is here to help our clients with space utilization, reducing capital cost, and more.

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What Is Facility Management and When Should a Business Start Thinking About It? Maintenance cost escalating? Trouble tracking assets? Who ya gonna call? Maybe facility management is for you.

By Bryan Christiansen Apr 19, 2019

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When you're running a business so small it fits into one tiny office, facility management is not something worth losing sleep over. But as your business grows, that one office of yours may turn into a building and a single machine transform into a production line.

Before you know it, you'll have a bunch of assets that need to be taken care of on an ongoing basis.

Related: How can entrepreneurs effectively manage their business inventory?

This is where facility management enters the scene: It ensures you a well-organized environment in which both your business and employees can thrive.

Facility management: the basics

At its core, facility management is a profession that focuses on the efficient maintenance of an organization's buildings and equipment in a way that offers the best value to the building owner and users alike.

It's also a multi-disciplinary support service that can be applied in any niche or industry. Among its many applications is that it can ensure safety, functionality and comfort in the built environment as well as compliance with existing legal requirements.

In North America, the facility management market is experiencing increased patronage from a wide variety of businesses: The Transparency Market Research 2017 report estimated a compound annual growth rate of 13.6 percent between 2017 and 2024.

Still, if you have never used professional facility management services before, you may be wondering if, or when, it should become the next step for your business. Here are the signs that it's time for a business to start thinking about adopting facility management:

1.Your maintenance cost is escalating.

It's an accepted fact that maintenance costs money, but these costs should not run down your business.

When you notice that repairs and servicing costs are rising inexplicably every year, some common money-wasters to check include abuse or under-utilization of existing equipment, wasteful stocking of inventory and spare parts and unused office space. Wired reported in 2013 that over the previous 30 years, the United States had added about 2 billion square feet of office space to its existing stock, which is not something today's highly mobile workforce needs. Having more space to maintain automatically increases your maintenance costs.

Another factor that quickly adds to your bottom line is poorly managed maintenance personnel and other staffing expenses. Over a 30-year period, while the operating and maintenance costs of a building account for 6 percent of total costs, personnel costs alone account for a staggering 92 percent, according to a British study reported on by Researchgate.

If you're running a system where you frequently call on independent plumbers, electricians, heating engineers and other technicians , the costs quickly pile up. Not to mention the fact that engaging these contractors also carries the risk of quality control issues, especially if:

• You have a very large facility.
• You are managing multiple locations.
• You have no real way to track whether tasks are being carried out properly.

One of our clients, Joe Romero from Myriad Genetics, had this exact problem. He had been hired as a facility manager and noticed that his predecessor had been tracking everything manually, which meant the company had no clue whether maintenance tasks were actually being completed.

When Romero implemented facility management software, he could see whether outside contractors were doing the work they were billing for. Long story short, he had to replace his primary maintenance vendor because he found out that that vendor was not doing the work he had been contracted to do.

Related: Top 3 Upcoming Trends in the Indian Facility Management Industry

Because of these problems, some businesses form an internal team or look for a single vendor to take over their back-office responsibilities. A good example is GoDaddy, which was able to realize 10 percent cost savings by employing integrated facility services . Another interesting note in that success story was how one reason GoDaddy went with integrated facilities services provider ISS was because ISS was already operating in all geographical regions GoDaddy was planning to expand to.

2. You're having difficulties in asset management and tracking.

Knowing that over 40 percent of small business track their assets manually or don't track them at all is concerning. While this practice causes minimal problems early on, real issues will start popping up as soon as you start to scale.

Facility management can help you manage and track assets and inventory better if you are experiencing any of the following:

• Asset register is inadequate or doesn't exist at all.
• It's becoming increasingly difficult to track the assets owned by the company.
• The organization cannot confidently declare its asset position.
• The current condition of any asset and its location is unknown.
• If any equipment, machine or tool were to go missing, no one would notice.
• You keep buying replacements for equipment only to find out later that you already had them.

Stanley Healthcare reported that a mobile solution for inventory tracking can reduce search times for needed equipment by 90 percent, as well as help a company realize significant cost savings by avoiding unnecessary inventory purchases (improving inventory invisibility) and equipment loss (shrinkage control).

3. You're seeing a rising backlog of uncompleted maintenance tasks.

Multiple research sources, like this one from Steelcase Global, confirm how employee engagement positively correlates with workplace satisfaction. In other words, happy employees are productive employees. Without a designated facility management service, however, it is only a matter of time before they become frustrated and distracted because of leaking taps, broken light bulbs or an air conditioning unit in the staff canteen that isn't working properly.

Even if these tasks are instructed to call appropriate services, these tasks are often put off untll later -- so they start piling up. Soon, the business is faced with a considerable deferred maintenance list and very little hope of resolving everything. Research from Rick Biedenweg and his colleagues at Pacific Partners Consulting Group discovered that every $1 deferred in maintenance costs results in $4 of capital renewal needs in the future, so this is something you definitely want to avoid.

Preventing the creation of a backlog of uncompleted maintenance tasks is just one of many responsibilities of a facilities manager .

4. Recurring safety issues

Recurring safety issues are an indication that you are operating in a potentially dangerous environment. The simple truth is that improving safety at your facility is not a matter of choice -- it is required by law. Every year, OSHA issues over 40 000 citations , with the most common repeated offenses being:

• lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• absence of a hazard-communication program for chemicals
• failure to maintain logs of accidents and injuries
• lack of safety training

Facility management takes these factors into accounts and can help you reach and maintain the highest levels of operational safety using a combination of technology and human expertise and following these extensive Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines .

Related: 5 HR Strategies To Promote Employee Health And Safety

When it's time for a change

If any of the above situations describes the current situation in your business, it's clear that time and valuable resources are being wasted. It doesn't matter if you are going to form an in-house facility management team or outsource everything to an independent contractor. The point is that you understand how facility management can result in significant cost savings, improved safety performance and better overall service delivery for your company.

Founder and CEO, Limble CMMS.

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Tips for Drafting a Facilities Management Strategy

How to make a facilities management strategy right for your business.

Strategy is important in everything from board games to business planning. In the latter, strategy is often the key to success—a concentrated effort toward a measurable goal. If your goal is to leverage facilities into business success, strategic facility management is paramount. It’s a combination of facility management and facility planning, stitched together with a set of clear-cut outcomes in mind. 

Strategic facility management is all about focusing on the long-term. Applying strategy to facility management gives purpose to the workplace, making it a focal part of broader company initiatives. But, like all strategies, one involving facilities management needs clear motive. 

The best thing an FM can do to keep pace is pay close attention to the needs of facilities and the people using them. The demands of people and the way they work perpetuate trends within facilities management. It’s the duty of a facility manager to see that they’re adopted, optimized, and measured. 

What is Facility Management?  

Facility management is a broad term to describe the responsibilities focusing on building operations, workplace management, space planning, maintenance, security, asset management, and several other areas of real estate or real property.  

Using tools and technology like software solutions, facilities managers are tasked with keeping the environment around staff and the building itself running smoothly. Keeping an eye on maintenance schedules, carbon emissions, occupancy rates and data allow facilities managers to weigh in on decisions with insightful data on how a workplace is functioning. 

Supporting the Company Goals & Values  

Ideally, facilities management strategies are set up in such a way that they support the internal and business goals of the organization while aligning with stakeholder sentiments. Internal goals may focus on employee experience, lowering carbon emissions or optimizing the design of an office space/floor.  

Facilities management is often the unsung heroes of a company, supporting employees and the operations through their work with the building and collecting data on the one of several aspects they are responsible for.  

If your company values creating a workspace that is conducive to productivity and supporting the people within it, then facilities management efforts should reflect that and be aimed at giving their people the best environment possible. 

Key Considerations when Building a FM Strategy  

Now for the checklist you’ve been waiting for. 

1. Focus not only on cost savings but value creation  

Businesses traditionally operate from a standpoint of ROI and wanting to lower costs from any means necessary. Facilities management can do that, and often this is a product of good facilities management, but it should not be the only foundational reason for why you are doing what you’re doing. 

Creating value through your work can take many shapes and forms , whether it be changing the way a space is used, how maintenance is done so it costs less, or elevating how your organization uses and sees technology by introducing innovative processes or tools. 

Value creation uplifts the entire organization, not just accounting and facilities. Your strategies should have a goal to always improve some aspect of the workplace, leaving it better than it was prior. 

2. Implement a sustainable facility design plan.   

Sustainability might be starting to sound like a bit of a buzzword by now, but it’s far from it. The impact and the importance sustainability has on organizational success is prevalent across every industry. Many tips for improving facilities management plans revolve around creating sustainable business practices.  

Committing to initiatives like proactive maintenance, energy use, building operations and technology, are all physical asset focused things that can help the longevity of systems in the workplace.  

Design goes beyond the HVAC and lighting though; facilities management also encompasses space planning, space management, and workplace tools. Stuff like desk hotelling and reservations that leverage occupancy data to show a big picture of how the office is designed and being used. Designing an office to be best suited for the needs staff and people have has a compounding effect on what is put into work and the culture of a business. 

In some cases, such as manufacturing , sustainability is a main driver of growth and innovation as it gives a company the opportunity to evolve and adapt without expensive process overhauls. 

3. Know the total cost of all facility work done both directly and indirectly.  

At the end of the day most things do, in fact come down to costs and the bottom line. A successful facilities management strategy that is focused on the long run will have to consider costs and how much is being spent over time to make accurate assessments.  

Indirect costs can add up over time and should be tracked just as closely as direct costs to give yourself a clear picture of where your expenses are coming from and how your facilities might be responsible for certain downstream costs. 

Direct costs are the ones you see and handle from a cause-and-effect standpoint. HVAC maintenance? Repair invoice is a direct cost that goes into the long-term costs of your buildings life cycle. 

4. Consider the entire life cycle costs of a building.  

Buildings are long-term investments, and if you are the sole organization using yours, then the long-term life cycle costs are going to add up overtime.  

Considering things like leasing, maintenance, how your space use will evolve over time, and potential technology integrations are all going to be a part of the life cycle that adds to the list of costs. 

Considering short-, medium-, and long-term costs over the course of the life cycle forecasts budgets while giving you a look at the full scope of costs. Further, highlighting areas where investments might need to be made to make up for areas that are lagging or are experiencing issues.  

5. Optimize the use of available workspace by increasing ROI, not people per square foot.  

How you use your office space will be a key factor in if you are getting the best ROI, not how many people you fit into the office. That way of thinking that more people = more ROI, is simply not true anymore.  

Increasing your ROI on your workspace can mean investing in your workspace to give your staff what they need from an office . The use of a space management solution can help you on your way to optimizing this. Outfitting your space with everything your people need and keeping it that way is the best avenue to getting a better ROI on the space, by empowering people to get the most from it. 

6. Be the master of your company’s physical assets.   

Facilities management needs oversight of all assets and systems, from HVAC to lighting to office space and floorplan. Mastering these and the rest of your assets, knowing the reporting metrics and maintenance schedules means keeping everything in running order.  

Mastery means staying on top of things and keeping assets and their life cycles in line with business goals and values. Planning, operations, maintenance built into a robust strategy will eliminate headaches and unforeseen issues down the line.   

7. Automate automate automate!  

Successful and proper automation takes significant load off your team while streamlining processes surrounding maintenance, asset management, and even long-term costs. 

If you can ensure that you receive notifications, updates and scheduling reminders from a software solution regarding your ventilation system or the energy use from your lighting, that takes any guesswork out of it. You now have more bandwidth to address other areas and conduct analysis on reporting. In terms of cost, this gives you a clearer picture over the long and short term of where costs are going to be arising from and how often.  

This expands into total building automation, where the internet of things (IoT) and smart spaces are creating self-monitoring environments and systems to control things such as carbon emissions or energy use. Keeping levels under a certain amount without constant adjustment and checking of data makes reaching net-zero goals a more attainable end line. 

8. Introduce IoT to reduce costs and enhance capabilities.  

IoT systems are still relatively new, and their adaptation in a mainstream sense is yet to be realized. However, their benefits and application are readily apparent.  

Leveraging an IoT system in the future enhances what facilities managers can do as their network of interconnected tools grows as a result. Self-monitoring and data collecting IoT networks give greater reach and insight into how a building or workplace is interacting on a facilities level.  

In an increasingly digital dependent age, introducing IoT into your toolkit could be the catalyst to complete control and facilities optimization in your office using data on the connected areas. 

9. Ensure KPIs highlight both errors and opportunities.   

Analytics, data, reporting, all this information without context and clear KPIs loses some of its importance. Developing clear KPIs in your facilities management strategy that highlights both shortcomings and errors, as well as opportunities for improvement gives direction and purpose to your goals.  

What these look like is going to differ with each organization, but some core principles can include monitoring all areas, including those which your organization is actively working on improving. From there, establishing what constitutes the difference between an “error” and an area of opportunity in both a quantifiable and qualifiable way.  

What levels reflected in a system should be marked as a red flag? Where are areas that are not at their peak performance and could benefit from optimization? Optimize KPIs and your ROI will improve as a result, getting the most out of your facilities. 

10. Understand how workplace digitization plays a role in lowering costs.  

You’ve likely heard this term thrown around a lot during the last couple of years, with digitization rising to the top of priority lists in organizations to navigate a remote world. Digitization and the integration of in-house data and servers means less expenses through third parties as well as access to all data when needed and can be used as needed. 

Digitization leads to better decision making and innovation , which obviously leads to better IT decisions and business decisions to improving ROI on things such as infrastructure and usage. Integrating this into a strategy will optimize your facilities approach. 

More efficient processes and decisions will lead to lower expenses and better outcomes if things such as facilities management are digitized, as automation and better maintenance means more regular preventative action and less reactive action that could cost significant downtime, repairs, or replacement. 

11. Keep industry evolution in mind  

Things are changing and evolving every day, it may not be a groundbreaking piece of tech every week that changes an industry, but the gradual adoption of ideas and ways of doing things that lead to true evolution. To effectively draft a facilities strategy with this in mind, digitization and being open to new technologies is an important step.  

Understanding that things will change means keeping an open mind and staying up to date with trends. A good way to do this is subscribing to reporting entities like Verdantix for industry reports and trends that are developed with the help of key players in your space.  

Using these resources and listening to professionals around you who are in the same role can shape your outlook and have a forward-facing goal in mind when creating a facilities management strategy rather than only focusing on managing day to day tasks.  

Integration of a workplace management system to keep things in line, as well as visualization software or digital twins for asset management and insightful data collection only adds to your arsenal of tools to help get your facilities management strategy to where you and your business want it to be.  

Facilities Management Plan Template

What is a Facilities Management Plan?

A Facilities Management Plan outlines processes and procedures for managing a facility. It outlines strategies and goals for improving the efficiency, safety, and security of a facility and the people who work in it. It is important for facilities managers and teams to have a plan in place to ensure that the facility is managed in the most effective and efficient way possible.

What's included in this Facilities Management Plan template?

• 3 focus areas
• 6 objectives

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the Facilities Management Plan template for?

