Facilitate in focus

News

What we’ve reported on

As well as the sector’s concerns over the Employment Rights bill we’ve discussed the battle against modern slavery; how an FM name is leading the Social Value Taskforce; wellbeing’s link to workplace productivity; how many businesses are sharing their facilities; and the ramifications of last month’s Budget statement for the sector. You’ll see this all in the Facilitate Daily, a product we commend it to the house.

What we’re working on

You’ll read in our first print edition of 2026 that social mobility is one of several big issue themes we’ll be pursuing in what we intend to be a campaigning 2026 for Facilitate. (Sarah Hodge, new IWFM Impact Awards’ Head of Judges, has some choice things to say on the topic in our January interview.)

We’ll be looking at the challenges our sector has most conspicuously failed to address, and asking what it is that will constitute a genuine way forward? How social mobility can in turn help national productivity is one such topic; developing genuinely actionable information management programmes is another.

2026 is also where the government’s established plan of economic action bears fruit or otherwise. How we can move a corporate focus on pure cost to a more nuanced, longer term interpretation of the bottom line is another theme.

If you read one Facilitate piece…

You may recall our call-out in the last edition of this very newsletter for early stage managers to get in touch and discuss their experiences of transitioning to leadership, be they good or bad. We think that SBFM’s Jaideep Matharu has hit the spot with her observations on how we fail supervisory and first-time managers with limited and sometimes non-existent support. Your thoughts on Jaideep’s essay are very much welcome.

Our webinar with Chris Jeffers, Mike Packham and John Hilderbrands (of event sponsors Eptura) is available now for viewing, with the discussion focused on how the practical deployment of new FM technology requires taking a step back to assess the challenges involved. Here’s the link:

https://app.events.ringcentral.com/events/deploying-new-fm-tech-tackling-the-typical-challenges/rep…

Where we could use your help

Our thanks too to the eleven freshly minted IWFM fellows who have answered our call to get involved with future Facilitate content. It’s refreshing to have many new faces with extensive experience helping to guide our attentions onto the key issues in the new year.

As ever, if you’d like to point us towards a topic you think deserves more attention, we’ll happily listen to your suggestions - drop us a line at [email protected].

Finally, with this being the last IWFM newsletter before Christmas, we’d like to a) wish you all a Happy New Year, and b) wish all of you working over the festive period the recognition you deserve from your employers and end-users for keeping them fed, watered, warm and ready for workplace action, whatever the day and time. We see you.