One way to see how facility management is changing is to look at the questions the profession must now answer. Where does productive time disappear during the workweek? What makes an office effective when people use it for different reasons? Which skills will FM teams need as AI becomes part of daily operations?
These questions extend far beyond keeping buildings running. They connect facilities with employee experience, workplace strategy, organizational performance, data, and technology. The shift is already underway. Seventy-two percent of facility managers say AI affects their work every day, while nearly 70% expect it to significantly change their roles within five years, according to IFMA.
IFMA World Workplace 2026, taking place November 18–20 at the Anaheim Convention Center, gives professionals an opportunity to examine what that broader role requires. Eptura will contribute to the conversation through three sessions focused on workplace data, employee experience, and the teams organizations need for the future.
Key takeaways
- Workplace data can expose the accumulated cost of everyday disruptions: Connected evidence helps FM teams identify recurring problems and decide where action can have the greatest impact
- A useful workplace experience depends on more than space or technology alone: Workplace strategy, services, physical environments, and employee needs must work together
- Future-ready FM teams need judgment as well as new technical skills: AI can support analysis and decisions, but people remain responsible for context, oversight, and outcomes
Each question reflects the same shift toward a broader, more connected role for FM. The details change across workplaces and portfolios, but the need for stronger evidence, coordinated operations, and informed human judgment remains consistent.
What can workplace data tell us about lost time?
Workplace problems rarely arrive as one dramatic failure. Employees lose a few minutes looking for a suitable room, move because a space is too noisy, wait for meeting technology to work, or spend time finding a colleague. Each interruption might appear minor, but repeated disruptions can affect productivity, concentration, meetings, and the overall workplace experience.
Preliminary findings from our 2026 Workplace Index show how quickly those losses accumulate. Forty-three percent of employees report losing at least 15 minutes every week to workplace issues. Among those employees, the average reported loss approaches one hour per week, or roughly 48 working hours over a 48-week year.
The total matters, but the larger lesson lies in what creates it. Employees report issues involving workspace availability, room and technology problems, noise, comfort, privacy, and overcrowding. Facility and workplace teams often manage each issue through a different system, service process, or department. Without a connected view of workplace data, recurring patterns can remain hidden inside individual complaints, service requests, booking records, and occupancy reports.
Useful workplace data helps leaders move beyond assumptions. It can show when demand exceeds the supply of appropriate spaces, where meeting problems occur repeatedly, and which obstacles create the greatest operational impact. Better evidence also helps teams decide whether an issue calls for clearer information, a change to space configuration, equipment support, or a different service process.
Data alone does not make the decision. Facility leaders still need to understand the people, policies, priorities, and physical conditions behind the pattern. Connected and reliable information gives them a stronger starting point for that judgment.
The “Solving the 48-hour Problem: What Workplace Data Reveals About Employee Experience & FM Priorities” presentation will give attendees an opportunity to examine how workplace data can reveal where employees lose time and which problems deserve priority. Mike Petrusky, Director of Podcasts at Eptura, and Erin Sevitz, Vice President of Content and Customer Marketing at Eptura, will explore how leaders can connect signals across the workplace and turn individual disruptions into better-informed decisions.
The session takes place Wednesday, November 18, from 2–3 p.m. in Innovation Arena 2 in the Expo Hall.
What does a great workplace experience look like now?
Hybrid work changed what employees expect from the workplace, but it did not create one universal model. Some people come in to collaborate, meet customers, access equipment, or spend focused time with a team. Others need a reliable place to work between meetings or a setting that supports tasks they cannot complete as effectively elsewhere.
Organizations also continue to adjust their space strategies. The Workplace Index findings reveal that 57% of workplace managers expect their organizations to increase workplace space, while 53% estimate that at least a quarter of their existing portfolio remains underutilized.
Those findings can coexist when organizations need different kinds of space rather than simply more or less space. Many managers expect more shared areas, collaboration spaces, meeting rooms, focus rooms, and flexible models in their future portfolios.
