The survey results are in, and they speak for themselves: not a single FM team we interviewed had a truly strategic, comprehensive set of KPIs. Not one. What’s fascinating is that FM teams tend to be very selective about the KPIs they track—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, trying to measure everything under the sun is a common pitfall. But that ‘selectivity’ only holds water if you’re choosing KPIs that actually matter to your business. And they’re not. Core metrics are being totally overlooked. Among the most noticeable omissions are metrics for sustainability, supplier performance, and compliance adherence.

Are you neglecting the same crucial metrics as your FM peers? Download the report to see what you’re missing and how you measure up.

Here are the three main reasons why FM teams are missing the mark when it comes to tracking performance.


1. Over-representation of operational metrics

When building a KPI dashboard, there are a couple of rules to live by. First, kill vanity metrics—the ones that stroke your ego but don’t actually drive meaningful business outcomes. Second, make sure your KPIs are balanced. You shouldn’t overemphasise one area at the expense of others. 

In our report, we’ve identified three main KPIs:  

  1. Operational efficiency, tracked by 76% of respondents. 
  2. Cost savings, with 67% considering it a key KPI. 
  3. Customer satisfaction, prioritised by 58% of respondents. 

Notice a pattern? All these metrics are operational, and that’s no coincidence. FM professionals are so focused on delivering short-term goals that they have little capacity to see—let alone address—anything beyond them. Sustainability, compliance, workforce retention, supplier performance… the list goes on.

While both strategic and operational KPIs are vital, a balanced approach is crucial. Drown in the weeds of daily operations, and your long-term vision evaporates. But chase lofty aspirations without solid day-to-day execution, and they’ll remain just that—aspirations.

2. Dashboards aren’t strategy

For KPIs to be valuable, they must provide mission-critical intel that is relevant to your business. Once you know what your business is trying to achieve, you can select the right KPIs to track your progress towards those goals. But for most FM teams, the story ends here, precisely because they lack that clarity.

Part of the problem is that many companies confuse KPIs with dashboards. Dashboards monitor operations, flag immediate problems, and track performance. They aren’t strategy.

Your car’s dashboard warns you about low oil. Your KPIs should tell you if you’re driving in the right direction. Yet, many businesses can’t tell the difference and keep busy with random day-to-day ‘warnings’—the noise— without ever defining the end destination. 

Real KPIs don’t just measure performance. They must always be directly connected to your strategic intent.

If your asset management strategy is to ditch custom solutions for individual sites and scale with uniform offerings, then why are you still tracking site-specific revenue or satisfaction scores on bespoke installations? Those aren’t strategic KPIs anymore. 

Your compass should now be metrics like the adoption rate of standardised solutions, portfolio-wide cost savings, or the time it takes to deploy standard practices across new sites. 

3. KPIs are tricky to implement 


Let’s assume you have a business strategy in place and a set of KPIs that actually capture its essence. Perhaps your main goal is to help your clients achieve net-zero facilities. To support this, you’ve outlined a clear set of sustainability metrics, along with compliance metrics to ensure your suppliers meet your standards.

But this is not all fun and games from there. Respondents face significant blockers in measuring and reporting performance. Half of the participants cited insufficient resources for reporting. Nearly as many (48%) pointed to poor data collection methods.

Facilities management is undeniably complex. This complexity is mirrored in the vast amount of data generated across the supply chain, IoT and assets, work orders, finance, cost control, customer feedback, and much more.

This data is scattered across various systems and locations, managed by different teams both within and outside the company, and saved in a variety of formats. Bringing it all together for analysis is a time-consuming, challenging, and error-prone process. 

Bottom line: even with a clear strategy and well-defined metrics, you can’t succeed without a robust system in place.

Struggling with KPIs? Unsure about your vision? Or maybe you have the vision, but lack the system to bring it to life? We’ve broken it all down in our report. We highlight where FM needs to improve to seize promising opportunities and build a future-proof strategy. Get the report here.