How Return to Office is Reshaping Facility Management in 2025

3/6/2025

2025 promises to be a year of unprecedented change in all aspects of our daily lives and facility management will not be an exception. According to the Wall Street Journal one-third of US employers have mandated employees work in an office for five days a week. While this figure is down 16 percent from a year ago, companies are trying to figure out what the best form of an office environment should be and are considering tailored hybrid models. Nearly 80 percent of 400 CEO’s surveyed by KPMG in 2024 said they expect employees back in their offices full time within the next three years.  The return to office (RTO) issue represents a changing landscape in the world of work. 

As companies announce changes to their remote working policies, FM organizations are examining the implications of these changes on their priorities for the immediate future. What has been an absent in-house customer population for FM organizations soon may become a new and different version of the hybrid experiment.  

The challenges for the RTO may appear daunting but there are many work-arounds FM managers and senior executives can evaluate and implement as they move into new, uncharted territory.  

Office Space Vacancy and Space Utilization 

The history surrounding office space vacancy and space utilization poses a mixed blessing for corporate executives and facility managers.  For some large corporations there is concern about the sufficiency of office space and whether they should ramp back up after shedding space during and after the pandemic. Direct TV, for example, successfully reduced costs by shedding around 30 percent of its physical workspace.  

Related Content: Return-to-Office: Understanding Why Occupants Come to the Office

At the same time, a report from the Public Buildings Reform board found the Federal government needs to completely revamp its unused office space. Federal agencies are using just 12 percent of the space in their headquarters buildings and spending 2 billion dollars a year to maintain government owned space and another 5 billion for leased space. For the Federal government, this translates to a utilization rate ranging from 9 percent to 25 percent. 

The conversation FM organizations need to have with senior executive centers around several key points: 

• What is the mandate? If the corporate policy is focused on mandatory RTO for all employees, the discussion moves down one path. If the RTO includes flexible provisions for all or some employees to work remotely, the discussion takes another path. The bottom line will be the headcount for a five-day, on-site workforce versus some hybrid configuration. 
• Do we have adequate owned space? If the company has reduced its real estate holdings by shedding owned real estate, is there sufficient remaining owned space to accommodate a five-day-a-workforce and/or a hybrid one? 
• Do we have sufficient leased space and/or the ability to lease additional space if needed? Larger companies may need to lease more space even with a hybrid model and available office space in prime locations may have higher demand resulting in higher rates. 
• Do we care about utilization rates? The conversation should include senior level guidance on what used to be a sticking point for FM organizations. Maximizing the space utilization rate used to be a critical measure of FM performance. With the new hybrid hierarchy, FM organizations need to know if the requirement to maintain a strict utilization rate is still a corporate goal for FM. 

Stormy Friday is founder and president of The Friday Group, an international facilities services consulting firm. She is a member of the ProFMI Commission, a governance body that serves as an advisory committee for the Professional Facility Management Institute's (ProFMI) activities.