The challenge is to make those spaces useful in practice.
Employees need to know where to go, what is available, how to access services, and whether the workplace can support the work they plan to do. Facility and workplace teams need evidence about demand, occupancy, service performance, employee behavior, and the suitability of different environments.
Technology can help connect those needs, but only when it removes steps rather than adding another destination. Employees should not need to search across multiple tools to reserve space, register a visitor, or request help. Facility teams should not have to reconstruct the workplace experience manually from disconnected systems.
A great experience depends on more than one app, amenity, or policy. It emerges when workplace strategy, physical space, services, and technology support a clear purpose. Booking activity, service requests, employee feedback, and operational data can reveal where policies and real behavior diverge.
The “Workplace Experience Exchange — with Eptura” will give participants an opportunity to explore those questions together. The discussion will consider how data, technology, and workplace strategy can create environments that better support people and organizational performance in an era of hybrid work, changing employee expectations, and evolving space needs.
The exchange takes place Thursday, November 19, from 7–8 a.m. in Rooms 153, 154, and 158.
How do organizations build future-ready FM teams?
The FM profession continues to expand beyond the traditional boundaries of building operations. Teams increasingly work across real estate, workplace experience, asset management, sustainability, security, finance, HR, and IT. They also face growing pressure to turn operational information into business insight and to evaluate where automation and AI can improve how work gets done.
Future readiness does not mean predicting every trend correctly. It means building the capacity to respond thoughtfully when conditions change through strong operational knowledge, adaptable skills, reliable information, and sound judgment.
AI makes that balance especially important.
Technology can help people find information, recognize patterns, and support decisions. However, people still need to evaluate whether an answer reflects current building conditions, asset history, occupancy, organizational policy, and the needs of those affected.
Trust also matters. Workplace Index report findings show a notable difference between manager confidence and employee trust. Fifty-eight percent of managers express strong confidence in the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated workplace insights, while only 20% of employees say they trust AI-powered workplace recommendations or automated actions most or all the time. Employees point to human intervention, the ability to override recommendations, evidence of continued accuracy, transparency, and review before action as important safeguards.
Future-ready teams will need people who understand both the opportunity and the responsibility. Technical knowledge matters, but so do critical thinking, curiosity, communication, and the ability to collaborate across functions. Experienced professionals bring essential context about buildings, assets, services, and past decisions. People entering the profession bring different expectations, skills, and perspectives. Organizations can prepare for change more effectively when those viewpoints inform one another.
The Friday panel, “How Future-Ready FM Teams Are Built,” will bring together Mike, Erin, strategic facility planning consultant and educator Alana Dunoff, ProFM, FMP, IFMA Fellow, and a student entering the profession. Their perspectives span industry storytelling, workplace research, strategic facility planning, education, and the experience of preparing to begin an FM career.
The session will explore how the profession can develop the people and capabilities it needs next. It takes place Friday, November 20, from 8:30–9:15 a.m. in ACC North, Rooms 155 and 157.
Join the conversation at World Workplace
The three conversations address different parts of the same challenge. Facility and workplace leaders need evidence that helps them identify operational problems, an integrated approach that turns insight into a better workplace experience, and teams prepared to use new capabilities with sound judgment. World Workplace brings these conversations together in one place.
To connect with our team and explore how connected workplace, facility, real estate, and asset operations can support better decisions, visit us at Booth #1303.
Frequently Asked Questions
By Erin Sevitz
As Vice President of Content and Customer Marketing at Eptura, Erin Sevitz oversees teams responsible for providing worktech insights and engaging 25 million Eptura users worldwide. With over 10 years in thought leadership on workplace management and the built environment, Erin brings deep industry knowledge to her role. Previously, she led communications for the International Facility Management Association, a global nonprofit dedicated to professional development for workplace strategists and building managers, and served as editor in chief for IFMA’s FMJ magazine.