This Facilities Management Plan template is designed for facilities managers and teams in all industries who are looking for a way to create a plan for managing their facilities. This template provides a structure for creating a plan that can be adapted to fit the needs of any facility. It can also help facilities managers and teams stay organized and on track to achieving their goals.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

Focus areas are the primary goals that the Facilities Management Plan is designed to achieve. These focus areas can vary depending on the goals and needs of the facility, but some common examples include enhancing facility management, optimizing maintenance processes, and enhancing facility security. It is important to clearly define these focus areas as they will serve as the foundation for the rest of the plan.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are the specific goals that need to be achieved in order to accomplish the focus area. For example, under the focus area of enhancing facility management, objectives could include improving communication between Facility Managers and staff and increasing the efficiency of facility management. Objectives should be specific and measurable.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are measurable targets that are designed to track the progress of an objective. For example, an objective of increasing the efficiency of facility management could have a KPI of decreasing the time spent on daily tasks. KPIs should be measurable, achievable, and relevant to the objective.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects, or actions, are the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve the KPIs. For example, if the KPI is to decrease the time spent on daily tasks, a project could be to implement a facility management software. Projects should be specific and achievable.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

Cascade Strategy Execution Platform helps teams create, execute, and measure their strategic plans. Cascade makes it easy to create a plan and keep track of progress, and helps teams identify areas for improvement and take action quickly. With Cascade, teams can see faster results from their strategy.

Complete Guide to Facilities Management

Facility management professionals carry out a range of activities to ensure all types of buildings and properties remain safe, orderly, productive, and efficient.

Without  facilities managers , the world as we know it would quickly cease to exist. It would start small. Light bulbs would burn out, machines would overheat and fail, eventually buildings would crumble and fall.  Facilities managers and maintenance professionals  keep their organizations running by ensuring properties and equipment always remain in peak condition to keep employees safe and productive and ensure customers are always satisfied. 

What if facilities management didn’t exist? 

As humans, we occupy space, and we are accustomed to our spaces working for us, not against us. We need these areas to be safe, functional, and comfortable. And there’s a lot to that. 

When everything goes to plan, this means that your job as a facilities manager is less stressful. No emergencies, easy-to-manage workloads, and fewer incidences.  A boost in productivity and reductions in absenteeism, downtime and wastage, not to mention the lack of accidents. 

It’s clear how important it is to have a well-maintained facility, but what if you don’t? What happens if you don’t have the resources you need to make it happen: adequate staffing, budget, training, equipment, etc.?

The impact on the Company

Your facilities management team is responsible for the overall well-being and functioning of the entire facility. You touch each and every department. Without you, equipment lifespans are reduced, inventory controls can fall by the wayside, bulbs can burn out, machines can overheat. Even worse, problems can get so bad that they bring your revenue-generating activities to a screeching halt. Facility safety also becomes an issue. You manage the security systems, fire systems, ventilation systems, and tricky and often risky elevator systems. If something is out of order, people’s safety is at risk. If someone gets hurt, that bill the company receives is going to hurt.  Depending on the situation, that bill could come in the form of a lawsuit, an expensive settlement, fines from a regulatory agency, and a whole lot of bad PR….or all of the above. It’s not worth the risk. The workspace becomes a non-working space very quickly. 

The impact on the Employee

No employee wants to feel unsafe or uncomfortable at work. Imagine working in an organization that has recurring equipment failures, or worse yet, extremely high incidents of injury at work. That would be terrible, but the same is true If employees can’t do their jobs because there is no space to work, the building is too hot or too cold, and the network keeps failing.  If these issues go on for long enough the company would have a hard time keeping employees too.

The impact on the Customer

Employees are not the only ones who suffer from poor facility management. Customers notice things, too. If buildings are in bad shape, equipment breaks down more often than it works. Orders can get delayed, the quality of your products and service decreases. Injuries become a regular occurrence. Your customers are going to pick up on this.  Their user experience will not be as good as it should be. Your brand, your reputation, and your source of income will be destroyed very quickly. Get it right, and your customer satisfaction jumps up too.

Which facilities require maintenance and management?

Image source

• Industrial facilities :  Factories , warehouses, manufacturing facilities, power plants, refineries, chemical plants, etc. 
• Commercial facilities : Offices, retail stores,  hotels , restaurants, conference centers, banks, entertainment venues, etc. 
• Residential facilities : Apartments, condominiums, retirement facilities, dormitories, etc. 
• Recreational facilities : Fitness centers, golf courses, arenas, amusement parks, etc. 
• Institutional facilities : Schools, hospitals,  religious institutions , government buildings, etc.

Types of facilities management

Depending on the type and size of your organization and its properties, facilities management could mean a range of 

• Facilities maintenance : Management and maintenance go hand in hand, ensuring that all facilities are suited to serve their function. 
• Asset management : Working alongside maintenance teams, facilities departments oversee the upkeep, repairs, and replacement of assets like equipment and vehicles. 
• Real estate  management : In collaboration with property managers, facilities professionals keep buildings safe and ensure repairs are all up to date. 
• Occupancy  management : Managing facilities includes using advanced data analysis to optimize space management across built environments to maximize employee well
• Financial and performance management : Platforms like  Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)  help consolidate budget and performance data to generate detailed reports and drive better decision making and elevate the role of facilities professionals as strategic advisors. 
• Building systems  management : Each facility includes a range of systems and subsystems, including those for fire safety and building security. 

Hard facility management services vs. soft facility management services

How do businesses keep all these various services and systems straight? Many break the vast world of facility management into two smaller categories: hard and soft facilities management. 

Hard facilities management services (space and infrastructure)

Hard FM services focus on the physical components of the work environment and infrastructure. Most of them fall under the maintenance department. Here is an overview of hard facilities management services:

• The plumbing system: This system plays an essential role in bringing water to a building and removing waste. Over time, blockages can occur, pressure builds up, and fixtures/piping must be replaced. As the Facility Manager, it’s your job to ensure that the plumbing system is regularly maintained and that the possible issues are fixed as quickly as possible. 
• Lighting and HVAC systems: You will work with your team to see if the lighting and heating fixtures need repair or replacement. It’s up to the team to decide the best solutions for cost and energy savings, comfort, and functionality. 
• Fire safety regulation compliance: Fire safety systems are required in most countries and must be regularly maintained and checked for compliance issues.
• Mechanical & electrical systems: Keeping the electrical system running well to keep up with other building operations. The same goes for mechanical systems like elevators and water pumps. You and your team ensure they work properly and do not cause safety incidents. 
• Structural maintenance: Regular usage or even poor design can lead to structural issues over time. When it comes to buildings, weather and other elements can start to take a toll on the structures. Wind, sun, salt, and extreme temperature changes all play their part. As a part of facility management, there should be a structural maintenance plan to identify, classify, and deal with possible structural problems. 

To successfully schedule, track, and manage all maintenance activities and work orders , facility management teams will often seek the help of computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) or Computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) software. We will discuss available software solutions in more detail towards the end of the article.

Soft facilities management services (people and organization)

On the flip side, soft facility management focuses on people and organizations. It includes services that create a more comfortable, healthier, safer, and visually appealing environment.  Common examples include:

• Waste management: If waste is not managed, garbage bins become overloaded, and things become smelly. This is never a good thing. Waste management gets the garbage into the correct containers. It sends it away to make sure that you stay within regulatory requirements and prevent trash overcrowding.
• Cleaning services: Custodial teams come in to clean common areas and perform other janitorial duties. Many companies will have their own janitorial staff, while others will choose to outsource.
• Space planning: Space planning and management is an important part of facilities management. Whenever your company hires more people, expands to a new floor, buys new assets that take a big chunk of space, and wants to remodel the existing space, they will turn to you to help organize the space so that it remains comfortable, safe, and functional. 
• Landscaping: Well-maintained grounds improve curb appeal and signal top-notch property management. Your team takes care of the seasonal and non-seasonal changes, such as planting flowers in the spring, trimming the grass during the summer, removing falling leaves during the autumn, or removing excess snow from the walkway in the winter.
• Pest control: These fall under your domain, be it scheduling seasonal pest controls or managing pest outbreaks if they ever happen.
• Building security: Having control of people going in and out of the facility is something that almost every building these days requires. It can also involve the management of restricted access areas inside the facility.
• EHS compliance: Defining and maintaining acceptable standards of comfort that might include temperature, noise, seating standards, and visual cues is imperative in every company. For example, selecting specific chairs that guarantee employee comfort for desk workers. Depending on the industry, EHS standards can differ widely. In a typical office setting, they may seem relatively tame. Still, in a pharmaceutical company where employees may be handling dangerous substances, standards will be different. EHS standards will change from business to business depending on the needs of the company. 

Free Building Maintenance Checklist

13 simple steps to improved productivity and reliability.

What do facilities managers do?

You have to be a jack of all trades to do this job well. The support of a great team and the right software will help take you to the next level of your career.  A facilities manager can have a dozen balls up in the air on any given day. As a facility manager, you touch so many areas: 

• Property strategy: What’s the current property portfolio of the company? Do you lease or own? As the world turns, more and more companies are adopting remote work policies where employees can work from home at least some of the time. How your company approaches this major shift in the culture of work will also impact your needs for employee-occupied space into the future.
• Space management: To piggyback on what was said above, are employees required to be in office? If not, there’s room for some creativity in space management. Perhaps changing to an “open office” layout where employees can “check out” a workspace as needed is a solution your company considers if employees work in a hybrid format.
• Communications infrastructure: We’re talking phones (no pun intended), network cabling, server storage, and beyond.
• General building maintenance : Depending on if your company leases or owns the building, maintenance responsibilities may shift. Many commercial building owners push a lot of maintenance responsibilities to the lease-holder, not everything and not all the time.
• Testing and inspections: This is a part of routine maintenance . You regularly check in on assets and alarms to ensure that everything is up to code and working correctly. You also need to make sure that you are compliant with OSHA and other regulatory agencies (like FDA, if applicable to your industry).
• Contract management : You have several service providers, and those contracts and relationships need to be managed. It’s your job to make sure these are kept up. Using Lmble makes managing vendors and their contracts easy!
• EHS(environment, health, safety): Health and safety live with you, and it’s your job to make sure that the workplace is safe for everyone in it. 
• Security: Be it the locks on the doors, the security monitoring team or cameras, and any other part of security, these all fall under your jurisdiction. 
• Facility Maintenance planning : Predictive and preventative maintenance are best practices to keep your organization’s assets in working order. The planning of these is a crucial part of your role. Using Limble, you can plan, schedule, and report on your maintenance and use this information to collaborate with Finance on budget forecasting.
• Managing renovations and refurbishments: The workplace is ever-changing. Offices get bigger or smaller, paint colors change, boardrooms are built. Renovations and refurbishments sit squarely with the facility professionals to manage. The same is true for capital projects. You will work with teams to build new facilities and expand the campus.
• Inventory management: Knowing what you have and what you need, and the value of your inventory is an integral part of maintenance and cost management. Limble makes it possible to see the value of your stock at the click of a button, and the customized reporting helps you break it down any way you need to.

And in case you wanted more, you’re not done yet! You are also responsible for: 

• Advising businesses on measures to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the facility.
• Supervising teams of staff across different divisions.
• Dealing with emergencies as they arise.
• Managing budgets; Planning for the future by forecasting the facility’s upcoming needs and requirements.
• Helping with office relocations.
• Drafting maintenance reports.

Tips for building and managing your facilities team

• Develop clear and detailed job descriptions : The titles and brief descriptions above are just suggestions. You should make sure the roles, responsibilities, and the chain of command are all tailored to your unique facilities. Once you’ve got these in place, ensure all facilities team members always know where they fit in. 
• Offer  up-skilling opportunities  and detailed  career paths : You’ll boost both performance and engagement by ensuring team members have opportunities to cross-train, learn new skills, and expose themselves to different sides of the business.
• Emphasize the role of technology : The right time- and cost-saving solutions can improve engagement and job satisfaction across your team. Take care to loop end users in whenever you’re making tech selections and always emphasize the ways the right tools can augment their capabilities and empower them to do their jobs even better. CMMS tools in particular offer useful  integrations  with other solutions, automations for core processes, and features for  real-time data analytics . 
• Balance  in-house  and third-party FM resources : Depending on the size of your organization and the scope of your facilities management needs, you’ll rely on a blend of both internal and external resources to make your full FM program possible. 

Software solutions that make facility management simpler, better, and faster

There are a lot of software solutions out there to help you plan and execute facility management. Let’s walk through some of the better options out there so that you can make an informed decision about the one that’s right for you, your team, and your organization.  Don’t be worried if you do not see a clear difference between some of them at first sight. They do have a lot of overlapping features.

As with every other software on this list, different software vendors offer different levels of functionality. It makes more sense to look at the exact features you need than to focus on labels like IWMS, CMMS, or CAFM.

CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System)

A CMMS is at the top of the list.  Using a CMMS like Limble can be a great way to help keep all your ducks in a row. You’ll be able to track workflows, report on repairs, easily keep an eye on the budget and find ways to cut costs if you need to.  Imagine how great it will be to be called into a meeting last minute and easily give feedback on the FM team’s work. It makes maintenance vastly easier by streamlining and automating all maintenance processes.  Use your CMMS to: 

• Streamline your work order management
• Schedule and monitor all maintenance work
• Track spare parts inventory and forecast future inventory needs
• Effectively manage your assets
• Easily manage vendors and contracts
• Run any report you need or can imagine from your custom dashboards 

CAFM (Computer-Aided Facilities Management)

CAFM is software that helps facility managers execute core functions. CAFM technology combines business administration, behavioral science, architecture, and engineering concepts to optimize the functioning of your organization. It can be helpful to think of computer-aided facility management as a comprehensive commercial facility or building maintenance tool with many different facets and functions. It uses several different models to cover:

• Information management
• Maintenance management 
• Physical building administration
• Floor plans and space management
• Leasing and real-estate management
• Asset lifecycle management
• and administrative support

The core difference between a CAFM and CMMS is that a CAFM focuses on the physical space and things. In contrast, a CMMS focuses on the management of maintenance.  If you need more from your CAFM, you can combine it with a CMMS to give your team more support. 

IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System)

The easiest way to describe it is that it usually offers everything you can find in a CAFM software, and then some. You can think of it as an all-in-one solution for facilities management. Aside from the CAFM features listed above, IWMS can also include:

• Flexible real estate and lease management features
• Project management features
• Environmental management features
• Mailroom management features
• Visitor management features

On its own, this software solution would be lacking. But when paired with another more comprehensive tool, implementing an IWMS has the potential to be powerful.

BMS/BAS/BEMS 

Let’s first explain the acronyms:

• BMS = building management system
• BAS = building automation system
• BEMS = building energy management system

BMS and BAS are often used interchangeably because they serve the same purpose. They combine hardware and software solutions to control different building systems like lighting, heating, HVAC, access control, etc. They can also be used to measure the performance and energy consumption of HVAC systems and other assets.  Facility managers have to keep an eye on energy consumption because it accounts for a big chunk of their facility’s operational costs. Building energy management systems help them measure energy consumption across the whole facility and find problematic systems and assets.  While BEMS and BMS can come together, they are usually standalone systems, implemented separately. That being said, they do work very well together. BMS/BAM primary function is to control building systems and assets. BEMS’ primary role is to collect and analyze energy consumption data (it can track everything from device electricity usage to water, gas, and steam consumption). Want to know more? Here is an article that discusses the differences between these systems in more detail. 

