Industries across all sectors have been accelerating toward digital-first models for the better part of a decade. While the construction and facility management industries have traditionally trailed somewhat behind pace, the pandemic of 2020 thrust technology adoption to the forefront.

Teams quickly had to figure out how to reduce office and job site density, continue collaborations with various stakeholders to keep projects moving forward, maintain essential operations at hospitals, power plants and manufacturing facilities, and even make building investment decisions from afar. Many turned to technology to meet the new challenges.

According to one report, the last nine months of 2020 stimulated the highest technology adoption rate in the history of the construction industry. What typically would have taken three years to achieve was condensed to a matter of months. While this rapid pace has helped the FM and construction industries remain adaptable, it has also intensified the pains of a pervasive problem that has been progressing for several years: the widening skill gap.

As the demand for digital tools like cloud-based collaboration platforms, integrated workplace management solutions (IWMS), Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and building information modeling (BIM) continues to grow, will the industry have enough of a technology-proficient workforce to fill the need?

Recognizing the challenges

Construction and facility management are now beginning to realize the impact of the talent shortage that has been looming over both industries for more than 10 years. In FM, specifically, it was anticipated 40 percent of FMs would retire over the next eight years –– that prediction was made nearly four years ago. This is compounded by the fact that the volume of qualified candidates applying for jobs in this sector is too low to close the gap.

Construction is feeling the same effects as trade labor and other skilled professionals entering the workforce continue to diminish. At the same time, career paths have changed significantly in both industries. Many jobs in both professions now require the triple helix of skillsets: technological, strategic and soft skills. This is being driven by several forces.

Complexity

Built worlds are growing more complex and technologically advanced. Inherently, this has added new layers of complexity to operations. Facilities and workspaces across nearly every sector are becoming “smart” and digitally connected, and those who build and maintain them increasingly have to consider corporate social responsibility and environmental initiatives, and now, enhanced security and risk prevention and management as well as health concerns.

Cost

Teams are being asked to do more with less in an effort to contain and reduce costs. In many cases, utilizing technology has been the only way to achieve this.

Return on investment

Similarly, construction and FM professionals are being held to higher standards. There is a greater need to demonstrate ROI to owners and leadership teams, and ROI is becoming more central to overall business strategy and performance. As a result, various functions across construction and FM now must understand how decisions impact business outcomes, possess soft skills such as communication and collaboration and contribute to strategic decision making. Perhaps more importantly, they must understand how to utilize technology, data and analytics to reduce risk exposure, enhance workplace and facility experiences and align with business goals.

The pandemic only made these forces more apparent. Owners and business leaders suddenly had to consider how assets were being utilized. In some cases, it became a matter of maintaining or reconfiguring to accommodate little to no occupancy, and in others, it was reconfiguring and expanding for increased traffic or production. FMs took center stage as owners and leaders turned to them for strategic input and guidance.

Even prior to the pandemic, many owners started requiring digital representations of their buildings and projects to better understand opportunities to achieve greater efficiency and higher returns, advance sustainability programs, reduce costs or expand usage. As these forces have coalesced over the last several years, it fast-tracked technology adoption in FM and construction, intensifying the spotlight on the talent issue.

A dilemma a decade in the making

Hindsight is always 20/20, and looking back it is easy to see how this issue began to take shape years ago. Education systems were not set up to attract new generations of talent to these two fields, nor to keep pace with technological advancements. Additionally, because of the construction and FM industries' resistance to adopt technology and digitally enabled processes, it has created knowledge-transfer challenges. The lack of tech adoption has also made the two professions less appealing to younger generations.

Education

It was not until 2018, following an appeal from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) designated a Standard Occupational Code to officially recognize “facilities manager” as a specific profession. Having this designation by the BLS is one of the criteria most higher education institutions use to determine whether or not to include vocation-based curricula. This can explain why there has traditionally been a lack of FM-credentialing programs available. Fortunately, this seems to be on the rise.

In construction, however, many trade schools that focused on technical instruction have disappeared and most universities are not adequately preparing students for the modern world. The education system is failing to train people in the technological, programming and even business strategy skills required to work in the current climate and thrive in the real world –– and this is seen in both industries. Training for these necessary skills is simply not keeping up with the advancement of technology and the demand.

Technology adoption

Though the events of 2020 have dramatically increased the use of technology in both industries, there is still tremendous room to grow. Adopting technology will attract younger, digitally native generations to both fields. This, however, requires the current workforce to become technology enabled to facilitate efficient knowledge transfer to the next generation.

Aging workforce

The aging workforce is creating two challenges. One is the mass exodus due to retirement and the other is the current workforce’s ability to keep pace with the advancements in technology. Today, even workers in their 30s and 40s are finding the technologies they were trained on in school are rapidly being phased out as technology advances. These two forces are not only hindering the true digital transformation of both industries, but creating massive workforce gaps.

Closing the gap

Closing the chasm will require a multi-pronged and collective approach. It will require professionals, businesses and educators in both industries coming together to develop and continually evolve curricula in schools so students gain real-world training on the tools and technologies being used in the wild. It will require organizations to partner with schools to offer internships and entry-level positions to attract young people to the profession and give them first-hand experience.

It will also require organizations and employers to commit to staying on the cutting edge of emerging technology and software, and to prioritize continued education and development by offering opportunities for employees to keep themselves sharp. Upskilling the workforce from within will also create a team of specialists, making teams more efficient, effective and strategic.

The shift to remote work has presented some unique barriers in this area as the on-the-job training that inherently happens when teams are in the office or on the job site together has diminished. Fortunately, there are a number of online tools and platforms to facilitate learning and development.

The bottom line is if the FM and construction industries are to stand a chance at reversing the impending talent shortage, it will require a collective effort across education and business to embrace technology, develop advanced training and become advocates for both vocations. And, in many ways, these two sectors –– FM and construction –– will benefit from moving in lockstep and evolving together, particularly as built assets become more integral to overall business strategy.