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The gap in one glance
The workplace shapes how people collaborate, how services perform, how employees experience the organisation and how leaders manage cost, resilience and long-term value.
ISS’ Facilities Management Outlook report, based on insights from nearly 3,000 business leaders across 28 countries and 24 industries, shows that workplace value is firmly recognised. The challenge comes when that belief meets budget pressure, uneven data confidence and stretched delivery capacity.
Workplace performance
The tension shaping workplace decisions
83%
believe the workplace has a significant or great impact on organisational performance.
60%
prioritise cost optimisation and efficiency.
68%
say economic pressure is the biggest force affecting their industry.
46%
identify digitalisation as a key disruptor, while only 20% prioritise it within their FM agenda.
What is holding performance back?
Three forces shape how workplace decisions are made, funded and delivered.
Performance force 01
Cost gravity
Economic pressure pulls workplace decisions towards short-term efficiency. With cost optimisation at the top of the FM agenda, transformation often becomes incremental, carefully phased and harder to scale.
Investment decisions prioritise short-term efficiency.
Risk appetite for experimentation narrows.
Transformation programmes are phased delayed.
Capability-building competes with budget control.
Digitalisation & AI
46%
of leaders say digitalisation and AI will be a major disruptor in the next 12 months (second highest).
27%
of leaders most need support from and FM partner in digital tools and data analytics.
20%
of leaders prioritise digitalisation in FM (one of the lowest priorities).
Performance force 02
The proof gap
Digitalisation is seen as disruptive, but investment confidence remains uneven. Organisations can see the potential of workplace technology and data, but many still need stronger proof of measurable impact.
Performance force 03
The execution gap:
45%
of leaders are prioritising health safety and wellbeing in FM.
44%
need support from FM partner in delivering wellbeing initiatives.
43%
are prioritising employee experience in FM.
36%
need support from FM Partner in delivering employee experience.
Experience and wellbeing are high on the agenda, but delivery remains challenging. Internal teams are balancing service delivery, compliance and cost control, making it harder to turn ambition into consistent workplace outcomes across the other areas.
The result
Cost gravity limits appetite for change.
The proof gap weakens investment confidence.
The execution gap makes progress harder to scale.
Together, these forces slow the shift from workplace ambition to workplace performance.
Where the gap shows up
The workplace performance gap rarely appears as one big, visible problem. It shows up in the disconnects leaders deal with every day: siloed services, fragmented data, cost decisions made without a clear view of output and digital pilots that never scale.
That makes performance harder to see and harder to improve. The workplace is expected to support productivity, experience, resilience and cost efficiency, while the signals that shape those outcomes are often spread across different teams, systems and service models.
Quick check
Do you have a workplace performance gap?
Ask yourself:
01
Do workplace decisions rely more on assumptions than trusted data?
02
Are cost savings considered separately from employee experience and service quality?
03
Do digital pilots struggle to scale into everyday operations?
04
Are wellbeing and experience initiatives measured consistently?
05
Is FM expected to influence performance without a clear seat in strategic decision-making?
If the answer is yes to one or more, the gap may sit in visibility, alignment or execution.
What’s next?
Closing the workplace performance gap
The Facilities Management outlook report shows where the workplace performance gap comes from and why it persists. A forthcoming ISS Insights report will turn the focus towards action, and exploring how organisations can strengthen the connections between workplace experience, data, cost discipline and delivery.
The report will examine these practical choices that can help organisations move from pressure to progress:
From pressure to progress
Cost gravity → Value discipline
Maintain financial control while considering how cost decisions affect experience, service quality and performance.
Proof gap → Performance insight
Make workplace performance more visible, measurable and transparent to support confident decisions.
Execution gap → Delivery confidence
Strengthen operating models, governance and partnerships to deliver workplace strategies consistently and at scale.