Building security systems

Security systems also come in different forms and offer a lot of diverse functionalities. You can use them to detect risks, record incidents, and perform risk analysis. They offer visitor management features ranging from facial recognition and badge scanning to video surveillance and capacity and occupancy tracking. As with most things, different software offers different functions. Rather than looking at the labels, think about the exact features you need and use those to help you decide what’s best for your team and organization. 

Facility professionals: titles, roles, and responsibilities

The shape and structure of your facilities management department will depend on a number of factors, but here are a few of the titles you’ll see on just about any multi-person employee roster. 

• Facility manager : These professionals oversee facilities management programs and assign duties to teams of technicians and operators. Depending on the size and type of facility, they may have a large team of specialized operators and technicians working under them. In addition to specialized education, professionals at this level may bolster their credentials with certifications like Facility Management Professional (FMP) or Certified Facility Manager (CFM), issued by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). 
• Maintenance manager : Your facilities management team may work alongside a separate maintenance department or include maintenance pros among its ranks. Managers typically oversee teams of operators and technicians, assigning tasks, tailoring the work order system, and reviewing performance. 
• Maintenance technician : Technicians make up the foundation of facilities management and maintenance units, putting in the most  wrench time  and executing on  work orders  in the most hands-on way. 

Across all roles, the core competencies of facilities management professionals include familiarity with specific machinery, communication skills, and problem-solving savvy. More senior professionals typically blend these attributes with project management and leadership skills.

Small organizations may operate with facilities and maintenance departments as small as a single person. As organizations grow and their facilities take up more square feet, the department may take various different forms and employ a host of different strategies. Some organizations delegate responsibilities based on zone, with certain employees responsible for specific facilities. Others take a service-specific approach to assigning tasks, reserving specific types of work for specific employees or teams. 

Why are facilities management strategies important? 

Effective FM strategies empower employees to perform to their full potential by keeping the workplace safe, orderly, and conducive to excellence. Over time, taking the right approach to facilities management has effects that you, your employees, your partners, and your customers will feel. 

Benefits of strong facilities management programs

The top- and bottom-line effects of well-managed facilities are numerous. 

• Reduced  operating costs : A more strategic and proactive approach to facilities management ensures teams plan and schedule maintenance tasks, repairs, and other important work for maximum cost effectiveness. Reducing excess maintenance costs and avoiding unplanned breakdowns ultimately boosts the profitability of facilities and organization-wide operations. 
• Safer, more productive properties and  workspaces : Safe, comfortable, and accessible facilities are essential for productivity. Minimizing risk and liability helps keep excess costs low and reduce the likelihood of unexpected breakdowns or labor shortages. 
• Ensuring compliance with legal regulations : Taking a forward-thinking approach to maintaining assets and facilities keeps your team 
• Greater  energy efficiency : More strategic maintenance and facilities management can play a key role in  making sustainability more than a buzzword . Poor visibility and a lack of direction can often keep businesses from making progress against their green objectives. A management program can help address both these obstacles, ultimately reducing excess energy consumption and emissions across your full portfolio of facilities.   
• Improved employee experience : Better planning and a more productive workplace leads to improved overall satisfaction. Your team will thank you for enabling them to spend less time on reactive repairs and more time contributing to high-value projects.  

Facilities management vs. property management vs. building management 

How does facilities management differ from  property management  and  building management ? While the three terms sound similar and the concepts overlap, they aren’t quite the same thing. Facilities management programs cover the most ground.

• Facilities management refers to the wide variety of activities related to keeping facilities operational, safe, and maximally efficient. FM programs involve buildings as well as all of the assets and systems included within those buildings. 
• Building management typically focuses on the physical structure of buildings. Tasks related to roofing and painting, for example, may qualify as examples of building maintenance. 
• Property management programs are broader than building management, taking into account exterior spaces and encompassing services like landscaping. 

Facilities management: today and tomorrow 

How are facilities managers leveraging cutting-edge tools to overcome common challenges and confidently entering a new era? We surveyed more than 250 professionals from maintenance and facilities management departments to learn which strategies they’re employing.  Check out the report  and dive deeper with our  webinar on strategies for facilities managers.

I am interested, pls whattsapp me 00971558984428

Good presentation. I want to start a career in facility management after retirement from a microfinance bank at 60,what steps do I need to take?

That is a really specific question 🙂 I’d suggest you read the following guide to get you started: https://limblecmms.com/blog/facilities-manager-roles-and-responsibilities/ . Good luck!

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The strategic facilities plan (SFP) is a roadmap for facilities managers to inform others of current activities, where the department is headed, and how it expects to get there. The SFP is also a corporate endorsement of facilities priorities and policies. Using the company strategic plan as the basis for facilities strategies enables the facilities manager to establish clear parameters for actions and ensures that activities are consistent with the corporate direction. It also identifies to to management of the organization future facility plans so it may budget and plan more effectively.

For a mid-size company with a space inventory of one to two million square feet, developing an SFP the first time may require six months, or longer if the process is automated. The SFP’s usefulness is directly proportional to the amount of work invested to develop it. An automated SFP can be updated continuously, yielding greater benefits.

Six components of a strategic facilities plan:

1. mission statement.

The first step in drafting an SFP is to develop a facilities department mission statement containing policies with corresponding goals and objectives. The statement should be derived from the corporate mission, goals, and objectives. For example, if a company is divesting should acknowledge the need for the successful sale, divestiture, and re deployment of existing facilities resources.

2. Goals and objectives

Goals and objectives evolve from the facilities mission statement and set functional parameters and operating standards for the facilities department. Goals are quantitative statements translated into measurable tasks, such as completion of a certain construction project. Objectives are qualitative – for example, completion of a standards program. To avoid misunderstandings, goals and objectives must be reduced to writing.

3. Situational analysis

This is the process of capturing information about external and internal events that could have a significant influence, negative or positive, on the facilities department in the coming year. For example, corporate strategic planners may be unaware of legislation that increases regulatory compliance procedures regarding indoor air quality.

4. Key Variables

Determine the key variables that could affect the success of the facilities function. If a projected facilities funding increase does not occur, for example, the installation of computer workstations may be delayed due to inability to upgrade a building’s electrical service. Knowledge of what is happening in buildings is critical for effective budgeting and operation. Each key variable should be listed in order of priority, based on its impact on facilities, the company, or both.

5. Strategic scenarios

Scenario development enables the facilities manager to plan based on the likelihood that certain events may occur during the upcoming year, and set priorities and activities accordingly. The idea behind scenarios is to “rehearse” probable developments and be prepared to act if they occur. To make sure the scenarios are viable, develop three to five options; make each materially different from the others; make each one realistic (plausible); and enhance each scenario with the assumptions behind it.

6. Recommended strategy

Based on the scenarios, a final recommendation can be made to decision-makers, which will have a high degree of support for the choices they must make. The choice of strategy should meet the following criteria:

• It should have internal consistency.
• It should be consistent with the corporate culture and environment.
• There must be flexibility within the strategy.
• Appropriate resources to implement it should be available.
• It should involve an acceptable degree of risk to the company.
• It should be achievable in an appropriate time frame.
• It should be practical.

A facilities strategy should be clear and easily understood by corporate management. This type of clarity improves the image of facilities management as a corporate activity.

This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Fundamentals of Facilities Management course, ( www.bomi-edu.org/13031.html ), a requirement in the Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) designation program.

This document is an update of the BOMI article originally published on FMLink in March 1999.

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Facility Maintenance Plan Template (Free To Download)

September 6, 2021 Paul Tyrrell

Feeling at a loss for how to create your ultimate facility maintenance plan? In this guide we will take you through the steps for how you can improve your productivity and maintenance schedule with an effective facility maintenance plan.

With building and facility maintenance software you gain more options while reducing your admin time. Even for experienced facility managers, creating an efficient maintenance plan can be a struggle. With so many aspects to balance from technicians to safety plans, you need a fool-proof system in place for your maintenance program. For the best facility management plan in your business, here are the top factors you need to know.

Table of Contents

Facility Management Template – Key Takeaways

• Facility preventive maintenance involves pre-emptive actions to prevent defects or costly breakdowns, ensuring optimal asset and equipment performance.
• A maintenance checklist helps reduce the chance of unplanned breakdowns, creates accountability among technicians, and promotes consistent, accurate reporting.
• Key aspects to consider when creating a checklist include technician numbers and training, exterior and interior building maintenance, landscaping, lighting, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and safety and fire protection.
• Facility maintenance checklists are crucial for ensuring smooth operations, consistent work, and meeting service level agreements.
• FieldInsight, an all-in-one field service software, helps manage checklists, customer details, asset history, technician timesheets, and safety documentation, making preventive maintenance easier and more efficient.

What is Facility Preventive Maintenance?

Facility preventive maintenance is all about pre-emptive actions to stop the occurrence of defects or costly breakdowns. For facility maintenance , a preventive maintenance plan can help major unplanned downtime and ensure that your assets and equipment are performing at their peak. While there are many different types of maintenance plans, preventive maintenance , unlike predictive or corrective maintenance, relies on a set schedule and checklists to regularly upkeep equipment and assets.

A great preventive maintenance plan will also help balance your business. Regular preventive maintenance will help to balance your work schedule and provide more stability for your technicians. With regular maintenance, you will ensure that your schedule isn’t constantly interrupted by emergency breakdowns because you have already pre-emptively repaired them. It is also a great way to fill in space in between busy seasons when you might have little to no work. Preventive maintenance work is a great way to balance your work schedule and provide a steady and reliable income year round.

The Main Benefits Of Using A Maintenance Checklist

One of the best things about having a facility management preventive maintenance plan, is that you won’t get caught off guard again. With a preventive maintenance program, you will significantly reduce the chance of unplanned breakdowns occurring . With a maintenance checklist you reduce the chance that your technicians will miss any steps in their service. This creates accountability in your team and allows work to be completed more efficiently.

Do you have accurate reporting in your business? If you don’t have a checklist in place for your technicians to use, you may find that your reporting isn’t accurate. If your technicians aren’t following the same steps for every service, your reporting will not be an accurate measure of your asset’s performance. Having a preventive maintenance checklist will create consistency in your work.

What you should include in the checklist

While every maintenance checklist will be different, there are a few key steps you need to take into consideration when creating your perfect preventive checklist. Your field service management checklist will include factors to help you achieve your business goals, whether this is to boost efficiency, cut costs or create higher accountability.

A general facility maintenance checklist can look something like this:

• Has the warranty details been checked?
• Clean drains
• Inspect for flashings or eaves that have come loose
• Check any previous repaired areas
• Check for corrosion on roof
• Inspect outdoor HVAC units for corrosion
• Note any other observations

To create your checklist you will need to consider these key points:

Technician Numbers & Training

For your building maintenance costs , you will need to know how many technicians you will need on the job. For smoothly flowing operations, you will need to do some research into how many technicians will be required on the jobsite and what resources they might need. This will be an important factor to include in your checklist preparation. When talking about your technicians, you will also need to consider the level of skill your team has. Will they need further training or do you already have the in-house skills?

Exterior of Building

You will need to include the outside of your building as well as the interior for your facility maintenance to be complete. To create your checklist for your facility, you will need to include:

• Check roofing condition
• Inspect windows
• Remove debris from gutters and around building
• Check for leaks
• (If applicable) Spray for pests and rodents

Lawns or Landscaping

For some facilities, you will have to consider the maintenance of lawns, gardens and landscaping as well as the actual building. Typical maintenance checklists for this will include:

• Weekly – mow lawn
• Remove weeds and dead plants
• Seasonally- Prune plants
• Inspect sprinkler system for leaks or corrosion
• Fertilize gardens

Lights will be a common occurrence in most facility maintenance checklists. For regular inspections you can include tasks such as:

• Check all light switches working
• Replace globes
• Inspect transformers
• Remove excess dust or debris from lights
• Check gaskets are sealed and seated

Electrical tasks are important when creating your checklist as it can be difficult to repair damages and you will end up with costly repair fees if left unchecked. It is important to have the right technicians on the job that have been trained in electrical procedures. Some key items to add to your maintenance checklist can include:

• Check for frayed or loose wires
• Add lubricant to necessary units
• Check for fire hazards around electrical equipment
• Test outlets
• If necessary replace any fuses
• Clean exhaust fans

Like in any building, plumbing needs to be maintained, because let’s face it, no one wants to deal with busted taps or a leaking toilet. For your checklist, consider:

• (If necessary) Shut off water for any repairs
• Inspect drains for blockages
• Check both hot and cold taps are functioning
• Inspect ejection pumps are working (replace as needed)
• Check condenser fan, lubricate as needed

Most HVAC units will require a separate checklist of their own. You will find that your HVAC units will have warranty agreements and recommendations from the manufacturer for their regular upkeep. To create your HVAC checklist, you will need to consider points like:

• Lubricate pump bearings
• Check drain pans working
• Replace air filters
• Listen for vibrations or rattling
• Clean ducts
• Ensure all fixings tightened
• Check thermostat is operational
• Remove mineral build up
• Clean debris and dust from around unit

General Safety & Fire Protection

Safety and fire protection is vital to check regularly as it can save lives when operating. Some important steps to track in your checklist include:

• Replace smoke alarm batteries
• Clean respirators
• Ensure fire exits are clear
• Restock first-aid kits
• Check safety signs easily visible
• Check expiry on protection equipment (fire extinguishers)

Your Preventive Maintenance Checklist

Facility maintenance checklists are vital to keeping a smoothly running schedule in your business and ensuring that you have consistency in your work. For your preventive maintenance checklist you need to do the research behind what is needed of you for your facility SLAs (Service Level Agreements). Keeping track of your facility and building maintenance checklists can be hard, especially if you don’t have the right system in place.

With FieldInsight you gain an all-in-one field service software. It is easy to keep track of checklists, customer details, asset history, technician timesheets and safety documentation with FieldInsight. For your ultimate maintenance software solution , FieldInsight makes preventative maintenance easy. When you have the right software solution in place, you gain more visibility over your workflow and maintenance activities.

To learn more about how you can improve your facility maintenance for your company, book a demo today.

What You Should Do Now

• Book a Demo . You’ll be in touch with an automation expert who has worked in this space for over 5 years, and knows the optimal workflow to address your needs.
• If you’d like access to free articles about managing HVAC workflows, go to our blog .
• If you know someone who’d enjoy reading this page, share it with them via email, Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.

Related Posts

The Ultimate Guide to Preventative Maintenance for Fire Safety Assets

Building Long-Term Client Relationships in the HVAC Industry

Geothermal System Maintenance Guide: A Comprehensive Approach

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What is Facility Management? Core Functions, Challenges, Trends & More

Table of Contents

• What is Facility Management?
• Importance of Facility Management in Business Operations
• The Facility Management Quality Standard: ISO 41001:2018
• Key Components of Facility Management
• Operations and Management Strategies
• Facility Management Challenges
• How to Implement an Effective Facility Management Plan
• Types of Facility Management Software
• Best Practices for Facility Management Regulatory Compliance
• Latest Trends in Facility Management: Challenges & Opportunities
• Looking to the Future of Facility Management
• Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaway

• Facility management is integral to ensuring buildings and infrastructure function optimally, for better productivity, safety and cost efficiency. It includes a range of services, from maintenance to security, waste management, space utilization, and risk management.

Have you ever wondered how businesses keep their facilities running smoothly and efficiently? Facility management plays a crucial role in ensuring that buildings and infrastructure are well-maintained and operating at their best.

