• The second half of the year brought a significant recovery. After the initial stagnation and customers waiting for the epidemic to develop in the summer and autumn months, the number of inquiries and orders for additional works has significantly increased – modernization of facilities, larger repairs, and reconstruction of offices.
• The most growing category of orders are modernization of installations and works related to Energy saving. With rising energy prices and announcements of further increases, the rate of return of such investments becomes shorter and shorter.
• In 2021, the salary expectations of employees grew significantly. Labor costs are changing dramatically.
• The dynamics of wage changes in recent months entails greater employee mobility and increased openness to changing jobs. It is a huge challenge for the employer. The need to maintain the quality of the services provided resulted in increased workload on maintaining operating standards for own work and subcontractors’ work.
According to the report of the Polish Facility Management Council, Hays and Pracuj.pl, 630,000 people are employed in the Polish FM industry – 550,000 operational and 80,000 managers and experts. This is more than the construction industry employs (450,000). FM services account for up to 40% of all costs of any organization that uses physical space in its operation. About 60 companies operate on the FM market, of which only a few have a significant nationwide potential.
– The final results will be known in the first quarter of 2022, but we can already sum up the last year in which our company achieved sales of TechFM services 10% higher than in 2020. At the end of 2021, we managed an area of almost 8 million sqm. It is no secret that the space serviced in the logistics sector has increased the most, but we have also taken care of many new office projects, commented Mariusz Kisiel, TechFM Operations Director at SPIE Building Solutions Sp. z o.o.
The situation in the FM industry in 2021 is further commented on by Kisiel.
After a temporary, several months’ suspension of tenders and investments at the beginning of the pandemic, the works started and throughout the ending year we received many new orders. After a careful start in the first months of 2021, there was a significant recovery in the second half of the year. There have been investments in energy-saving solutions, such as modernization of facilities, reconstructions and major repairs, as well as the implementation of works related to the adaptation of offices in terms of different needs of hybrid work.
The demand for services directly related to the pandemic – e.g. installation of UV lamps, extra-scheduled air-conditioning disinfection was not as high as in 2020. Most large office parks and logistics centers carried out such investments in the first year of the pandemic.
The novelty is the increased pressure and orders related to green solutions – innovations that improve energy efficiency. I believe that such works are promising and the number of similar orders will continue to grow in the coming years. That is why we have launched a strategic cooperation with research centers. In the long term, such cooperation with research units is necessary to implement modern climate-neutral solutions that allow to maintain the comfort of people staying in the buildings at lower energy costs for tenants and owners of facilities.
Scientists look at the macro scale, not only the building, but also the surroundings, geography, neighborhood. This can bring tangible benefits, e.g. a housing cooperative that borders a supermarket can collect heat waste from it, which reduces the costs of heating residential buildings.
Together with research units, we are also working on the construction of energy stores – electrochemical, mechanical, etc., as well as their effective connection.
A certain stage of the green transformation of buildings, which once consisted only of replacing lighting with LED lamps, is coming to an end. Energy costs provide an impulse for innovation, such investments are more profitable under the present conditions, and the rate of return on such expenses will be higher and higher.
The past year in the FM industry was marked by wage pressure and an active search for qualified employees. In the FM industry, the lack of employees has been a problem for several years, but the economic rebound after the pandemic has intensified this phenomenon very much. The market has revived, it is dynamic, which translates into a large number of projects that need to be handled. Companies are looking for employees, so the norm is that they conduct many recruitment interviews at the same time. This year, it often happened that a potential employee changed his mind after an interview, or even after information about being admitted. There were also situations when such a person resigned from taking up work without informing anyone about it. Previously, such cases were extremely rare, now it is becoming the norm. Bearing in mind these challenges, we pay a lot of attention to the development of our employees. We implement training programs, support them, plan them internal advancement. People are our capital. We try to make them feel appreciated and respected.
In the FM industry, it is a standard that some services are outsourced to specialized subcontractors. With the increased rotation of employees, high operating standards are particularly important, ensuring high quality of services, both performed by own staff and effective control of subcontractors.
The market share is increased by companies with people to work:
The winning tender is only the first step and does not guarantee the contract will be completed. I know a situation where the company that won the tender did not undertake the task within the set deadline, because it was not able to assemble the appropriate team to handle. The challenges of quickly recruiting qualified personnel will primarily affect small businesses. Larger entities operating throughout the country and having resources and broad competences both in the implementation of additional tasks and service support will cope with it better.
Author: Mariusz Kisiel, TechFM Operations Director at SPIE Building Solutions Sp. z o.o.
