Real estate (RE) and facilities management (FM) have changed, and changed a great deal. With a view to providing office space at the lowest cost and lowest square footage, RE and FM professionals have in recent years faced four big challenges. RE and FM professionals typically operate independently of HR, but both groups can benefit from breaking down silos to face these challenges synergistically.

The biggest challenge is the evolving physical workplace combined with evolving work practices. Not everyone has, or will have, a dedicated desk in the physical workplace. Coworkers and team members may work at different times of day and in different locations as well.

The next biggest challenge — changes in technology — has occurred at the same time, enabling not just mobile work but the completely digital office.

The third challenge has been to optimize the workplace experience for the five demographic cohorts that now co-exist in the workplace — ranging from Veterans, who were born before the end of WWII, to members of Generation Z, who are graduating high school now — who are working, or will soon work, alongside one another.

The fourth challenge is wellness in the workplace. From lighting and healthy materials to flexible reduced-stress programs and work styles, these traditionally building-oriented organizations have joined forces to make life better for the employees involved, while simultaneously improving productivity of enterprises.

Since such shifts have both business and personal impacts on employees, RE and FM have teamed up with the architecture and design community (A&D) on change management, training and learning processes to effect change seamlessly. But aside from giving permission for flexible work processes, many HR departments have sat on the sidelines of these initiatives.

Changing the HR-FM relationship

Many RE and FM departments shy away from involving HR in their programs for fear of being slowed down, or even blocked, from getting the help needed. Most often HR cooperates in providing needed people data, but cooperating is not enough. According to Randy Smith, vice president of real estate and currently the chair of CoreNet Global, HR needs to do more. HR needs to lend its expertise and resources to actively assist RE and FM with change management and wellness programs throughout the organization.

There’s lots of data showing how a large percentage of companies are embracing new ways of doing things. What the data doesn’t usually show is the relatively small percentage of employee penetration — even in those companies who have adopted them early. It will take years for the programs to roll out to the majority of the employees. That is why HR support is badly needed to spread the change and make it stick.

The world of professional sales offers lessons in how to change people’s minds and attitudes. At the core of sales is conveying how a product or service could benefit the customer. Think of the FM program as the product or service and HR as the customer.

Be bold and have that conversation with HR. Those in RE and FM, A&D and technology know the value of their efforts to improve the workplace experience. Show HR how these programs solve HR problems — and why their resources are needed to help those programs take root faster. It is critical to frame the conversation in HR terms, not RE and FM’s, with hard numbers.

Recognizing HR challenges

One of HR’s top challenges right now is turnover and retention: 31 per cent of people have quit a job within the first six months; 26 per cent of Fortune 500 managers change jobs every year; and the cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at least three times the amount of that person’s salary, according to the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

What’s more, Manpower’s 9th annual Talent Survey found that 36 per cent of employers globally reported talent shortages in 2014. The Manpower survey also shows that 23 per cent of those respondents are preparing to adopt new, alternative work models.

Another dimension of the talent shortage is the barriers women encounter in the workplace. Bersin by Deloitte found that 50 per cent of women participate in the labour force, compared to the 70 per cent of men who participate in the labour force. Despite this, Manpower found that only two per cent of companies are actively recruiting women.

Bersin by Deloitte also found that it’s not that women don’t want to participate in the labour force, it’s that they lack development opportunities and flexible working options. Sixty-five per cent of women surveyed said flexible work options are important, but only 28 per cent of employers reported providing flexible work options.

The potential benefits of physical workplace changes and the digital workplace just simply haven’t hit HR fully.

Leveraging RE and FM solutions

After discussing with HR its challenges in its terms, show how RE and FM programs can help. One way these programs can help is by providing a more productive, physical, work process and work practice environment for the employees. New physical workplaces provide the right numbers and sizes of meeting rooms for ad-hoc collaboration sessions rather than formal, usually larger, meetings. E-learning training courses guide employees and managers on working with colleagues who are working in a different location or during a different time of day.

Another way these programs can help is by addressing the needs of all cohorts in the workplace. Programs that provide employees with a choice as to where to work show that older employees are more likely to choose quiet private spaces to do private work while Millennials are more likely to be comfortable in a noisy open environment for such work. Plus, these programs can help improve employee engagement and retention, as well as provide more opportunities to women by addressing their aforementioned desire for flexible work options.

In summary, RE and FM, in partnership with A&D, have been leading the workplace evolution. It is time for HR to step up and join in. Hopefully, some of the tools described above will help FMs bring this department on board.

The core to an effective conversation with HR is to present its leadership with concrete data. With an effective presentation framed in HR terms and the right data, RE managers and FMs can better align with and get support from HR for the evolving workplace challenges they face.

Sholem Prasow, LEED AP, is founding director of Insight Management, a company focused on helping to deliver and implement necessary disruptive technologies. Insight Management is a strategic partner of Serraview, Visual Lease, and e-Work. Sholem can be reached at sholem@insight-manage.com.