Facility management involves overseeing the maintenance, security, and overall operation of a building or facility. It encompasses a wide range of tasks, from managing utilities to coordinating maintenance schedules and ensuring compliance with safety regulations.

Effective facility management is essential for the success of any business. By properly managing facilities, organizations can improve productivity, reduce operational costs, and create a safe and comfortable environment for employees and customers. In this article, we’ll explore the key components of facility management and how it can benefit businesses of all sizes.

Facility management is the coordination of people, processes, and systems to ensure the functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency of buildings and their supporting infrastructure. This includes managing maintenance , security, cleaning, catering, waste disposal, and other services to support the organization’s core activities.

Facility management is widely used across practically every sector to manage a variety of types of buildings and facilities , such as:

• Office buildings
• Manufacturing plants
• Industrial facilities
• Laboratories
• Retail spaces
• Healthcare facilities
• Education facilities
• Government facilities
• Military facilities
• Restaurants

Significant sectors within facility management include healthcare, government, education, military and defense, and real estate, with real estate being the largest segment , followed by other unclassified industries. Education rounds out the top three and is followed by healthcare, military, and defense.

Government is the smallest sector in global facilities management, but it’s expected to experience progressive growth due to an increased government focus on infrastructure investments. 

The healthcare sector is expected to see considerable growth due to an increase in healthcare facilities​. Additionally, the real estate sector is expected to grow globally due to expansion in construction and development.

Hard Services vs. Soft Services

There are two main categories of facility management services :

• Hard Facility Management Services: These services refer to the physical assets and infrastructure within a facility that require maintenance and management. This can include services related to building systems (e.g., fire systems and plumbing), equipment, utilities (e.g., electrical, HVAC, and lighting), and building maintenance (e.g., replacing damaged doors or windows, roof repair, etc.).
• Soft Facility Management Services: These services refer to the non-physical aspects of facility management that focus on creating a positive and productive environment for occupants. This can include services related to space management, cleaning and waste management, security, landscaping, catering, risk management, and more.

Based on data from Mordor Intelligence: Soft Facility Management Market and Hard Facility Management Market

According to ToolSense , hard services account for more than half of the global market, driven by the continued expansion of the global infrastructure market and the rapidly expanding building and construction services industry. However, soft services are the fastest-growing segment, with a projected CAGR of 5.2% from 2024 to 2029 , compared to a projected 4.22% CAGR for the hard services segment during the same period.

Growth in the soft services segment of facility management is driven by increased investments in energy management, waste management, wastewater management, and similar services. Significant infrastructure development also creates additional demand for soft services. 

Facility management plays a crucial role in the smooth operation and success of any organization, yet it’s often overlooked. From maintaining buildings and equipment to managing space utilization and ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations, facility management is essential for businesses of all sizes.

One key reason facility management is important in business operations is that it helps to create a safe and comfortable work environment for employees by addressing issues such as proper lighting, temperature control, and ergonomic workstations. A well-maintained facility not only reduces the risk of accidents and injuries but also supports effective collaboration, efficiency, and productivity.

Additionally, effective facility management can help businesses save money in the long run. By implementing preventive maintenance programs and energy-efficient practices, facility managers can reduce operational costs and extend the lifespan of equipment and infrastructure.

Regular inspections and repairs can prevent costly emergencies and downtime, ensuring business operations run smoothly without unexpected disruptions.

Screenshot via ISO

ISO 41001:2018 , the International Standard for Facility Management Systems, is a quality standard specifically designed for the field of facility management. It’s the first international standard for facility management systems published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

This standard provides a framework for organizations to establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve an effective facility management system. It covers a wide range of areas related to facility management, including strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, risk management, performance evaluation, and continuous improvement.

Implementing ISO 41001:2018 enables organizations to streamline processes and improve efficiency, ensuring that facility management practices are consistent, reliable, and meet the needs of stakeholders.

ISO 41001:2018 was amended in 2024 to incorporate climate change awareness and action changes, with the goal of integrating climate considerations into facility management systems. The current ISO 41001:2018 standard is set to be replaced by ISO/AWI 41001 , which is currently under development.

By achieving ISO 41001:2018 certification , organizations can demonstrate their commitment to providing a high level of quality in facility management. Certification requires a thorough audit conducted by a certified third-party auditing body. This process involves assessing the organization’s facility management system against the standard’s requirements to ensure compliance.

Once an organization obtains certification, it can display the ISO 41001:2018 certification logo, demonstrating to stakeholders and customers that the company adheres to international best practices in facility management.

According to the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA), which adopts the ISO’s definition of facility management , “Facility Management is an organizational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business.”

It encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, from ensuring the facility’s overall maintenance and upkeep to managing budget and expenses related to facility operations , overseeing safety and security protocols within the building, and coordinating with vendors and contractors for repairs and renovations. Here’s a closer look at the key elements of facility management. 

Daily Operations & Maintenance

Facility managers are tasked with overseeing the day-to-day building operations, such as electrical systems, HVAC, plumbing, and landscaping. They are responsible for managing preventive maintenance activities to ensure that all systems run smoothly and minimize disruptions, as well as corrective maintenance needs as they arise. This includes managing janitorial and maintenance contracts with third-party vendors.

Facility managers also create detailed reports and maintain systems to track maintenance and repairs , safety and compliance, inspections, and other processes and functions.

Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)

The environmental health and safety, or EHS, aspects of facility management include:

• Ensuring that the facility complies with health and safety regulations (such as fire safety standards and codes)
• Conducting regular safety audits
• Implementing health and safety policies and procedures
• Responding to emergencies
• Creating cleaning schedules for employees and contractors
• Upholding all cleanliness and sanitation standards

These responsibilities are carried out with the goal of maintaining a safe environment for both employees and visitors.

Facility security involves protecting the building’s infrastructure, physical space, and hardware and software components from both internal and external threats. The security component of facility management includes:

• Overseeing the building’s security personnel
• Implementing security policies and procedures
• Conducting risk assessments
• Regularly auditing security systems and processes, such as ensuring that CCTV and video surveillance systems are operational
• Managing visitors, such as maintaining visitor logs
• Ensuring that visitors enter only through authorized access points
• Ensuring all restricted access areas are clearly marked
• Ensuring the facility’s safety and security policies are followed by both employees and visitors

Sustainability & Energy Management

The aim of sustainability and energy management is to minimize the impact of a company’s operations on the environment. According to a report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), “Buildings use about 40% of global energy, 25% of global water, 40% of global resources, and they emit approximately ⅓ of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions.” 

Sustainability has become a key priority for many companies, and facility management is one of the primary areas where gains can be made . Sustainability and energy management includes:

• Conducting energy audits
• Implementing water conservation measures
• Utilizing sustainable building materials and practices
• Developing eco-friendly waste management practices, such as recycling
• Improving energy efficiency, such as by upgrading HVAC systems to more energy-efficient systems, replacing windows, and installing LED lighting
• Converting to renewable energy sources such as solar or geothermal
• Closely monitoring and analyzing utility usage and costs

These measures help reduce the operation’s environmental impact and can also reduce costs. For example, facilities that implement sustainable practices can lower their energy consumption, which translates to lower operating costs.

Asset Maintenance and Management

Asset maintenance and management is a function that often falls under the facility management umbrella. Predictive and preventive maintenance methods are vital to prevent equipment breakdowns before they occur​, and regular maintenance helps to extend the useful lifespan of equipment and infrastructure.

Keeping equipment in optimal working condition and optimizing equipment utilization can also help to reduce operational costs. Asset maintenance and management include:

• Maintaining an up-to-date inventory of assets, including the purchase date, lifespan, warranty information, maintenance schedules, and historical repair data for each asset
• Developing and implementing a preventive maintenance schedule, including routine inspections, cleaning, lubrication, adjustments, and replacements of parts before failure occurs
• Performing corrective maintenance when assets break down or malfunction, including diagnosing problems, initiating repair, and minimizing equipment downtime
• Regularly inspecting assets to ensure their safe operation and compliance with applicable regulatory standards
• Monitoring asset performance and efficiency
• Managing contractors or vendors who perform maintenance or repairs, including sourcing service providers, negotiating contracts, and overseeing the work performed
• Managing costs associated with asset maintenance, repairs, and replacements
• Reporting on asset performance, expenses, and other metrics

Space Planning and Utilization

Facility management oversees an organization’s physical space, which includes planning for efficient space utilization. This includes:

• Analyzing the organization’s space requirements considering the number of employees, the number and frequency of anticipated visitors, the nature of the work performed in the facility, and the need for collaborative and private spaces such as meeting rooms and private office space
• Planning and designing the layout of the space, including the placement of desks, offices, equipment, and common areas to maximize efficiency and support functional workflows
• Creating flexible and scalable space configurations
• Ensuring that the facility complies with health, safety, and accessibility regulations, such as maintaining clear egress paths, adhering to building codes, and incorporating ergonomic standards
• Integrating technology into the space to support the organization’s needs
• Managing costs associated with space utilization, such as utilities costs, maintenance costs, and rent or lease payments
• Ensuring that the space meets safety standards, such as creating accessible emergency exits, planning clear evacuation routes, and equipping workspaces with necessary safety equipment

Strategic Planning for Future Needs

Facility management plays a crucial role in the strategic planning for an organization’s future needs, ensuring that physical spaces and infrastructures align with long-term goals and adapt to changing requirements. This includes:

• Planning for renovations, expansions, or new construction
• Investing in energy-efficient systems and new technologies to reduce operating costs
• Ensuring facilities can accommodate company growth and changing needs, such as with adaptable infrastructure and scalable spaces
• Identifying and analyzing risks to the facility, such as natural disasters, security threats, and technology failures
• Developing risk mitigation plans, disaster recovery plans, and business continuity plans

The current presiding global facilities management organization, the International Facility Management Association, calls for facility management leaders to take a more tactical and strategic approach to protect the future of the company’s properties.

In its Strategic Facility Planning white paper, the IFMA calls for facility managers to carry out SFP (strategic facility planning) as it “helps to avoid mistakes, delays, disappointments, and customer dissatisfaction.” In addition to safety and maintenance responsibilities, facility managers are encouraged to look beyond their normal duties so that they can better support operational efficiency.

To do this effectively, managers must compile two things:

• Strategic Facility Plan
• Master Facility Plan

Let’s take a look at how each one can better strengthen the overall productivity of the business:

Strategic Facility Plan (SFP)

Developing a comprehensive Strategic Facility Plan (SFP) requires:

• An understanding of the core values or changing values of the organization and how facilities must reflect the values
• An in-depth analysis of the facility, including location, capability, and condition
• A fundamental understanding of how the organization’s goals might affect scalability in facilities

The manager can operate as a true strategic support system if they are able to confirm each and every one of these benchmarks with the appropriate departments while implementing effective day-to-day practices. It is through the use of this blend of current and future that all parties involved can tackle changes as they arise as effectively as possible.

Master Facility Plan (MFP)

The Master Facility Plan (MFP), also known as a Facilities Master Plan , is a framework for planning the “physical environments that encompass the buildings.” Let’s explore what a holistic master plan looks like, taking into account both day-to-day tasks and future space needs.

Here’s what a Master Facility Plan should include:

• Zoning, regulation, covenant assessments
• Space standards and benchmarks
• Program of space use
• Workflow analyses
• Engineering assessment and plan
• Block, fit, or stacking plans
• Concept site plan or campus plan
• Architectural image concepts
• Long-term maintenance plan
• Construction estimates
• Phasing or sequencing plan (the sequence or projects)

The MFP should be regularly reviewed and updated. Facility managers should engage all departments that impact their facility so they can support their organization as it moves forward profitably.

Like any other discipline, facility management comes with its fair share of challenges. Here are some of the top challenges faced by facility managers.

Cost Management

Cost management is a challenge for facility management because there are so many variables to consider. From maintenance and repairs to utilities and supplies, there are numerous expenses that need to be carefully monitored and controlled.

Additionally, unexpected issues can arise that require additional funds to address, making it difficult to stick to a budget. Furthermore, facility managers need to balance cost management with providing a safe, comfortable, and functional environment for employees and customers. This can sometimes require investing in more expensive solutions in order to achieve long-term cost savings.

In the face of economic instability and budget constraints, facility management may not be seen as a critical investment by businesses, which can create additional cost restraints. Effectively managing facility costs requires a strategic approach and constant monitoring to ensure that expenses remain within budget.

Technological Advancements

Facilities require constant updates and upgrades to keep up with the latest technology . This can be costly and time-consuming for facilities managers, as they need to continuously assess and implement new technologies to improve efficiency and productivity.

Additionally, technological advancements can also pose security risks, as more connected devices and systems, such as IoT devices and cloud-based systems, increase the potential for cyber attacks. Facilities managers must stay informed about the latest cybersecurity threats and implement robust security measures to protect their facilities from potential breaches.

Technological advancements are particularly challenging in facility management because they have the potential to streamline operations and enhance the facility’s functionality, but at the same time, they require a significant investment of time and resources to effectively manage.

Sustainability and Environmental Regulations

Sustainability requires a shift in mindset and practices toward more eco-friendly and sustainable operations . This may involve implementing new technologies, processes, and materials that can be costly and time-consuming.

Compliance with environmental regulations also adds another layer of complexity, as facility managers need to stay abreast of changing policies and ensure that their operations comply with these regulations.

The biggest challenge for modern organizations is balancing sustainability goals with operational and financial considerations. Sustainability initiatives often require long-term planning and investment, which can be difficult to prioritize in the face of immediate budgetary constraints.

Emergency Preparedness

Emergency preparedness requires a significant amount of planning, training, and resources to ensure that a facility is prepared for any type of emergency situation. Facility managers must conduct risk assessments, develop emergency response plans, provide training for staff, and invest in emergency equipment and supplies.

Additionally, facilities must comply with various regulations and standards related to emergency preparedness, which can be complex and time-consuming to navigate. In the event of an emergency, facility managers must be able to quickly and effectively respond to protect the safety of occupants and minimize damage to the facility.

The ever-changing nature of potential threats requires constantly updating and improving emergency response plans. This requires clear communication, coordination with emergency services, and the ability to make quick decisions under pressure.

Changing Needs and Demands

As mentioned above, changing needs and demands present a prominent challenge in facility management, requiring constant adaptation and flexibility.

Facilities need to be able to respond to shifting priorities, regulations, and technological advancements to meet the needs of employees, customers, and stakeholders. This means that facilities managers must constantly assess and reassess their strategies, processes, and resources to ensure they are providing an optimal environment for the people using the facility.

Failure to anticipate and address changing needs can lead to inefficiencies, dissatisfaction among employees and visitors, and ultimately, an impact on the organization’s overall success. Staying ahead of evolving trends and demands is essential for effective facility management.

Staffing and Hiring

Staffing and hiring require finding individuals with a specific set of skills and experience in areas such as maintenance, engineering, and operations. Additionally, facility management roles often involve a wide range of responsibilities, from ensuring compliance with safety regulations to managing budgets and overseeing projects.

Finding candidates who are not only qualified but also culturally fit with the organization can be a time-consuming process. Furthermore, turnover rates in facility management tend to be high due to the demanding nature of the job, which means that constant recruitment and training efforts are necessary to maintain a fully staffed and capable team.

Having a well-thought-out facility management plan is crucial for maintaining the functionality and efficiency of any building or property. Follow these key steps to implement an effective facility management plan.

