#30: ProFMI Credential Program with Randy Olson

#30- ProFMI Credential Program with Randy Olson

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Welcome to another episode of the Modern Facilities Management Podcast brought to you by Stratum. I'm your host, Griffin Hamilton. This is the show where I interview industry experts who share their stories, strategies and insights into modern day facilities management. From hospitality to commercial real estate and everything in between, we'll learn what it really takes to succeed as a facilities manager.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Welcome to another episode of the modern facilities management podcast. Today, I've got with me Randy Olson with Pro FMI. Randy, how're you doing?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

I'm doing great Griffin, how are you doing today?

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

I'm doing well. It's Friday as we're recording it so looking forward to the weekend. But I know we've been in contact here for what seems like a couple months now and I'm glad we're able to finally sit down and hit the record button here. But why don't you tell the audience who you are, what you do and give a little context there.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, great and I really appreciate you having me on. Excited for the discussion today. So again, Randy Olson. So, I'm the VP of Global Business Development for the Professional Facility Management Institute. And we'll talk in a little bit about what the program covers and what it entails. But we're a business within a larger company called Holmes Corporation and we've got over 50-year history of building out high quality, certification prep credential education programs for working professionals across several industries. So, we've helped hundreds of 1000s of individuals advance in their careers and become better at what they do across human resources, payroll, finance and facilities management. So Pro FM is the result of a global study that was done in 2017 regarding education and credentialing programs for facility managers. We've been in facility management education for the last about 12 years and 2017, overwhelmingly, the industry was asking for kind of one program, where can I go to get exposed to everything I need to know kind of in a comprehensive fashion, all in one to take care of the tasks that I need to tackle on a daily basis which, in 2017, was complex, in 2021, has gotten a lot more complex as we look at the advancement of the workplace and where people are working and the advancement of companies like yours that deliver great technology to the industry. 

So, the Pro FM was developed with the thought of bringing all that content and all that educational material into one program. So, it's structured into four functional knowledge areas of asset management, business management, risk management and operations and maintenance. And then there's five cross functional competencies like communication, sustainability, innovation, quality and collaboration that thread across all those functional areas. So, think of those as soft skills if you will. And we're going to Griffin launch into a sub result of a global survey that we recently did and you'll see that a lot of those soft skills are highly important to the success of facility managers going forward. Things like communication, how do we effectively communicate our plan and communicate that we're going to keep our tenants and our individuals and our employees safe as they return to the office or depending on no matter where they're working. So that's us probably longer than you're looking for but that's us. So excited to kind of dig into that and talk more about the survey and more about our program.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and certainly appreciate the context there. And we've had people on the show from different universities and really talking through the evolution of facilities management over the years. And it's great to see what you guys are doing and really standardizing as best we can, getting educated and having a formal education in this space because it's so difficult. And you brought it up earlier as far as the complexities just four years ago and how it's evolved over time and it's something that I guess a quick question off of that, how do you guys look to keep evolving with the industry with how quickly it's changing?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and that's critical, right? So, to really understand, you got to ask and you got to go out to the broad audience and ask them how are things changing? What are the tools you're using now? What are the skills necessary to provide excellent service to all your constituencies? How do you manage your staff, what is your staff needs? So, you got to ask and then we have a process within our organization of really continuous improvement and continuous update of our programs. So as things come along, we're able to add that quickly to our program and then spin that out to the broader audience. An example of that is around the area of cybersecurity. If you think about that and think about all the issues related to cybersecurity, you're in the technology space so you understand this quite well. But a lot of organizations are exposed maybe through building systems or building management systems and how do you as a facility manager ensure that you're going to be have a safe environment. 

So that's one little aspect but we were able to as that evolved over the last couple of years, were able to add that content and add that context into our program to really address a current need for facility managers.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, that's great. So, you alluded to it earlier, the survey that you guys did. So, let's dive into that. First off, what exactly was the survey? Who did you survey, when was it completed? Give a little intro to that.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and I appreciate that. So, we're as an organization as I just mentioned. I think it's important. You got to ask people what they need to have right and you got to build and then try to deliver that to the market. So the result, our program is built around a survey. So, it was a global job task analysis survey to understand what people needed. And then in 2019, we partnered up with the National Facilities Management and Technology Conference and building operating management magazine and did the really the first global training survey. So that was 2019 then in 2021, we wanted to follow that up because like March 2020, there was kind of a significant event that hit the US finally and life changed for facility managers. So, we want to understand that. So, we redid that survey and executed on that survey in 2021 and we went out to a global audience. So, if you look at who responded, 78% of those folks that responded are in management so they manage one or more staff. So then 22% are really on that staff. There were 23 unique countries represented, the responses were almost 50/50. So, 51% within the US, 49% outside the US with the top responding countries of course the US but then Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, the UAE, Canada, Botswana and Panama. 

