World Workplace 2008

So I spent the 3rd week of October in Dallas, TX attending a conference for IFMA. Loved it. Such a good opportunity to tell people about our FPM studies at BYU.

Had lunch with a whole group of field office managers from Allstate insurance. They had all been insurance salespeople prior to taking over the FM position at their office. The only real qualifier for them was if they had "a propensity" for technical things. I tried to explain the value of hiring someone who actually had been trained in the care and maintenance of facilities, but they couldn't visualize that a graduate would actually know how to do their job.

I mean, they had spend the last several years doing on the job training and never attending FM classes, so how could a college-educated, technologically savvy young person do the same job, right? It is mind-boggling to think that these same people are decision makers for a large, national company like Allstate.

The future of FM is not in on the job training. It is taking current and developing technologies and practices and making them work for your business now. Put the people in place that know how to use and implement these advantages, and your business will benefit by way of better workspace and productivity and a better bottom line.