• Inventory your current assets. Create a comprehensive inventory of all assets , equipment, and systems within the building. Identify any maintenance issues or areas that need improvement. This will help you prioritize tasks and allocate resources effectively.
• Audit your facility operations. In addition to assessing your assets , you should also evaluate your facility’s current operations to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for process improvements.
• Set clear objectives. Clearly define what you aim to achieve with your facility management plan, aligning with the overall organizational goals. Your goals and objectives could range from ensuring the longevity of physical assets to enhancing the well-being and productivity of occupants.
• Develop facility management policies. Policies will guide your workforce in ensuring efficient and safe operations. Policies should include emergency protocols, evacuation plans, emergency contact information, and safety measures. You can also establish policies for preventive maintenance, security, sustainability, information technology, procurement and vendor management, and disaster recovery. 
• Develop a maintenance schedule. One of the key aspects of facility management is maintenance. Develop a schedule for routine facility maintenance tasks such as HVAC system inspections , plumbing checks, electrical system maintenance, and general cleaning. Regular maintenance is crucial to prevent breakdowns and extend the useful lifespan of your assets.
• Implement technology solutions. Technology plays a significant role in facility management. The right facility management software to centralize data, streamline operations, and improve decision-making through analytics. Consider features like asset tracking, work order management, and predictive maintenance .
• Develop an asset tagging system . Facility management asset tags and labels integrate seamlessly with your facility management software to streamline work order tracking, equipment maintenance, condition monitoring, and reporting. Choose durable asset tags and labels, such as Camcode’s Rigid Metalphoto® Labels and Foil Metalphoto® Labels , that can withstand your facility’s operating conditions. For instance, Camcode’s Metalphoto labels have excellent resistance to chemicals, solvents, abrasion, extreme temperatures, and UV, offering an expected exterior lifespan of more than 20 years.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation. Keep detailed records of all facility management activities, including maintenance records, inspections, compliance documents, and training records. This supports regulatory compliance and can also aid in decision-making. 
• Train your staff. Make sure your facility management team is well-equipped to handle their responsibilities and tasks. Provide training on safety procedures, maintenance protocols, and how to use any technology solutions that are in place. Foster a culture of engagement and accountability, encouraging staff to take ownership of facility maintenance and efficiency. 
• Monitor and continuously improve performance. Track key performance indicators such as maintenance costs, downtime, and energy usage. Leverage this data to inform decision-making and adjust your processes to continuously optimize performance.
• Plan for the future. Be prepared to adapt your strategies in response to new technologies, regulatory changes, or shifts in organizational priorities. Your facility management plan should include a future needs assessment, capacity planning, and resilience strategies that can help your company mitigate long-term risks. 

Based on data from Fortune Business Insights

Managing facilities efficiently is crucial to ensuring smooth operations and maximizing productivity. Facility management software has emerged as a powerful tool that enables organizations to streamline their facilities management processes, improve asset performance, and reduce costs.

In fact, the global facility management market was valued at $1,260.0 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7%, reaching $2,031.4 billion by 2030​​.

Facility management software helps organizations manage their facilities, assets, and maintenance processes more effectively. It provides a centralized platform where facility managers can track and monitor various aspects of their facilities, such as equipment maintenance, space utilization, energy consumption, and vendor management.

Facility management software comes in various forms, from software focused on a specific function such as asset management to comprehensive, integrated facility management solutions that encompass all the core functions of facility management. Here’s a look at the most commonly used types of facility management software.

Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM)

CAFM software is a tool used by facility managers to efficiently manage and maintain their buildings, assets, and workplace environments. This type of software integrates various aspects of facility management , such as space planning and allocation, maintenance management, asset tracking, and resource management and scheduling, into one centralized platform.

CAFM software streamlines workflows and improves overall productivity by providing real-time information on building operations and maintenance. With this software, managers can easily track key metrics, generate reports, and make informed decisions to optimize building performance and reduce costs .

The benefits of CAFM solutions include:

• Extending asset life spans due to preventive maintenance
• Increased safety
• Centralized data for strategic planning
• Cost savings
• Improved communication
• Reduction in energy-related expenses

Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)

CMMS software , or a centralized maintenance management system , centralizes information about an organization’s maintenance operations. It helps optimize the use and availability of equipment such as vehicles, machinery, and other physical assets.

CMMS systems are designed to simplify the maintenance process by providing tools and features that streamline tasks such as work orders, inventory management, asset tracking, and scheduling.

At its core, a CMMS is used to track and manage maintenance activities, from routine inspections to major repairs. By centralizing all maintenance-related data in one system, organizations can better organize their maintenance operations, improve workflow efficiency, and reduce downtime.

Key features of a CMMS include preventive maintenance scheduling, which allows users to create maintenance schedules for equipment based on time or usage triggers; work order management, which enables users to create, assign, and track maintenance tasks; inventory management, which helps users keep track of spare parts and supplies needed for maintenance; and reporting and analytics, which provide insights into maintenance performance and help identify areas for improvement.

The benefits of a CMMS include:

• Increased efficiency
• Reduced equipment downtime
• Improved equipment and employee safety
• Cost control
• Predictive and preventive maintenance scheduling
• Accurate reporting and data analytics

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software is a comprehensive solution that helps organizations manage their physical assets throughout their lifecycle. These assets can range from equipment and machinery to vehicles and buildings. EAM software enables businesses to track, maintain, and optimize their assets to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively.

Asset tracking is a key feature of EAM. It allows businesses to monitor where their assets are located, who is using them, and how they are being utilized. With this information at their fingertips, organizations can make more informed decisions about their assets and maintenance needs.

Another key function of EAM is maintenance management. It allows businesses to schedule routine maintenance for their assets, track work orders, and ensure that all maintenance tasks are completed on time.

EAM software also provides valuable insights into asset performance and usage. By analyzing data collected from the software, organizations can identify trends, make predictions, and optimize their asset management strategies.

The benefits of EAM software include:

• Reduced costs
• Improved asset performance
• Reduced breakdowns and downtime

Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS)

IWMS solutions provide a comprehensive suite of tools to manage all aspects of facility and real estate management. They integrate functionalities for real estate management, capital project management, facility space management, maintenance management, and environmental sustainability.

IWMS software enables facility managers to streamline their processes, improve efficiency, and make data-driven decisions to optimize the use of their workspace. One key feature of an IWMS is its ability to centralize data and generate insightful reports on various aspects of facility management. This includes information on space utilization, maintenance schedules, energy consumption, lease agreements, and compliance with regulations.

An IWMS can also automate routine tasks and workflows. For example, maintenance requests can be automatically routed to the appropriate personnel, work orders can be scheduled and tracked, and inventory levels can be monitored in real-time.

An IWMS also helps organizations ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, environmental standards, and industry best practices. By providing tools for tracking and reporting on these aspects, facility managers can proactively address any issues and maintain a safe and sustainable work environment for employees.

The benefits of an IWMS include:

• Increased productivity and efficiency
• Reduced errors
• Informed decision-making backed by data
• Automation of routine tasks and workflows
• Improved safety

Facility management is subject to various regulations and laws to ensure safety, compliance, and efficiency within the workplace. These regulations cover a wide range of aspects, from health and safety measures to regulations related to equipment.

The regulations applicable to a specific organization depend on the industry, location, and size of the business. Regulations are set forth by multiple entities.

On top of international and federal regulations, state and local regulations may also apply to specific industries or across the board for businesses and employers. Needless to say, compliance is multi-faceted and incredibly complex, requiring a comprehensive management strategy. 

Let’s review some best practices for implementing and maintaining a strong facility management compliance program.

Understand What Regulations Apply

Facilities managers must stay informed about relevant laws, regulations, and codes that apply to their industry. Laws can vary depending on the location and type of facility, so it’s important to monitor updates and changes in regulations regularly.

As mentioned above, there are many regulations that facilities may be required to comply with, so the first step in developing a robust compliance program is to understand what regulations apply to your facility.

For example, the UK government introduced The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations in 1999, which apply to employers in the UK, while U.S.-based businesses are subject to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). There are also international and national labor laws created by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the U.S. Department of Labor , respectively.  

The U.S. healthcare sector must comply with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) regulations , and food manufacturing facilities , medical device manufacturers , and pharmaceutical facilities are subject to regulations set forth by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  

Start by identifying all applicable regulations and laws, considering organizational, reputational, and strategic risks.

Conduct Regular Audits

Conduct internal audits to assess your compliance with these regulations and the effectiveness of your security and compliance strategies.

Conducting regular audits of your facility can help you identify areas where you may be falling short of regulatory compliance. These audits should cover everything from fire safety regulations to environmental laws to ensure that your facility is meeting all necessary requirements.

Develop a Compliance Roadmap

Developing a comprehensive compliance plan requires a clear understanding of your compliance status and the regulations you need to comply with. This plan should outline the specific regulatory requirements that apply to your facility and the steps you will take to ensure compliance. Prioritize your actions based on the most critical compliance requirements and risks​.

It should also clearly define the responsibilities of all stakeholders involved. This plan should be regularly reviewed and updated as regulations change.

Develop Safety & Compliance Checklists

Develop safety and compliance checklists that clearly outline the steps to take in certain situations. Some commonly used safety and compliance checklists in facility management include:

• Fire safety checklist
• Electrical safety checklist
• HVAC system checklist
• Building security checklist
• Environmental compliance checklist
• General maintenance checklist

Of course, the checklists you develop will depend on the regulations that apply to your organization as well as your company’s internal policies and procedures. 

Each item on the checklist should be specific, measurable, and actionable, leaving no room for ambiguity. Regularly review and update the checklist to reflect changes in regulations, facility modifications, or lessons learned from incidents, and ensure that checklists are readily available to employees and stakeholders.

For example, you might post a fire safety checklist or evacuation plan near the emergency exits in your facility or attach durable instructional labels to equipment . These labels can be printed with essential safety, operational, or compliance steps to promote workplace safety and compliance.  

Provide Comprehensive Training

Educate your employees about compliance policies, procedures, and standards. All staff members involved in facilities management should receive training on regulatory compliance. This training should cover the specific regulations that apply to your facility and the procedures and protocols that need to be followed to ensure compliance.

Regular training ensures that employees understand their roles in maintaining compliance and are updated on any regulatory changes or updates to company policies​.

Maintain Documentation

Keeping detailed records of your facilities management activities, including maintenance schedules, inspections, and repairs, is essential for demonstrating regulatory compliance. Make sure that all documentation is easily accessible and up-to-date.

Establish Effective Communication & Monitoring Procedures

Establish effective communication channels for reporting compliance issues or concerns without fear of retaliation. Implement monitoring and auditing systems to continuously assess the effectiveness of your compliance program and identify risks.

Regular reviews and updates to the program are essential to adapt to changes in regulations and business operations.

Leverage Technology

Utilize regulatory compliance software (or facility management software with compliance management capabilities) to automate and streamline compliance processes. This can simplify the management of regulatory changes, policy updates, and compliance assessments. The right software can also provide valuable insights and analytics to improve decision-making and ensure continuous compliance​.

Implement Accountability & Corrective Action Plans

Establish clear procedures for enforcing compliance policies and taking corrective action in case of non-compliance. Accountability at all levels ensures that compliance is taken seriously and that any issues are addressed promptly to prevent recurrence.

Cultivate a Culture of Compliance

Clearly communicating your organization’s code of conduct and ensuring it reflects your organizational values, regularly communicating changes, and implementing effective training and employee engagement programs are all part of building a culture of compliance. Following these practices and the best practices outlined above helps to minimize compliance violations and promotes a positive working environment.

If you’re unsure how to ensure regulatory compliance in your facility, consider working with compliance experts who specialize in facilities management and have experience in your industry. These experts can provide guidance and support to help you meet all necessary requirements.

A variety of trends and technologies are shaping facility management, revolutionizing the way facilities are operated and maintained. Let’s examine some of the biggest trends in facility management and the challenges and opportunities they present for facility managers and operators.

Smart Buildings

The global smart buildings market has grown significantly. It was valued at $96.96 billion in 2023, and it’s projected to grow at a CAGR of 21.8%, from $117.42 billion in 2024 to $568.02 billion by 2032.

The rapid adoption of smart technologies marks a shift towards more efficient, sustainable, and user-friendly environments. This transformation is driven by the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other digital innovations into the physical infrastructure of facilities.

Opportunities

• Advanced analytics: These advancements produce vast amounts of data, from occupancy levels to energy usage patterns. This data, analyzed through advanced analytics, informs strategic decision-making, helping managers optimize space usage, reduce costs, and improve overall building performance.
• Automation: Smart building technologies can automate routine tasks, from HVAC adjustments to lighting control, based on real-time data and predictive analytics. This reduces manual oversight requirements and helps to reduce waste, promote sustainability, and lower operational costs, leading to more efficient facility management.
• Safety & security: Smart building technologies enhance building safety and security measures. Real-time surveillance, access control systems, and emergency response mechanisms can now be integrated and managed through a centralized platform, improving the ability to respond to incidents and ensure occupant safety.

While the benefits are substantial, the rapid adoption of smart building technologies also presents challenges, such as the significant upfront investment, potential cybersecurity risks, and the requirement for ongoing management and updating of these systems.

These advanced systems require facility managers to have a solid grasp of building information systems, and there’s a growing need for skilled personnel who can manage and optimize them.

Cloud-Based Solutions

Cloud-based solutions are a major driver in the industry, offering opportunities for efficiency, scalability, and integration. These solutions allow facility managers to access and analyze data from anywhere, make informed decisions in real time, and improve the overall management and operation of facilities.

• Lower costs: By utilizing cloud solutions, organizations can reduce the need for expensive on-premises hardware and the associated maintenance costs. Cloud services typically operate on a subscription model, which can be more affordable and predictable in terms of budgeting.
• Scalability: Cloud-based solutions can be easily scaled up or down based on the facility’s needs, allowing for efficient resource management. This scalability supports the organization’s growth without the need for significant additional investment in IT infrastructure.
• Integration: Cloud platforms can also facilitate the integration of various building management systems and applications, from energy management to security and maintenance. This integration can lead to more holistic and efficient facility management practices, and it can also enhance collaboration among team members, stakeholders, and third-party service providers.

As with any technology that relies on internet connectivity, cloud-based solutions introduce risks related to data security and privacy. Ensuring the protection of sensitive information and compliance with data protection regulations is paramount.

The effectiveness of cloud-based solutions is heavily reliant on consistent and high-speed internet access. Interruptions in connectivity can hinder access to the systems and data needed for facility management.

Sustainability & Green Initiatives

In the modern world, sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting have become crucial aspects of facility management, driven by both regulatory and societal pressures. With the increasing focus on corporate responsibility and environmental impact, organizations are being held more accountable for their operations and the effects they have on the environment and society.

Sustainability and ESG reporting in facility management play a significant role in ensuring that businesses are operating in a way that is not only profitable but also responsible and ethical.

• Measuring environmental impact: By collecting data on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste generation, companies can monitor their performance and identify areas where improvements can be made to reduce their overall environmental footprint.
• Transparency & stakeholder engagement: By disclosing information about their sustainability efforts and performance, organizations can build trust with investors, customers, employees, and the broader community. This can foster improved relationships with stakeholders and can attract socially responsible investors who want to support companies that prioritize sustainable and ethical practices.
• Competitive advantage: Companies that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and ethical practices may also benefit from increased market opportunities, improved brand reputation, and a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Unlike financial reporting, there is no universal set of standards for reporting on sustainability and ESG factors. This can make it difficult for facility managers to know what data to collect and how to report on their sustainability performance in a consistent and meaningful way.