So, we got a really good flavor across the world of kind of what folks need and what the issues are. Looking at the career continuum or experience, about 40% of those folks had 10 years or less experience and then about 60% of those folks had 11 plus years of experience. Building types really all over the board from commercial, government, healthcare, K through 12 schools, college university. So really a mix of really billing types and then team size was really evenly spread from very small teams to large teams. So, we felt like we had good responses and had a good kind of global set of data that we could do analysis on and deliver information to the industry.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And from the top, what really stood out to you as the most eye opening either statistic or point from that survey?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and I think to kind of dive into that Griffin, we really looked at it from a number of different perspectives and first was what do managers need for their teams, what do staff needs and then what managers need for themselves because they're also people and they also execute on various tasks around the business. So, the thing that really stood out is that 91% of those managers that responded said their staff had knowledge and skills gaps kind of where they're at today and what they needed to effectively deliver on what they do. 91% of that responded and to put context around that in 2019, just two years earlier, that was 81%. So that's gone up 10% and it kind of probably is indicative of where we're at and what's happened over the last year or so. But that change that we talked about earlier and that speed of change and that changes in technology so they think there's a bigger gap now. So that was one of the stats that just really jumped out at us.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Interesting. And so, going a little bit further into that gap, was there anything in particular? You just brought up technology, any specific skill set that people are wanting more over one or the other?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah. And there's a lot of data here so I'm going to refer to some notes. So [inaudible10:22] you understand that they are required. 

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

No, absolutely. If you had memorized every statistic that you're about to roll through then kudos to you. 

Speaker: Randy Olson  

That's a little scary, right? So again, we broke it into three buckets. So, we looked at asking managers so what do your teams need then what do staff needs and then managers, what do they need for themselves? So when we ask the managers the questions, so what do they need? What does your staff need? So, the top thing that came across is leadership so leadership skills and then strategic planning, emergency management, and communication are the top four. So, think about that, the FM is leading the advancement of the workplace here hand in hand with HR. Really leading that effort to figure out how people are going to work in their facility and outside their facility and the workplace is really redefined so this program helps them get on the front end of that. 

So that's what managers said about their training needs for their staff. The staff themselves a little bit out of alignment but they said, we need capital planning. It was a top thing. Financial management, strategic planning which was in concept with what the manager said their staff needs and then compliance and standards. So, if you think about all that compliance and standards that folks have had to adhere to over the last 18 months in their local geographies, that's very difficult to manage. And then from managers saying for themselves, what do they need, the top of the list was capital planning. So how am I going to effectively use the resources at my disposal to deliver the great service that I need to, to my constituency. Compliance and standards were identified for them, strategic planning and then again, leadership. Leadership kind of screams out here. If you think about the organizations that have weathered the storm here really well, they've got group facility managers that have been great leaders and have helped really shepherd people through the process of moving them out, maybe not moving them out but with the thought that we're going to keep everybody really safe and we're going to make this a great productive environment to work in. So those are the things that kind of jumped out at us Griffin

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And so, with that and tying it back into the actual program that you guys have, what could one expect to address the overlapping skills that you decided from an overall strategy, capital planning was another one and then compliance related issues? Again, go back to the evolution of the program, how are you guys addressing that?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah. And so, the program was built. We like to refer to the underlying roadmap which we call a body of knowledge that's the result of that 2017 global job task analysis survey. We like to refer to that as 24 things that every facility manager should know. And within that are those four functional areas of asset management, business management, risk management in operations and maintenance. So, each of these topics that I just talked about is addressed within that program. As that changes, we're continually updating that content to address that need. But very importantly, within the program of those 24 things, nothing is standalone. 

