by Rebecca Walker — September 3, 2010—Profitability and productivity have dropped in the FM sector over the past year, but optimism and staff morale have risen, though by very small margins.
The latest Barometer Report into the Facilities Management Sector, produced by Asset Skills, reveals that profitability and productivity fell by 0.2 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, while optimism and staff morale rose by 0.8 percent and 0.1 percent.
Challenges facing the sector included managing budgets and keeping costs down, as well as securing funding and getting clients to pay on time. The 100 facilities management firms surveyed also said that retaining existing business and securing new contracts was a challenge in the face of competition.
As a result, 38 percent of FM companies said they planned to move into new areas of activity over the next year. Of those, 39 percent said that staff had the skills to undertake new activities, while 33 percent said they did not.
Twenty two percent of firms said that expected to grow rapidly over the next three years, with just five percent saying they expected to decrease.
As a result, a third of companies said that had been spending more time on training than they were this time last year; just four percent said the level had dropped.
Challenges around training included helping staff get to grips with the technical aspect of their job. 72 percent of companies had invested in technical training over the past six months, and in 64 percent of cases this had led of a qualification. 56 percent had invested in management and leadership training, with more than a third of these case leading to qualifications.
More than a third of FM employers said that the skills level of new recruits had increased over the past six months.
For more information, see the Asset Skills Web site.