Another challenge is the complexity of collecting and analyzing data on sustainability and ESG factors. It involves tracking a wide range of data points, from energy and water consumption to waste management and indoor air quality, which may be spread across multiple systems and sources. This makes it challenging to aggregate and analyze in a timely and accurate manner.

Different stakeholders sometimes have differing priorities and expectations related to sustainability, which can be difficult to balance. 

Employee Well-Being

Today’s companies are increasingly prioritizing employee and occupant well-being , with initiatives aimed at creating productive and satisfying work environments through ergonomic workspaces and indoor air quality monitoring​​.

• Enhanced productivity: Properly designed workspaces that follow ergonomic principles can significantly reduce physical strain and discomfort, and good indoor air quality (IAQ) can improve cognitive function, reduce fatigue, headaches, and dizziness, and decrease absenteeism due to illness. This translates to higher levels of concentration and productivity.
• Reduced absenteeism and turnover: A healthy work environment can significantly reduce absenteeism related to health issues, as well as turnover resulting from dissatisfaction with the work environment. Lower turnover rates not only reduce recruitment and training costs but also contribute to a more experienced, cohesive, and efficient team.
• Enhanced corporate image: A company’s commitment to employee well-being reflects positively on its brand and corporate image. It signals to customers, clients, and partners that the company values its human resources and is committed to sustainable, responsible business practices.

The upfront costs of purchasing ergonomic furniture, upgrading HVAC systems for better air quality, and implementing other wellness-focused changes can be significant. However, it’s difficult to quantify and measure the direct impact of wellness initiatives on productivity, employee satisfaction, and health outcomes, which can make it challenging to monitor and adjust strategies.

Facility managers may find it challenging to demonstrate immediate returns on investment to stakeholders, as benefits such as increased productivity and reduced absenteeism may take time to become evident, making it challenging to justify further investment.

Space and infrastructure limitations can also pose challenges when it comes to implementing these initiatives. For instance, older buildings may have limitations that make it difficult to implement modern ergonomic solutions or improve air quality without substantial renovations. 

Flexible Workspaces

Flexible workspaces are work environments that are adaptable and can be easily reconfigured to meet the changing needs of a business or organization. These spaces are designed to enable employees to work in a variety of settings, whether it be in a traditional office space, a collaborative area, a quiet zone, or even remotely.

• Adaptability: By offering a range of work settings, employees can choose the environment that best suits their task at hand, whether it be a quiet area for focused work or a collaborative space for group projects. This can lead to increased motivation and efficiency in the workplace.
• Reduced overhead costs: With a dynamic layout that can be easily adjusted, companies can make more efficient use of their physical space and avoid the need for costly renovations or expansions. Hot-desking and shared spaces minimize unused office real estate, especially in companies that offer remote work options.
• Talent acquisition and retention: Modern, adaptable work environments are attractive to prospective employees, particularly the growing segment of the workforce that values flexibility and autonomy. This can be a significant advantage in talent acquisition and retention.

Flexible workspaces come with challenges, such as managing noise levels, ensuring adequate privacy, and maintaining a sense of community and team cohesion. For example, it’s often challenging to find the right balance between open spaces, collaborative areas, and quiet zones can be challenging. Too much of one type of space can lead to underutilization of others, affecting overall productivity.

It can also be difficult to manage shared resources efficiently, such as ensuring that all employees who need it have access to private office space at the same time or that enough conference rooms are available for scheduled meetings.

Data security is also a potential concern. With employees moving around and using different workstations, ensuring secure and reliable access to networks and data is more complicated. The risk of data breaches may increase if proper cybersecurity measures are not in place.

Increasing Building Standards

In recent years, building standards and regulations have become increasingly strict in order to promote sustainability, energy efficiency, and overall safety. Regulations such as California’s A.B.2446 , which requires new buildings to conduct lifetime environmental impact studies and make these findings public, signify a broader shift towards sustainability and transparency in the construction and facility management industries.

This trend is growing, as governments around the world are imposing stricter building standards to combat climate change, reduce energy consumption, and minimize facilities’ environmental footprints. While these regulations are important for the environment and public safety, they have a direct impact on facility management.

For example, A.B.2446 requires the entire building lifecycle to be considered from the start, from using sustainable construction materials and methods to optimizing operational energy consumption and sustainable methods for eventual decommissioning. The aim is to reduce embodied carbon emissions, which account for an estimated 11% of global energy-related carbon emissions, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

According to the U.S. Green Building Council , “In the buildings context, embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance and disposal of building materials.”

As mentioned earlier in this guide, ISO 41001:2018, the International Standard for Facility Management Systems, was amended in 2024 to incorporate climate change awareness and action considerations. These changes apply not only to facility management but all existing and upcoming ISO Management Systems Standards (MSS).

Companies pursuing ISO 41001:2018 certification will need to incorporate these considerations into their business practices. The amendments, added to Clauses 4.1 and 4.2 of the current Annex SL Standards , include:

• Clause 4.1: This clause, “Understanding the organization and its context requirements,” now has a new requirement that “The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”
• Clause 4.2: This clause, “Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties,” now has an additional note, “NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”
• Energy auditing and benchmarking: Conducting energy audits and benchmarking building performance against industry standards can identify areas for improvement and track progress over time. Facility managers can manage these audits and implement strategies to improve energy use and reduce carbon footprints.
• Corporate branding and reputation: Companies that are proactive in adopting sustainable practices can position themselves as industry leaders in corporate responsibility. Communicating these sustainability efforts effectively can enhance customer loyalty and attract new customers who prefer to support businesses that are committed to environmental stewardship.
• Enhanced community relations: Implementing sustainability initiatives, especially those that have a direct positive impact on the local community, can improve a company’s relationship with the community. This might include efforts to reduce emissions, waste management practices that contribute to cleaner local environments, or the implementation of green spaces. For instance, companies can make a significant impact by implementing waste reduction and recycling programs, particularly in larger complexes and commercial buildings.

As public awareness grows, the pressure on lawmakers to pass stricter building codes and legislation to combat climate concerns.

Stricter building standards often require more advanced systems and technologies to be installed in buildings, such as energy-efficient HVAC systems, smart building controls, and renewable energy sources. Preventive maintenance becomes critical to ensuring systems operate at peak efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and prolonging the lifespan of building components.

Stricter building standards can also impact the overall design and layout of buildings, and maintenance procedures must be adapted accordingly. For example, buildings with more stringent fire safety regulations may require more frequent fire drills and inspections, while buildings with enhanced energy efficiency standards may need to have their systems serviced more frequently.

With the requirement to disclose environmental impacts, there is an increased need for accurate data collection, monitoring, and reporting. Facility managers must implement systems to track energy consumption, water usage, waste generation, and other environmental metrics. On the plus side, this data can also help identify opportunities for improvement and demonstrate sustainability efforts to stakeholders.

Facility management is a comprehensive discipline crucial for the successful operation and growth of organizations in every business sector. Effective facility management enhances the safety and productivity of workspaces and plays a pivotal role in reducing operational costs and environmental impact.

As we look to the future, the importance of facility management in enhancing business operations, reducing environmental impact, and improving the quality of work environments cannot be overstated. The ongoing development of new technologies and the increasing focus on sustainability and flexibility will continue to drive innovation in this field, presenting both challenges and opportunities in facility management.

What do facilities managers do?

Facilities managers are responsible for ensuring that the buildings and services meet the needs of the people who work in or visit them. They manage services such as cleaning, security, and parking, and ensure that the environment is safe and efficient.

Their role includes maintaining, operating, and improving buildings, ensuring that facilities comply with laws and regulations, and managing budgets and contracts related to building services.

How can you determine the success of facility management?

Determining the success of facility management involves measuring performance against specific goals and objectives. Key performance indicators (KPIs) might include operational efficiency, cost savings, compliance with regulations, occupant, visitor, or employee satisfaction, and sustainability metrics.

For example, cost savings can be measured by comparing the facility management budget to actual expenses and seeing if there are any reductions in costs. Efficiency improvements can be evaluated by analyzing how well resources are being utilized and whether there are any bottlenecks in operations. Regular audits, feedback from users, and comparisons with industry benchmarks are also crucial.

What is the quality standard for facility management?

The quality standard for facility management is often benchmarked against the ISO 41001:2018 standard. This international standard provides a framework for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an effective facility management system, focusing on efficiency, safety, and sustainability.

What is facility management compliance?

Facility management compliance involves ensuring that a facility’s operations and practices align with all relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards. This includes everything from safety regulations to environmental policies to building codes.

Facility managers must stay current on compliance requirements and ensure that their facilities always meet these standards. Failure to comply with regulations can result in fines, penalties, or even legal action, making compliance a critical aspect of successful facility management.

What is a facility management plan?

A facility management plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the strategies and procedures for managing and maintaining a facility. It includes information on how the facility will be operated, maintained, and repaired to ensure that it remains in optimal condition.

The plan may cover areas such as preventative maintenance schedules, emergency response protocols, security measures, energy efficiency strategies, and budgeting for maintenance and repairs. A well-developed facility management plan is essential for ensuring that a facility operates efficiently and effectively and that it meets the needs of its occupants.

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A Facility Management Plan is a site-specific plan that integrates onsite factors that need to be considered to manage and mitigate risk associated with commercial real estate assets. A Facility Management Plan incorporates a review of onsite building systems, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing , roofing, and building envelope , and adds the additional consideration of how the overall facility should be managed while occupied, and importantly, how to manage those building systems during a temporary vacancy or shut-down. Specifics may include HVAC and chiller settings to ensure proper load balancing to prevent mold growth and legionella blooms. The goal of the Facility Management Plan is to document onsite building systems and appropriate operation as a means of proactive loss prevention and the protection of our clients’ facilities.

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• Compatibility with contiguous systems
• Prioritized list of commissioning and/or repairs to be performed prior to re-occupancy

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Related insights, nate benton and josh mccullough discuss asset data collection in the corporate real estate journal, due diligence in a rapidly changing market: pre-foreclosure considerations for lenders, re-occupying your facility with confidence, is your building protected during a temporary vacancy, what is a facility condition assessment, five essential facilities budgeting considerations for 2019, jay grenfell, leed ap, relationship manager at partner engineering and science, inc., writes in an article for cmba’s winter magazine about bridge loans that involve construction components. these deals involve additional risk management concerns to be addressed with the due diligence consultant on record, namely construction risk management, budgeting and accounting for final takeout., frequently asked questions, what are the benefits of having a facility management plan.

Having a Facility Management Plan helps ensure that buildings and facilities are well-maintained, safe, and efficient. It can also help reduce costs, improve productivity, and enhance the overall experience for users and occupants.

What are the key components of an FMP?

Building information: Details about the facility’s layout, systems, and equipment. Maintenance plan: Schedules for preventive and corrective maintenance activities. Life cycle analysis: Assessment of equipment lifespan and replacement strategies. Sustainability measures: Practices to minimize energy consumption and environmental impact. Emergency procedures: Plans for handling emergencies like fire, power outages, and natural disasters. Budgeting and resource allocation: Financial planning for facility operations and maintenance.

How can I get started with creating a Facility Management Plan?

To create a Facility Management Plan, start by conducting a thorough assessment of the facility’s current condition, needs, and resources. Then, develop strategies and protocols for managing and maintaining the facility effectively.

What does a Facility Management Plan include?

A Facility Management Plan typically includes information about maintenance schedules, emergency procedures, equipment inventories, budgeting, staffing plans, and more. It’s like a roadmap for managing a facility effectively.

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How to Create a Marketing Plan for Facilities Management

Though many facility managers may think marketing doesn't fall within FM's core competencies, the facility management team must consider how it markets facility services in its contact and conduct with customers. In this respect, customer service is vital. The terms marketing and customer service are not synonymous, however. While customer service provides opportunities to reinforce positive images of a facility management department, marketing involves first researching who the customers are and then selling and promoting facility services to them. The main responsibility falls on the shoulders of the facility management department leader.

All facility managers should understand the following basic concepts of marketing:

• Know the market. Each type of customer, what their needs are, and how they perceive facility management. Know and anticipate their needs.
• Know the facility management department’s strengths and weaknesses. What is done well, and where does it fall short? To do this, facility managers should identify what skills are involved in marketing, which of these skills are performed, and how well they’re performed.
• Develop a marketing plan that serves as a road map.
• Recognize the importance of quality customer service. Every facility staff member must realize how every interaction with a customer can serve marketing objectives and foster a positive image of the facility management department.

Know the market

If a facility management department is one of the administrative services supporting the core business departments, it is unlikely that much thought has been given to marketing the facility management department. Instead, the market was guaranteed: Corporate customers had to get facility services through the department. Today, many facility management customers are given the option to outsource facility management. Facility managers now compete with contracting firms that have developed considerable marketing skills.

As the struggles for market share intensify, workers in all companies have been besieged with entreaties from their leaders to be sensitive to their customers. This issue has particular urgency for facility managers, whose customers have become increasingly aware that they have choices of where and how to obtain facility services. In many companies, executives openly permit departments to shop for facility services, putting corporate facility management departments in direct competition with outsourced providers.  

In recent years, facility management customers have become quite sophisticated. They are smarter, better informed, and far more cost conscious. Many have substantial experience in marketing their own products and services and expect others to market their goods and services similarly. They may know as much as the facility management team does about topics such as indoor air quality or accessibility for the disabled.

Facility managers must also understand that their customers are not people whose needs, motivations, and objectives are identical. Most companies have several different types of customers. From the facility manager’s perspective, each one constitutes a niche market — a particular population with certain characteristics and needs that are distinct. For example, top management has needs unlike those of administrative support units or core business units.  

Facility managers should also know the skills of their staff. Every staff member makes an impression on a customer in every transaction, whether it is by email, telephone, in person, or in a report. For marketing purposes, every worker should understand the customer. Mechanics, custodians, and housekeepers who make contact with customers may exert more influence on them than higher-ranking facility management employees who are seldom seen. 

Develop a Marketing Plan

To develop a marketing plan, it is important to identify the marketing elements already in place. The greatest asset is the range and magnitude of customer contact. There is a fundamental maxim of customer service that applies particularly well to facility management marketing: “If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is.”  A marketing plan can be organized around the following basic steps.

• Conduct market research — Know the characteristics and needs of your customers; know about the service of your competitors.
• Promote services — Devise a marketing plan that matches services with the right customers. A marketing brochure explaining facility services can be customized for different customers.
• Keep customers informed — Talking to customers directly provides an opportunity to inform them of upcoming developments that may affect them, such as new regulations. This enables you to apply another basic marketing maxim: “Prepare the market for change.” Eliminating surprises, helps facility managers and their customers become allies.
• Evaluate service delivery — Ask customers for feedback on service delivery. In doing so, potentially damaging misunderstandings about facility services are diffused. That’s especially regarding sensitive issues such as indoor air quality.
• Create a website — A website can allow users to download standards, post construction schedules, obtain standards forms, and post surveys or questionnaires for research or benchmarking purposes.