So, as you look at a particular problem or issue or opportunity that facility manager has to deliver a great workplace solution, you have to consider many different things as you're looking at that problem. So, it may feel like a capital planning problem but there's many other factors that factor into that. Then, how do I come up with an innovative solution, how do I collaborate with other departments, how do I effectively communicate that out to the audience and how do I deliver the quality service that I need to deliver it? So those soft skills again those cross functional threaded competencies are really important. Good example of that is in our program, there's an entire section on human capital. So, managing a staff but then also how do I effectively help the people that I'm providing service to? So very important part of our program. So that's how our program was put together.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Got it, makes sense. And so, one of the stakeholders that you guys reach out to you in survey, obviously the individual contributors, right? And there is this gap and management has this expectation and the actual technician or FM has the desire clearly to improve themselves in these key areas. So, tell me more about where the employer employee relationship comes in and how that can help move forward the team from individual contributor level to management?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, that's a great question. If you look at what managers said about their staff, the number one thing was leadership, right. So, everybody has an opportunity to lead. I think from an employer perspective, they really need that those facility management folks to really lead their organizations. Employer employee, there's never a better time and never more important time to give people the appropriate education, training, skills development, the knowledge, the competency needed to deliver that great service. So, I think we discussed this you and I a little bit earlier. About 60 of the employers said that they would fund training for their employees. We'd sure like to see that go up on behalf of the employees and I think a trained employee is a happy employee. They become more loyal to the organization because there is no shortage of opportunities for these folks out there. So, it's very important from a retention standpoint to deliver that great service, to provide the appropriate training for these for these individuals. So, I think it can be a complex relationship but I think embrace the right way, it's very positive.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And even looking ahead beyond the short-term return on your team developing these skills that are so very clearly needed, as you look forward, looking for your next opportunity potentially as a candidate, how that's going to impact you at standing out from the crowd because we all know the turnover that's going to happen in the very near future. There's going to be a huge need for facilities managers and so it makes it a really interesting time over the next 5 to 10 years.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and I appreciate you bringing that up. We have a lady on our board named Stormy Friday and she's literally written the book on facility management and we just yesterday had a conversation about really the retirement issue that's looming in facility management. And that's been a problem for a number of years but the global pandemic has exasperated that problem. So, more and more folks are deciding well, I'm going to opt out of this. And so, there's a number of opportunities, a number of open positions that we have to fill as an industry. We take that very seriously here. We hope to help people transition from other careers into facilities with great training but there's also great organizations. You folks are involved with FM pipeline that helps those younger folks really get exposed to a wonderful career and wonderful opportunities around this. 

So, we all have a responsibility around that. We take that very seriously. We're also very active with FM pipeline and helping recruit high school students but if anybody wants to move and change careers, it's a great time because there's significant opportunities out there in a really interesting career, right?

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and what you guys are doing and as college universities pick up and formalize the education and having an actual degree and a formalized path into facilities management, it's needed. Might be a little bit overdue to say the least but it's certainly exciting to see where it's going there.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and that's a great point Griffin. And so traditionally, there hasn't been a lot of degree programs for facility managers. And I think when I started in facility management 2009, the common joke was why I got into this career by accident. I was an engineer and they said hey, do you know anything about buildings? Might know something about technology? Alright, you're our facility manager, all of a sudden you have all these responsibilities, right? And I think it's described often that engineering is very black and white. It's very ones and zeros base where facility managers and managing the workplace is all shades of grey. It's not always black and white, it's not always ones and zeros. So, there's a lot of skills and a lot of things that need to happen to become effective at that. So, facility management degrees are wildly important as our programs like ours that help folks fill in any knowledge and skills gaps that they need to do their job.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and it's funny on the flip side of that from actual company's perspective having facilities be okay, here's what I know you could do. Can you just take all these other responsibilities? And over time, it's certainly become now more structured department and different organizations and that was a statistic that I saw on that survey that stood out to me where 64% of employers have a formal definition of Facilities Management, up 16% from two years ago again, citing COVID there. That really stood out to me and just such a short period of time that it's now standardized that much more and it's still only two thirds of companies out there that have formally defined it.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah. And there's a lot of things that have happened over the last five years around standardization and facilities. So, there's ISO 41,000 series of standards and that TC 267 working group so that technical group that defines and builds all those standards, that was just delivered to the industry in 2018. So, we actually based our program on top of that so that standardization is starting to come along. That's happened in engineering for many years right. There's been standards around engineering. There's never been facility management standards and that's just now happening. There's a bunch of new standards and development that are going to be delivered to the market. So as folks started hearing that and start complying with that, that standardization will get better and better and that number that 64% should go up significantly. I think in a lot of cases in the past facilities is very reactive in nature. So, I got a problem, I've got something broken, I need to fix that. Now we're getting to the point with great systems like yours where we can start planning, we can do predictive maintenance, we can do plan maintenance, we can really do a better job of managing the systems we need to. So, standardization is really important. We think that's very important and we thought it was very important to use that as a base into our program so that the ISO standards are referenced all across the Pro FM program.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

