Adding value by FM: exploration of management practice in the Netherlands and Denmark

The last decade shows a growing attention into the concept of added value of Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate Management and how to attain and measure added value. A variety of different types of added value came to the fore such as user value, customer value, financial value, environmental value and relationship value. Furthermore a huge variety of different definitions can be found in publications from different authors, partly depending on their disciplinary background and partly because some authors do not build on former research. In discussions with researchers and practitioners, the concept of added value is definitely recognized. However, people have many different topics in mind. In a workshop at EFMC 2013 all attendants used different terms and mentioned only a few concrete measures how to add value, mostly in rather abstract terms. Further research is needed to harmonize the concept of added value i.e. definitions, dimensions and types, and to be able to operationalize this concept into practical guidelines for implementation and measurement by Key Performance Indicators. This paper relates theoretical reflections on the added value of FM to the findings of ten interviews with practitioners from the Netherlands and Denmark. It aims to explore how practitioners cope with terms and definitions, which concrete FM measures are applied to add value, what value, and if/how managers measure whether the aimed added values have been attained. The paper ends with some reflections and suggestions for follow-up research, both from a theoretical and practical perspective.