To implement the steps mentioned above, an overall marketing strategy is needed. This strategy incorporates several key elements that form the backbone of an effective marketing plan.

This article is adapted from BOMI International's Fundamentals of Facilities Management course, part of the FMA designation program. More information regarding this course or the BOMI-HP™ credential is available by calling 1-800-235-2664. Visit BOMI International’s website, www.bomi.org .

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The facility management plan is the formal planning instrument used by the organization to manage the current and future operations of the club facility. The plan is to put together to make sure the efficiency of operation is increased, saving them money over the life of your facility and even expand the overall lifespan of your facility. The quality, safety, and sustainability of the plan must be in the facility management plan. And, the plan to achieve these strategies.

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CDK Global: Restoration underway after auto dealer software supplier hacked

Editor's note: Follow along here for the latest updates on the CDK Global cyberattack.

After a cyberattack at CDK Global led to the shutdown of computer systems at auto dealers nationwide, the company said it has begun work to restore systems .

CDK, which provides software to car dealerships , shut down operations Wednesday after back-to-back cyberattacks. Bloomberg reported a group claiming to be the hackers is asking for tens of millions of dollars in ransom .

While work is underway to get services back up and running, CDK estimates the process will take several days.

Auto dealers including AutoNation and Peer Lithia Motors said they have experienced disruptions that are likely to negatively impact business, Reuters reported Monday. Some dealerships have reverted to paper methods to conduct business.

USA TODAY reached out to CDK for an update Monday.

More: New car inventory and prices: What shoppers need to know

Hackers targeted CDK Global car dealer management system 

The cyberattack on CDK was first reported Wednesday, prompting the company to shut down most of its systems "out of an abundance of caution," a CDK spokesperson previously told USA TODAY.

CDK restored some systems that afternoon, but another cyberattack later that evening prompted the company to take the systems offline once again, according to a letter sent to customers.

The work to completely restore the software is expected to take several days.

What is CDK Global? 

One of the leading providers of cloud-based software to dealerships in the country, CDK's software  helps dealerships manage  vehicle acquisitions, sales, financing, insuring, repairs and maintenance. The company's website says it offers a “ three-tiered cybersecurity strategy  to prevent, protect and respond to cyberattacks.”

CDK works with more than 15,000 retail locations nationwide, according to its website.

Is CDK still down? 

CDK did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for an update Monday on how many businesses were impacted and if any have been restored.

However, CDK started a restoration process Saturday that was expected to take "several days" to complete, according to a company spokesperson.

CDK hackers asked for millions in ransom: reports

An eastern European cybercrime group is claiming to be behind the attack, according to Bloomberg . CDK reportedly intends to pay the tens of millions of dollars they are demanding, but negotiations could evolve, according to Bloomberg.

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How to write a restaurant business plan + free template (2024)

By Homebase Team

Whether you’re living the dream of opening your own restaurant or reworking your existing concept, a restaurant business plan template takes a ton of stress out of writing a business plan.

With prompts for every section you’ll need, we’ve created our free restaurant business plan template to be your operational foundation (you’re welcome!). Something you can download, customize, and come back to whenever you make business decisions for your restaurant.

But first, let’s go through all the ways a written business plan helps shape your restaurant, and why it boosts your business’s chance of success.

What is a restaurant business plan?

A restaurant business plan is a written document that lays out an overview of a restaurant, its objectives, and its plans for achieving its goals.

It’s needed across all kinds and sizes of restaurants, and can be a handful of pages long or much more detailed. A well-written restaurant business plan not only helps you organize your ideas, it’s also a key part of getting investor funding .

Starting a restaurant? Here’s why you need a business plan. 

Creatively, opening a new restaurant can be incredibly exciting. But it’s also super complicated. From licenses, to equipment, to building a team, each phase needs a lot of attention to detail.

Before you jump in, it’s important to shape your plan of attack, organizing your business ideas into a clear, concise narrative that an outsider could easily understand. A business plan is an essential part of this—and here’s why.

Your business plan helps you:

Set short and long-term goals.

A restaurant business plan not only shows how your business will operate in its early stages, it also shows what steps it’ll need to follow as time goes by. Setting both your short and long-term goals at the outset makes you more likely to achieve them.

Understand your resource needs.

Going through the exercise of writing a restaurant business plan is as important as having the finished document in front of you. As you organize your thoughts, your resource needs—from the amount of capital you need to raise all the way down to the equipment you need to find—will take shape. 

Reduce potential risks.

Sadly, some 60% of restaurants fail within the first year of opening. One of the main reasons? A failure to plan. Your business plan will help you plan for most challenges at your restaurant before they come up, keeping you on the right side of that number.

Develop a marketing strategy.

As you do your market analysis and figure out who your customers are likely to be, the ways you’ll promote your business will get clearer. The more specific you are with your market research, the easier and more effective your marketing efforts will be.

Build your team.

Your business plan helps you see who you’ll need on your team and which roles you’ll need to fill first . For investors, it’s a document showcasing everyone’s collective experience, personalizing your restaurant in their eyes and packing a professional punch.

Share your vision.

Whether you’re using your business plan to secure startup funding or need additional capital after you’ve already opened, your restaurant business plan shows an investor or lender exactly why they should get behind you. 

The 9 elements of a strong restaurant business plan.

Your restaurant business plan will be unique to your vision. But all good business plans hit standard points, and whoever reads yours will expect them. As you develop and finalize your ideas, here are nine key elements you should include. 

1. Executive summary

A strong restaurant business plan begins with a strong executive summary. This is a sharp, concise overview of your restaurant and your opportunity to grab people’s attention.

Here’s where you communicate, in a nutshell, what kind of restaurant you want to run. Which demographic will you be targeting? Why is your business something the community wants or needs? Especially if you’re asking for financing, include a snapshot of your financial information and growth plan as well. 

Your executive summary should briefly lay out:

• Your mission statement. Why are you starting this restaurant now, in this location? 
• Your idea. What’s the concept of this restaurant?
• Your plan of execution. What are your key steps to making this concept work?
• Your potential costs. What are your expected expenses?
• Your anticipated ROI. How much do you expect your restaurant to make?

Many investors will make a split-second decision off of the executive summary alone—it might be all they’re going to read, so make every word count.

2. Company description

Now it’s time to let your creativity out and give your restaurant concept life. Give a more detailed description of your concept that lets your passion for what you’re creating come through. 

Flesh out all the other details of your proposed restaurant, including your restaurant’s:

• Style of cuisine and any unique selling points or differentiators that will make customers choose you
• Service style
• Restaurant name (or at least ideas)
• Size, seating style, and capacity
• Location ideas or the location you’ve scouted or secured
• Ambiance ideas including décor, lighting, and music
• Operating hours
• Other service offerings like whether you’ll offer delivery or takeout, delivery guarantees, catering, and any retail products you plan to sell
• Legal structure (e.g. sole proprietorship, LLC) 
• Existing management and their roles, including yours
• Experts or advisors you’ve brought on board

3. Market analysis

Present the research you’ve done on your target market. Make a couple of buyer personas to represent your future customers, explaining:

• Where your target customers live
• Their income levels
• Their dining-out and/or ordering-in pain points (e.g. lack of late opening hours, lack of family friendliness)
• How often they dine out or order in

Go through which other restaurants already have a customer base in your area, then explain why people will choose your restaurant over others. 

4. Sample menu

Even at the business plan stage, menu engineering is crucial. The specific menu items you’re likely to serve—the biggest thing that will set you apart—should shine through with descriptions that are short, clear, and evocative. If you have an executive chef already, this is a great area for them to add input.

Use language that will get people excited about trying your offerings. Hire a designer or use an online program to create your own mockup using the same colors, fonts, and design elements as the rest of your branding. 

5. Business structure

Dive deeper into your business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, etc.) and organizational management. Show what your different employee positions will be (co-founders, managers, servers) to give a sense of your team’s makeup. An organizational chart can be helpful here.

Investors won’t expect you to have your entire team on board at this stage, but you should have at least a couple of people firmed up. For the roles that are already filled, including your own, summarize your collective experience and achievements. Bullet points work well, or some people choose to go into more detail with full resumes for the executive team or critical team members.

6. Restaurant design and location

Long before you sign a lease, make sure that your new offering will outshine existing ones nearby. In this section of your business plan, explain why your chosen location, or the ones you’re narrowing down, are going to be an effective space for your target market.

Consider things like:

• Neighborhood demographics
• Foot traffic
• Labor costs
• Accessibility

Hand in hand with location, your restaurant’s interior design—both in its floor plan and its ambiance—is also crucial to your business’s viability. Come up with a captivating restaurant design that communicates your theme and matches your cuisine, creating a memorable customer experience. Decide how many tables you’ll be serving, and plan out any outdoor seating.

Touch on things like:

• Team uniforms
• Flatware and glassware

7. Marketing strategy

How do you plan to market your restaurant? Your plan for grabbing customers’ attention is vital to getting diners through the door, especially at the beginning before word-of-mouth advertising has taken off.

What kind of offers will you provide? Will you have promotional events, direct mail, or a social media strategy ? Go through your planned marketing campaigns and explain how each of them will help secure your target market. 

8. Takeout and delivery options

If you’ve decided to have takeout and delivery at your restaurant—pretty important for most target markets—decide whether you’ll use your own drivers or a professional fleet like Uber Eats or DoorDash.

Show how you’ll provide the smooth digital experience your customers will expect. Decide if and how your website will come into play, bearing in mind that in 2023, 40% of consumers preferred to order directly from the restaurant website .

9. Financial projections

Your restaurant’s projected budget need to be solid, especially if you’re using your business plan to get startup funds. Without this, investors have no way of knowing if your business is a good investment or when it will become profitable.

Hire an experienced accountant with expertise in running restaurants and write down your market research, your planned costs , and your projected income. Show how investor funds will be used and whether you’ll be putting up collateral to get a loan. Give a sales forecast, usually for the first five years, and make sure to give a break-even analysis.

Get started with our free restaurant business plan template.  

As the team behind Homebase , we know how much there is to consider when you’re starting a new restaurant. We’re proud to be an all-in-one partner for thousands of restaurants large and small—helping make everything from staffing, to scheduling, to team communication easier for business owners.

And we know that your restaurant business plan is a high-stakes document. That’s why we created our free restaurant business plan template to make sure nothing gets overlooked.

Check out our free, downloadable template to get your ideas into shape, get started on your restaurant journey—and get investors excited to jump on board with you. 

Download your restaurant business plan template for free: Restaurant business plan + free template (2024)

Stop chasing down phone numbers with our built-in team communication tool. Message teammates, share updates, and swap shifts — all from the Homebase app.

Restaurant business plan template FAQs

What is the basic planning document for a successful restaurant.

The basic planning document for successful restaurants is a restaurant business plan. A restaurant business plan lays out a restaurant’s long and short-term goals and its plans for achieving those goals. Restaurant planners use it both to finetune their ideas and to secure investor funding.

How to write a restaurant business plan.

When writing a restaurant business plan, include an executive summary, a detailed restaurant description, market analysis research, a sample menu, a breakdown of your business structure, the design and location of your restaurant, your planned takeout and delivery options, your marketing strategy, and your financial projections.

What makes a business plan template for restaurants different from a standard business plan?

A restaurant business plan template differs from a standard business plan by including things like menu engineering, interior design, kitchen operations, front-of-house management, takeout and delivery offerings, and location analysis, which are unique to the food service industry.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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Watch CBS News

CDK cyberattack shuts down auto dealerships across the U.S. Here's what to know.

By Megan Cerullo

Edited By Aimee Picchi

Updated on: June 21, 2024 / 5:15 PM EDT / CBS News

CDK Global, a company that provides auto dealerships across the U.S. with software for managing sales and other services, was shut down for a third straight day Friday after cyberattacks crippled the platform. 

The outage is disrupting roughly 15,000 car sellers that depend on CDK's dealer management software to run their businesses, including vehicle sales. Some dealership employees have resorted to pen and paper to handle transactions, but said most deals had ground to a halt. CDK has not indicated when its systems will be back up and running, but suggested the outage could last several days. 

"We are actively investigating a cyber incident," a CDK spokesperson told CBS News. "Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible." 

CDK, which said it had restored some services on Wednesday, told CBS MoneyWatch on Thursday afternoon that its systems were again offline after it suffered another cyberattack. 

"Late in the evening of June 19, we experienced an additional cyber incident and proactively shut down most of our systems," a CDK spokesperson said. "In partnership with third-party experts, we are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers. We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible."

Calls to a CDK customer support hotline produced a continuous busy signal. But the company's automated recording said the outage could affect dealerships for days, according to  PC Mag . The message told callers, "At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers' systems will not be available likely for several days," the publication reported.

The message also warned callers that "bad actors" posing as CDK support staff were trying to obtain customers' credentials in what are known as phishing attacks, according to The Associated Press . 

The number of cyberattacks has been on the rise in the last year, with more than 3,200 data breaches in 2023, a 78% jump from the prior year, according to a new study from data firm  SOAX . Those breaches impacted more than 65 million victims last year, it added.

What is CDK? 

CDK's dealer management system, or DMS, lets car vendors operate their business, including handling payroll, inventory, customer relations and office operations. The technology also enables dealers to line car buyers line up with financing and insurance.

On its website, it also touts its cybersecurity capabilities. "CDK Cybersecurity Solutions provide a three-tiered cybersecurity strategy to prevent, protect and respond to cyberattacks so you can defend your dealership," it says. 

Brookfield Business Partners, a Toronto-based private equity firm, acquired the company in 2022 in a  deal  valued at more than $8 billion.

When did the cyberattack begin?

The cyberattack on CDK Global began Tuesday evening, Bleeping Computer , a cybersecurity news site, reported Wednesday, taking the 15,000 car dealerships it serves offline.  

As mentioned above, CDK said it suffered another cyberattack on Wednesday evening. It is not currently known who, or what group, is behind the cyberattacks. 

Mike Stanton, CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said in a statement on Friday that "dealers are very committed to protecting their customer information and are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately."

How are dealerships responding?

Some dealerships appeared to get creative to continue doing business during the outage. Dealership employees posted about the outage on  Reddit  Wednesday, sharing that they were relying on spreadsheets and sticky notes to sell customers small parts and make repairs, but that they weren't making any large transactions. 

One employee asked other dealership employees, "How many of you are standing around because your whole shop runs on CDK?" under the heading "CDK down," with users in Wisconsin and Colorado confirming their dealership transaction systems were offline. 

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
• Cyberattack

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

More from CBS News

CDK Global shares when systems will be back up amid cyberattack outage

3 ways the CDK cyberattack is affecting car buyers

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The full list of major US companies slashing staff this year, from Tesla and Lucid Motors to Google and Apple

• Last year's job cuts weren't the end of layoffs . Further reductions have begun in 2024.
• Companies like Tesla, Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Amazon have announced plans for cuts this year.
• See the full list of corporations reducing their worker numbers in 2024.

A slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. Tech titans like IBM, Google, Microsoft, finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and manufacturers like Dow all announced layoffs.

This year is looking grim too. And it's only May.

Nearly 40% of business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder think layoffs are likely at their companies this year, and about half say their companies will implement a hiring freeze. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees. Half of those surveyed cited concerns about a recession as a reason.