And looking ahead and looking at the impact of COVID, a lot of folks working remotely, there's a component of that survey of the pivot to remote work. So, talk more to that and where you see that going and how that's going to impact the program.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, and you certainly can't run a survey in 2021 without asking that question, what are you going to do? It's just interesting how that's played out over the last few months. I mean, I'm in Minneapolis, St. Paul and one large organization here was intending returned to office on right after Labor Day which in the Midwest that's the end of summer, right? We can get snow the next week. So, we're going to return to the office then continue working remote until then but now they've delayed that. So, it's possibly mid-October with the new variant. So, from a facilities perspective, think about the planning and management and communication that has to happen around that. So, you've got to continually kind of turn and pivot around all that. 

Then look at K through 12 schools. We just got the note from our school district here yesterday about returning to school and are we going to be masked? Are we not going to be masked? Is there an online option and a lot of that is dealing with the facilities and the built environment. So, I think there was some very telling stats out of the survey and around pivoting to remote work. So almost half of FM professionals worked remotely at least one day per week during that time which is that's quite a change and then 47% of those folks remained on site. The key component to that and the key training opportunity around that was communication. So how do you communicate and communicate safety? And then 72% of remote FM professionals said that credentials were more important now than in past years. So, there's just so much knowledge to gain and so much really soft skills to gain by getting appropriately trained to manage this evolving workplace network that we're moving towards.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And that's a good segue to hit on the last note here as far as the direction you guys are going. And with all of the changes coming up, what's the future of what you guys are doing at Pro FMI?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah. So, again, you got to ask, you got to go out and you got to understand. So, we get feedback from folks in our program, folks that have completed our program and earn the Pro FM designation and then we asked the broader industry and then you've got to be able to quickly react to that. So, we're in a continuous improvement process. So, are we presenting the right material, are we presenting the right training and then are we assessing the right things? So that's a constant evolution of a program. So, we call it continuous improvement here and we're continually doing that. So that's how we're poised to move forward and deliver great things to the market. We want to have positive impact and help elevate this great profession we are all in.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and having talked with you several times and having met your team before, I could feel the passion for facilities for what you guys do and so, bunch of genuine people over there. And so, I've thoroughly enjoyed get to know you and the team and, on that note, where can people find you and where people reach out to if they're interested in what you guys are doing?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, our websites a great resource for all that information. You can actually get full access to that training survey report. So, the white paper is delivered there but the website is profmi.org. And out there, you'll find our history, who our team of experts are that helped put together and build the program and then a whole bunch of tips and tools. So there is training, Outlook Survey, white paper, a detailed document of the body of knowledge so what's delivered in the program. There's sample reading materials there, there's a demo there so there's a whole abundance of information. So profmi.org that's the place to go.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Perfect and that'll be in the show notes certainly so people would find you. But, Randy, before I let you go, the question I always ask people, who are what had the biggest impact on you and your career?

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Oh, my gosh, that's an interesting question. So I had a sales manager early on in my career that he said, here's how you need to live life. Work hard, run scared and never gloat about anything. And I'll never forget it and I've kind of lived kind of like my career with that. So, work hard, run scared never gloat. 

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

I love that, I might steal that. Well, Randy, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a pleasure talking to you once again. Loved hearing what you guys are doing. I'm really excited to see the direction you guys are going and once again, thanks for your time.

Speaker: Randy Olson  

Yeah, thanks, Griffin. Really appreciate the opportunity. We'll talk again soon.

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