Shifts in expertise, worker expectations, and organizational technique imply facility managers are not simply holding the lights on — they’re shaping how individuals expertise work each day.
In September, Eptura’s content material spotlighted three themes that seize this transformation: the rise of human-centered design, the momentum of technology-enabled innovation, and the rising significance of neighborhood and connection.
Key takeaways
- Human-centered design is reshaping workplaces into environments that assist well-being, productiveness, and belonging
- Know-how improvements like AI, SaaS, and IoT are reworking facility administration right into a proactive, data-driven self-discipline
- Business occasions {and professional} communities spotlight the significance of steady studying and connection
Collectively, these concepts spotlight a elementary change in office administration. Success is not measured solely by effectivity or sq. footage, however by how nicely areas assist well-being, adaptability, and collaboration.
By combining considerate design, good applied sciences, and alternatives to attach, right now’s leaders are creating workplaces that aren’t solely environment friendly but additionally inspiring and resilient.
The ability of human-centered design
Throughout industries, the dialog about office success has shifted from effectivity alone to a broader give attention to individuals. Facility leaders are starting to acknowledge that the best work environments aren’t simply purposeful — they actively assist worker well-being, inclusion, and engagement.
Defining human-centered design
Human-centered design in facility administration means creating workplaces that prioritize the wants, behaviors, and well-being of the individuals who use them. It’s greater than user-friendly, considers emotional, psychological, and social components that make an area each purposeful and fulfilling.
A quick historical past
- Industrial period: Amenities targeted on security, making certain individuals might work with out threat
- Late twentieth century: Effectivity and value management dominated, usually on the expense of worker wants
- Early 2000s: Digital instruments like CMMS launched reliability and standardization
- Publish-2020: Hybrid work accelerated a shift towards flexibility, belonging, and expertise
- Right now: Workplaces have gotten clever, hospitable areas the place individuals really feel supported and linked.
Hospitality within the office
Facility managers right now are inspired to suppose like hoteliers. As an alternative of treating workplaces as rows of desks, leaders are designing environments which can be welcoming, inclusive, and fascinating. From snug lounge areas to seamless digital instruments, each factor helps productiveness and belonging.
As one podcast visitor put it: “We have to design areas that aren’t simply purposeful, but additionally emotional and psychological — areas that make individuals really feel good, not simply productive.”
Embracing technology-enabled innovation
What was as soon as thought of back-office assist has now grow to be a central driver of operational excellence and worker expertise.
From predictive analytics to cloud-based platforms, facility managers are leveraging new instruments to design workplaces which can be smarter, extra adaptable, and extra responsive than ever earlier than.
Know-how as a office enabler
Rising applied sciences like AI, IoT, and SaaS platforms are not assist instruments — they’re driving forces in facility administration. These techniques flip information into actionable insights, serving to leaders transfer from reactive fixes to proactive methods. For workers, this implies dependable, steady, and responsive workplaces.
Reskilling and readiness
With this transformation comes the necessity for steady studying. Facility professionals are anticipated to remain forward of evolving instruments, from prescriptive upkeep techniques to augmented actuality design platforms. The long run belongs to these keen to experiment, undertake new approaches, and develop new expertise.
Eptura at Autodesk College 2025
At this yr’s Autodesk College, Eptura highlighted how linked applied sciences are reshaping the constructed surroundings. Our displays explored how SaaS instruments enhance accessibility, how information analytics drive effectivity, and the way AI can lengthen asset lifespans. By sharing case research and fascinating with friends, we bolstered our dedication to serving to the business embrace innovation with confidence.
As a Office Index stat underscores, 63% of office leaders now see worker satisfaction as the highest metric when evaluating expertise investments. Tech adoption isn’t nearly effectivity — it’s about enhancing the human expertise.
The significance of neighborhood and connection
Whereas expertise and design form the bodily office, neighborhood is what brings it to life. The power to foster belonging, collaboration, and shared function is now a defining accountability for facility managers.
September’s conversations emphasised that connection, each contained in the workplace and throughout the business, is what makes workspaces really profitable.
Areas that join individuals
At the same time as hybrid work fashions evolve, staff nonetheless crave connection. Facility managers play a key function in shaping areas that encourage face-to-face interplay, collaboration, and neighborhood. Whether or not it’s designing shared lounges, versatile seating, or wellness areas, the objective is to carry individuals collectively.
IFMA World Office 2025
This yr’s IFMA World Office was greater than a convention — it was a hub for connection {and professional} development. Eptura group members offered on the function of expertise in hybrid methods and on how human-centered design helps productiveness. These classes sparked significant conversations about the way forward for work and highlighted our function as energetic contributors within the FM neighborhood.
Why connection issues
Podcasts like The Position of Hospitality and Adopting a Development Mindset bolstered a easy fact: workplaces are at their greatest after they mirror values of inclusivity, variety, and belonging. As one skilled famous, “Amenities managers have a crucial function to play in making a constructive and inclusive work surroundings. They’re the unsung heroes of the group.”
Business occasions, podcasts, and neighborhood assets serve the identical function — making certain that office leaders stay linked, impressed, and prepared for what’s subsequent.
Shaping the way forward for workplaces
From human-centered design to technology-driven innovation and neighborhood connection, September’s conversations made one factor clear: the way forward for facility administration is about far more than operations. It’s about creating workplaces which can be protected, adaptive, and galvanizing for everybody who makes use of them.
For extra movies, podcasts, and webinars to maintain you up to date on the most recent traits, go to our useful resource web page.
Ceaselessly requested questions
By Mike Petrusky
As Director of Podcasts at Eptura, Mike Petrusky hosts each the Office Innovator Podcast and the Asset Champion Podcast, sharing thought management with CRE, FM, and IT leaders within the digital and hybrid office. Mike has produced greater than 500 podcast episodes listened to in over 111 nations. As an in-demand public speaker, Mike engages audiences at quite a few business occasions every year, together with Worldwide Facility Administration Affiliation and CoreNet conferences, specializing in the human factor of office and facility administration.
