Each year, FM:Systems surveys U.S. leaders in HR, finance, facilities, and real estate to gauge how they’re managing their workplaces to balance the needs of the organization and its employees. The respondents to our FM:Systems Inside the Workplace surveys come from a wide range of sectors, including pharma, technology, healthcare and the public sector. But one of those things is not like the others; government agencies face a unique set of challenges in achieving that balance, including political pressure, bureaucratic red tape, limited funding and aging facilities.
Given these headwinds to executing on changing workforce and workplace priorities, we analyze the responses from public sector organizations every year to see how their perspectives, approaches and outlooks vary from the private sector. The results of the 2025 study show that, while trends like cost-cutting and a greater focus on security are present across all sectors, those trends are manifesting differently on the government side.
Here’s a closer look at government sector responses from the FM:Systems 2025 Inside the Workplace survey.
How Government Agencies Balance Return to Office Advantages and a Narrow View of Workplace Value
While RTO (return to office) mandates for government employees have made headlines recently, efforts to increase in-office time for workers in the public sector aren’t new. Our previous survey, conducted in November 2023, showed that support for alternative work models was waning among both public- and private-sector organizations. At that point, 16 federal agencies had already either implemented or announced RTO rules covering over 400,000 employees.
Like their private-sector counterparts, government leaders ending remote and hybrid working cite improvements in collaboration, innovation and social connections among the benefits of bringing people together in the office. For public sector respondents, however, those benefits represent the bulk of a workplace’s value, with 79% saying that the primary role of the office is to facilitate collaborative work and in-person meetings. That’s 36% higher than we see from business respondents, who have a broader view of the primary function of the workplace, encompassing activities like supporting mentorship and enabling quicker feedback loops.
However, while both government and non-government respondents agree that the primary function of the workplace is to facilitate collaborative work, only 82% of the former say their workplace is well-suited to that function, compared with 96% of the latter. By far the biggest shortcoming across all sectors is a lack of meeting space. But that issue is especially acute in the public sector, with 60% of government respondents citing it as the primary reason their current office isn’t meeting their needs, compared with 42% of private sector respondents.
Workplace Tech Gaps in the Government: Comparing Public vs. Private Adoption
One of the reasons the dearth of meeting space is a bigger problem for government agencies is because it’s more difficult for them to fix it. Many of these organizations have been locked into outdated spaces due to the insurmountable political, bureaucratic and budgetary hurdles of moving or renovating. These same obstacles can make it difficult to procure technology to improve these offices, which helps explain why utilization of workplace management technology in the public sector rose only two percentage points year-on-year, from 62% in our last survey to 64% in the 2025 edition. Meanwhile, adoption of workplace management solutions in the private sector jumped from 69% to 86% over the same period. Our latest survey did reveal signs that adoption of workplace management technology in the public sector may accelerate, with 71% of government organizations reporting that they plan to implement one or more solutions in the next year.
While the public sector lags behind in adoption of workplace management solutions, they have made progress in at least one area. Last year’s Inside the Workplace survey revealed that 22% of respondents from government organizations said they had no system in place to collect data to measure the performance of their work arrangement. The 2025 edition of our survey shows that figure has fallen to just 4%.
Government organizations do have the edge when it comes to one innovation that’s essential to successfully executing RTO initiatives. Room and desk booking solutions, like our FMS:Employee dynamic scheduling platform, help organizations optimize space utilization, provide employees some autonomy and flexibility in selecting their workspace, and generate booking analytics to inform decision-making. In our latest survey, half of public sector respondents report using room and desk booking software, versus just 36% of private sector survey participants. That gap is likely to widen, as the share of public sector respondents planning to implement room and desk booking software in the next year is double that of non-government respondents (65% vs. 32%).
Security is a Top Challenge: Examining how government agencies prioritize both physical protection and cybersecurity to safeguard sensitive data
Visitor management systems (VMS) are another workplace management solution that’s more widely utilized in the public sector. Our survey shows that 56% of government organizations are currently using a VMS, compared with just under a third of companies. This isn’t surprising when you consider that many government workplaces require more robust access control. In fact, when asked about their primary purpose for deploying workplace management solutions, 28% of government respondents cite security, compared with just 20% among private sector respondents.
According to our 2025 survey, security seems to be keeping public sector leaders awake at night, with 71% citing it as one of their top three challenges in managing their workplaces, compared with only 50% for companies. They’re concerned not just about securing the physical office, but also maintaining the security of their digital space and assets. Government entities are a favorite target of cybercriminals due to the enormous amount of sensitive personal and national security information they possess. To help safeguard this data and critical infrastructure, public sector organizations have to maintain a higher level of cybersecurity. For example, before they can be deployed by U.S. federal agencies, cloud-based products and services must first pass a rigorous security assessment, called the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). FM:Systems’ best-in-class workplace management solution, FMS:Workplace, recently received FedRAMP authorization, clearing the way for federal agencies to access the platform to bring greater efficiency and improved financial performance to their facilities and real estate. FMS:Employee is also FedRAMP Authorized.
Technology Has a Key Role to Play in the Next Chapter of the Government Workplace: Addressing how FedRAMP Authorized solutions, cost-cutting, and workplace tools can transform public sector offices
Despite the implementation of RTO mandates to rein in remote and hybrid working over the past couple of years, our survey shows that the public sector continues to lag behind businesses in employee time in-office. The White House’s order mandating that all federal employees return to the office full-time will change that, and swiftly.
But when it comes to maximizing the value of RTO, faster isn’t necessarily better for government organizations, which have some catching up to do in adopting the technology needed to execute RTO successfully. Packing workers haphazardly into already-outdated offices risks undermining the improvements to productivity and performance RTO is intended to bring. On the other hand, deploying FedRAMP Authorized solutions like FMS:Employee and FMS:Workplace can help agencies accelerate cost-cutting, increase efficiency and make the most of having employees back in the office.
