Training Takes Top Spot Among Staffing Concerns in Facility Management Survey

Facility managers list employee training as their biggest concern with their cleaning staff.

April 10, 2025

For the first time in five years, facility managers who participated in CMM’s annual In-House Facility Management Benchmarking Survey listed employee training as their biggest concern with their cleaning staff.

Among 2025 survey respondents, 35% listed employee training as their top staffing concern, compared to 29% of respondents in 2024, 23% in 2023, 19% in 2022, and 27% in 2021.

The second most common staffing concern for 2025 was employee health and safety (chosen by 28% of respondents), followed by employee retention (25%), and proper use of products (12%).

In the 2024 survey, employee health and safety was the top concern about cleaning staff, with 30% of survey respondents choosing it as their No. 1 concern. Employee retention was chosen by most (35%) of the survey respondents as their top staffing concern in 2023, yet employee health and safety again took precedence as the top concern in 2022 (42%) and 2021 (34%).

Health and safety of both staff and facility inhabitants is a top five issue identified as important by respondents of the 2025 survey. Among a list of 12 issues, the top five issues survey respondents chose as largely and moderately important included:

Health and safety (chosen by 96% of survey respondents)
Improving productivity/efficiencies (95%)
Training/education of staff (92%)
Security (91%)
Validating/proving budget to management (90%)

CMM conducts the In-House/Facility Management Benchmarking survey each spring. Among 2025 survey respondents, 60% manage school facilities, evenly split with 30% in K-12^th grade schools and 30% in colleges/universities. The second largest group (19%) of 2025 respondents manages commercial buildings such as offices and government buildings, followed by facility managers for hospitals and other healthcare facilities (13%). Most (62%) respondents manage more than 20 facilities. One quarter of the respondents spend 51% to 60% of their operating budget on labor. About one-third (34%) do not outsource any of their cleaning/maintenance tasks while 13% outsource all of their cleaning/maintenance tasks.