Facilities Hiring Rebounds as Firms Prioritize Fair Pay and Opportunity

Since 2025, hiring across facilities management and real estate has shifted into a higher gear. Competition for talent is intense, but so are the challenges. An increasing number of offers are stalling at the last minute, not because talent is hard to find, but because employer expectations and candidate priorities are drifting further apart. Two dynamics are driving the breakdown: employers are anchoring pay to flawed post-pandemic data, and they’re underestimating how critical clear career progression has become in winning and keeping top talent.

As hiring conditions continue to evolve, recruiters are seeing the effects firsthand. Josh Greatrix is SVP of Recruitment in Facilities Management and Real Estate at Boden Talent, a global recruitment partner supporting facilities management and commercial real estate employers. He leads the firm’s U.S. market efforts with seven years of global recruitment experience. Mia King is a Senior Recruitment Consultant at Boden Talent specializing in data center and healthcare hiring, where demand for experienced talent remains high. Their take is that while the job market is hot, employers who fail to adapt to the new rules of talent engagement risk facing persistent retention challenges.

"Hiring has surged again, but too many employers are still anchoring compensation to data that no longer reflects the market. If you’re using pre- or post-COVID benchmarks, you’re going to misprice roles, lose candidates late in the process, and wonder why offers keep falling apart," says Greatrix. The disconnect traces back to the chaotic years immediately following the pandemic, when a desperate bid to secure talent led some employers to inflate salaries to unsustainable levels.

• Salary bubble trouble: Much of the miscalculation sits at the mid-management level, where titles vary widely, and in high-risk sectors where specialized expertise commands premiums generic data misses. "In the rush to secure talent after COVID, we saw 20-30% pay increases that were never in line with real market growth. That created a major disconnect and led to big overheads and big costs," says Greatrix. "A 'facilities manager' working client-side could be paid $200,000, while another with the same title at an FM provider earns $100,000. Now, candidates who received those historically high salaries are struggling to find similar levels of pay, because those inflated jobs just aren't there anymore."

• Late-stage collapse: A primary reason people drop out is a lack of early financial transparency. "Candidates will have four or five interviews without knowing the financial parameters, and then the offer comes in $30,000 or $50,000 short," Greatrix explains. "Because things like PTO aren't advertised, you don't know what you're signing up for until the very end, and it becomes a huge waste of everyone's time."

• Bait and switch: King highlights another red flag for candidates: when the scope of the role shifts mid-process. "A position may be advertised one way, but several interviews in, new or substantially different responsibilities emerge that weren’t previously disclosed. It’s not necessarily the tasks themselves that are the issue, it’s the late change. When expectations move without explanation, candidates feel misled and trust erodes."

Relying on flawed data has real consequences, leading to late-stage breakdowns in the hiring process. These breakdowns are prompting many savvy candidates to rethink traditional application processes. As top talent finds ways around broken hiring systems, employers that lean too heavily on algorithms risk screening out the very people they’re trying to attract.

• Beating the bots: Many companies leverage AI checkers to sift through applications, but Greatrix says they cause companies to miss out on great talent. "A qualified candidate will get an instant rejection because they used an abbreviation that wasn't picked up by the job description," he explains. "I recommend candidates proactively meet people and find the hiring manager to build a relationship. It's about having that human connection to get your foot in a door that's essentially shut by algorithms."

Companies winning over the market's best talent appear to operate on two core principles: unwavering integrity and visible opportunity. For many top candidates, seeing a future with the company is becoming just as important as the initial offer, making the overall retention element attractive. "The biggest thing is sticking to your word," Greatrix states. "If you promise someone a pay raise for completing a task or an extra bonus, you must follow through. If a company doesn’t follow through on its promises, it puts a sour taste in the employee’s mouth and makes them question if the company is going places."

• The five-year question: When it comes to the most attractive offer, King believes compensation is number one, but opportunity is also important. "For top candidates, the conversation is rarely just about salary," she says. "They want to understand what progression looks like, how performance is measured, and what opportunities exist beyond the immediate role. If employers focus only on filling an urgent gap, they risk compromising long-term retention."

• Right on target: Smart companies are putting that philosophy into action. Forward-thinking organizations clearly define what success looks like and then invest in training to help their people get there. "I've seen a lot of people respond well to transparent targets," King observes. "When you put a target in front of someone and tell them exactly how success is measured, they will do everything they can to hit it. That satisfaction on both sides then needs to be followed through with the promised compensation, promotion, or recognition."

This emphasis on retention and development reflects not only current market conditions, but a deeper, long-term challenge facing the real estate sector. The stakes for attracting people to the industry are rising, driven by the challenge of an aging technical workforce. "The technical side of our business is struggling because younger generations are choosing different career paths over the skilled trades," Greatrix points out. "With the average age of an engineer now at 51, we are heading for a massive retirement wave that will create a severe talent shortage. A big part of solving this is showcasing how good a career in facilities management can truly be."

The internal strategies that King and Greatrix advocate for, like robust training and clear career paths, are becoming foundational for the long-term health of the industry. "Retention in 2026 isn’t about big gestures, it’s about consistency. People stay when they see fair pay progression, realistic workloads, and a clear picture of where they’re going next, not just what the role looks like today. Clarity builds commitment," King concludes.