Another major factor is artificial intelligence. Around four in 10 respondents said they'll conduct layoffs as they replace workers with AI . Dropbox, Google, and IBM have already announced job cuts related to AI.

Here are the dozens of companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2024.

Nike's up-to-$2 billion cost-cutting plan will involve severances.

Nike announced its cost-cutting plans in a December 2023 earnings call, discussing a slow growth in sales. The call subsequently resulted in Nike's stock plunging .

"We are seeing indications of more cautious consumer behavior around the world," Nike Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said in December.

Google laid off hundreds more workers in 2024.

On January 10, Google laid off hundreds of workers in its central engineering division and members of its hardware teams — including those working on its voice-activated assistant.

In an email to some affected employees, the company encouraged them to consider applying for open positions at Google if they want to remain employed. According to the email, April 9 will be the last day for those unable to secure a new position.

The tech giant laid off thousands throughout 2023, beginning with a 6% reduction of its global workforce (about 12,000 people) last January.

Discord is laying off 170 employees.

Discord employees learned about the layoffs in an all-hands meeting and a memo sent by CEO Jason Citron in early January.

"We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020," Citron said in the memo. "As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated."

In August 2023, Discord reduced its headcount by 4%. According to CNBC , the company was valued at $15 billion in 2021 .

Citi will cut 20,000 from its staff as part of its corporate overhaul.

The layoffs announced in January are part of a larger Citigroup initiative to restructure the business and could leave the company with a remaining head count of 180,000 — excluding its Mexico operations.

In an earnings call that month, the bank said that layoffs could save the company up to $2.5 billion after it suffered a "very disappointing" final quarter last year.

Amazon-owned Twitch also announced job cuts.

Twitch announced on January 10 that it would cut 500 jobs, affecting over a third of the employees at the live-streaming company.

CEO Dan Clancy announced the layoffs in a memo, telling staff that while the company has tried to cut costs, the operation is "meaningfully" bigger than necessary.

"As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible," Clancy wrote. "Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch."

BlackRock is planning to cut 3% of its staff.

Larry Fink, BlackRock's chief executive , and Rob Kapito, the firm's president, announced in January that the layoffs would affect around 600 people from its workforce of about 20,000.

However, the company has plans to expand in other areas to support growth in its overseas markets.

"As we prepare for 2024 and this very exciting but distinctly different landscape, businesses across the firm have developed plans to reallocate resources," the company leaders said in a memo.

Rent the Runway is slashing 10% of its corporate jobs as part of a restructuring.

In the fashion company's January announcement, COO and president Anushka Salinas said she will also be leaving the firm, Fast Company reported.

Unity Software is eliminating 25% of its workforce.

Around 1,800 jobs at the video game software company will be affected by the layoffs announced, Reuters reported in January.

eBay is cutting 1,000 jobs.

In a January 23 memo, CEO Jamie Iannone told employees that the eBay layoffs will affect about 9% of the company's workforce.

Iannone told employees that layoffs were necessary as the company's "overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business."

The company also plans to scale back on contractors.

Microsoft is reducing its headcount by 1,900 at Activision, Xbox, and ZeniMax.

In late January, nearly three months after Microsoft acquired video game firm Activision Blizzard , the company announced layoffs in its gaming divisions. The layoffs mostly affect employees at Activision Blizzard.

"As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a memo obtained by The Verge .

The cuts come a year after the tech giant announced it was reducing its workforce by 10,000 employees. It then slashed a further 1,000 roles across sales and customer service teams in July 2023.

Salesforce is cutting 700 employees across the company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Salesforce announced a round of layoffs that the company says will affect 1% of its global workforce, The Journal reported in late January.

The cuts followed a wave of cuts at the cloud giant last year. In 2023, Marc Benioff's company laid off about 10% of its total workforce — or roughly 7,000 jobs. The CEO said the company over-hired during the pandemic.

Flexport lays off 15% of its workers.

In late January, the US logistics startup laid off 15% of its staff which is around 400 workers.

The move came after Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen initiated a 20% reduction of its workforce of an estimated 2,600 employees in October.

Flexport kicked off 2024 with the announcement that it raised $260 million from Shopify and made "massive progress toward returning Flexport to profitability."

iRobot is laying off around 350 employees and founder Colin Angle will step down as chairman and CEO.

The company behind the Roomba Vacuum announced layoffs in late January around the same time Amazon decided not to go through with its proposed acquisition of the company, the Associated Press reported .

UPS will cut 12,000 jobs in 2024.

The UPS layoffs will affect 14% of the company's 85,000 managers and could save the company $1 billion in 2024, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said during a January earnings call.

Paypal CEO Alex Chriss announced the company would lay off 9% of its workforce.

Announced in late January, this round of layoffs will affect about 2,500 employees at the payment processing company.

"We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," CEO Alex Chriss wrote in a January memo . "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth."

Okta is cutting roughly 7% of its workforce.

The digital-access-management company announced its plans for a "restructuring plan intended to improve operating efficiencies and strengthen the Company's commitment to profitable growth" in an SEC filing in February.

The cuts will impact roughly 400 employees.

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon told staff in a memo that "costs are still too high," CNBC reported .

Snap has announced more layoffs.

The company behind Snapchat announced in February that it's reducing its global workforce by 10%, according to an SEC filing .

Estée Lauder said it will eliminate up to 3,100 positions.

The cosmetics company announced in February that it would be cutting 3% to 5% of its roles as part of a restructuring plan.

Estee Lauder reportedly employed about 62,000 employees around the world as of June 30, 2023.

DocuSign is eliminating roughly 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan.

The electronic signature company said in an SEC filing in February that most of the cuts will be in its sales and marketing divisions.

Zoom is slashing 150 jobs.

The latest reduction announced in February amounts to about 2% of its workforce.

Paramount Global is laying off 800 employees days after record-breaking Super Bowl.

In February, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish sent a memo to employees announcing that 800 jobs — about 3% of its workforce — were being cut.

Deadline obtained the memo less than a month after reporting plans for layoffs at Paramount. The announcement comes on the heels of Super Bowl LVIII reaching record-high viewership across CBS, Paramount+, and Nickelodeon, and Univision.

Morgan Stanley is trimming its wealth management division by hundreds of staffers.

Morgan Stanley is laying off several hundred employees in its wealth-management division, the Wall Street Journal reported in February, representing roughly 1% of the team.

The wealth-management division has seen some slowdown in recent months, with net new assets down by about 8% from a year ago. The layoffs mark the first major move by newly-installed CEO Ted Pick, who took the reins from James Gorman on January 1.

Cisco slashes more than 4,000 jobs amid corporate tech sales slowdown.

In February, networking company Cisco announced it was slashing 5% of its workforce, or upwards of 4,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported.

The company said it was restructuring after an industry-wide pullback in corporate tech spending — which execs said they expect to continue through the first half of the year.

Expedia Group is cutting more than 8% of its workforce.

Cutbacks part of an operational review at online travel giant Expedia Group are expected to impact 1,500 roles this year, a company spokesperson told BI.

The company's product and technology division is set to be the worst hit, a report from GeekWire said , citing an internal memo CEO Peter Kern sent to employees in late February.

"While this review will result in the elimination of some roles, it also allows the company to invest in core strategic areas for growth," the spokesperson said.

"Consultation with local employee representatives, where applicable, will occur before making any final decisions," they added.

Sony is laying off 900 workers

The cuts at Sony Interactive Entertainment swept through its game-making teams at PlayStation Studios.

Insomniac Games, which developed the hit Spider-Man video game series, as well as Naughty Dog, the developers behind Sony's flagship 'The Last of Us' video games' were hit by the cuts, the company announced on February 27.

All of PlayStation's London studio will be shuttered, according to the proposal.

"Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences – allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways – as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and Mobile, requires a different approach and different resources," PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst wrote.

Hulst added that some games in development will be shut down, though he didn't say which ones.

In early February, Sony said it missed its target for selling PlayStation 5 consoles. The earnings report sent shares tumbling and the company's stock lost about $10 billion in value.

Bumble is slashing 30% of its workforce

On February 27, the dating app company announced that it would be reducing its staff due to "future strategic priorities" for its business, per a statement.

The cuts will impact about 30% of its about 1,200 person workforce or about 350 roles, a representative for Bumble told BI by email.

"We are taking significant and decisive actions that ensure our customers remain at the center of everything we do as we relaunch Bumble App, transform our organization and accelerate our product roadmap," Bumble Inc CEO Lidiane Jones said in a statement.

Electronic Arts is reducing its workforce by 5%

Electronic Arts is laying off about 670 workers, equating to 5% of its workforce, Bloomberg reported in late February. The gaming firm axed two mobile games earlier in February, which it described as a difficult decision in a statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz. CEO Andrew Wilson reportedly told employees in a memo that it would be "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." Wilson also said in the memo that the cuts came as a result of shifting customer needs and a refocusing of the company, Bloomberg reported.

IBM cutting staff in marketing and communications

IBM's chief communications officer Jonathan Adashek told employees on March 12 that it would be cutting staff, CNBC reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. An IBM spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement that the cuts follow a broader workforce action the company announced during its earnings call in January.

"In 4Q earnings earlier this year, IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge that would represent a very low single-digit percentage of IBM's global workforce, and we expect to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with," they said. IBM has also been clear about the impact of AI on its workforce . Last May, IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna said the company expected to pause hiring on roles that could be replaced by AI, especially in areas like human resources and other non-consumer-facing departments.

"I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," Krishna told Bloomberg at the time.

Stellantis is slashing 400 white-collar jobs

On March 22, the owner of Jeep and Dodge announced it's laying off employees on its engineering, technology, and software teams in an effort to cut costs, CNBC reported .

Workers learned they were being let go through video calls after the car company ordered them to work remotely for the day. The cuts are set to occur on March 31.

Amazon is laying off hundreds in its cloud division in yet another round of cuts this year

Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs from its cloud division known as Amazon Web Services , Bloomberg reported on April 3.

The reduction will impact employees on the sales and marketing team and those working on tech for its retail stores, Bloomberg reported.

"We've identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.

On March 26, Amazon announced another round of job cuts after the company said it was slashing 'several hundred' jobs at its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions earlier this year to refocus on more profitable products.

"We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact," Mike Hopkins, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told employees in January.

This year's cuts follow the largest staff layoff in the company's history. In 2023, the tech giant laid off 18,000 workers.

Apple has cut over 600 employees in California

Apple has slashed its California workforce by more than 600 employees.

The cuts follow Apple's decision to withdraw from its car and smartwatch display projects.

The tech giant filed a series of notices to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification program. One of the addresses was linked to a new display development office, while the others were for the company's EV effort, Bloomberg reported .

Apple officially shut down its decadelong EV project in February. At the time, Bloomberg reported that some employees would move to generative AI, but others would be laid off.

Bloomberg noted that the layoffs were likely an undercount of the full scope of staff cuts, as Apple had staff working on these projects in other locations.

Representatives for Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside normal business hours.

Tesla is laying off over 10% of its workforce

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a memo to employees Sunday, April 14, at nearly midnight in California, informing them of the company's plan to cut over 10% of its global workforce.

In his companywide memo , Musk cited "duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas" as the reason behind the reductions.

An email sent to terminated employees obtained by BI read: "Effective now, you will not need to perform any further work and therefore will no longer have access to Tesla systems and physical locations."

On April 29, Musk reportedly sent an email stating the need for more layoffs at Tesla . He also announced the departure of two executives and said that their reports would also be let go. Six known Tesla executives have left the company since layoffs began in April.

Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive is reducing its workforce by 5%

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, said on April 16 that it would be "eliminating several projects" and reducing its workforce by about 5%.

The move — a part of its larger "cost reduction program" — will cost the video game publisher up to $200 million. It's expected to be completed by December 31.

As of March 2023, the company said it employed approximately 11,580 full-time workers.

Peloton is reducing its staff by 15% as the CEO steps down as well

Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down, the company announced May 2. Along with his departure, the fitness company is also laying off about 400 workers.

McCarthy is leaving his role just two years after replacing John Foley as CEO and president in 2022. Peloton said the changes are expected to reduce annual expenses by over $200 million by the end of fiscal 2025 as part of a larger restructuring plan.

Microsoft-owned Xbox is cutting more jobs

Xbox is offering some employees voluntary severance packages in May after shutting three units and absorbing a fourth earlier in the month. Microsoft had already made cuts to the division at the start of 2024.

According to Bloomberg , the offers were extended to producers, quality assurance testers, and more staff at Xbox-owned ZeniMax. Others across the Xbox organization were told that more cuts are coming.

Xbox president Matt Booty told staff in a May 8 town hall that the studio closures are part of an effort to free up more resources, Bloomberg reported.

Indeed is cutting 1,000 workers after laying off 2,200 a year ago

Careers site Indeed says it will lay off roughly 1,000 employees , or 8% of its workforce, as it looks to simplify its organization.

CEO Chris Hyams took responsibility for "how we got here" in a memo in May but said the company is not yet set up for growth after last year's global hiring slowdown caused multiple quarters of declining sales.

Hyams said the latest cuts will be more concentrated in the US and primarily affect R&D and Go-to-Market teams. That's in contrast to last year's across-the-board reduction of 2,200 workers.

Walmart is axing hundreds of corporate jobs

Retail giant Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking remote employees to come to work, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Workers in smaller offices, such as those in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto, are also being asked to move to central locations like Walmart's corporate headquarters in Arkansas or those in New Jersey or California, the Journal reported.

Under Armour is slashing an unspecified number of jobs, incurring $22 million in severance costs

Under Armour confirmed it was conducting layoffs in its quarterly earnings report, which was released May 16.

The company said it will pay out employee severance and benefits expenses of roughly $15 million in cash-related and $7 million in non-cash charges this year related to a restructuring plan, with close to half of that occurring in the current fiscal quarter.

"This is not where I envisaged Under Armour playing at this point in our journey," CEO Kevin Plank told investors on the company's full-year earnings call. "That said, we'll use this turbulence to reconstitute our brand and business, giving athletes, retail customers and shareholders bigger and better reasons to care about and believe in Under Armour's potential."

Pixar cuts about 175 people in pivot back to feature films

Disney's Pixar Animation Studios is cutting 175 people, about 14% of its staff, Reuters reported .

The cuts started on May 21 as the studio returns to its focus on feature-length movies. Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who was axed in 2022, had increased staff across studios to create more content for the company's streaming service, Disney+.

Pixar cut 75 jobs last year , Reuters previously reported, part of a larger restructuring across Disney.

Lucid Motors is slashing around 400 jobs.

In a regulatory filing, Lucid Motors said it would lay off about 400 employees as part of a restructuring plan that should be complete by the end of the third quarter.

"I'm confident Lucid will deliver the world's best SUV and dramatically expand our total addressable market, but we aren't generating revenue from the program yet," CEO Peter Rawlinson said in an email to employees obtained by TechCrunch.

The cuts come ahead of Lucid's launch of its first electric SUV later this year. It comes over a year after the California-based company laid off 1,300 employees, TechCrunch previously reported .

Walgreens is planning store closures that could lead to job cuts

Drugstore chain Walgreens is planning to close unprofitable stores over the next three years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

CEO Tim Wentworth told the Journal that Walgreens hoped to limit job cuts by reassigning staff at closing stores to other locations. Walgreens is reviewing about one-quarter of its 8,600 US stores as it decides which to shutter, he said.

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