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My name is Bligh Williams, I am the Director of Strategic Special Projects at WSA and am currently working on a number of workplace and bespoke once in a lifetime projects for our sponsor clients.

One of the biggest challenges we are seeing in the post pandemic world of  project management, asset management and workplace is the changing or developing  skill sets required by the asset, facilities and project managers.

Your old school PM or FM, traditionally has come out of the construction or hard services industries and is now being challenged to manage a diverse portfolio of assets with a far more people centric focus.

I have been working with an Australian State or Territory Government on consolidating three project management contracts into one  that manages the repairs and maintenance of over 500 individual assets of varying types of standards. 

It is truly a very very interesting project.

Working with the client to make the service and the contract more customer centric.

Yes, you heard me our client has customers. There incumbent  supplier never saw them or considered them as a customer, they only classed them as occupier of buildings to their client.  

The discussions have  included generational change of submitting work order requests by QR Code, instead of fax machine. You heard me right, a facsimile machine.  

The introduction of the smartphone in Australia in 2007 saw the start of revolutionary change how people would communicate. You then couple a more robust and reliable satellite WI-FI service for customers in regional areas. 

Then add the hardware and infrastructure with an easy to use app, for the customer to use,  creating a hurdle free smart electronic-workflow that is far easier to use than the fax machine and improves the customer experience and this can be done from anywhere.  The app can also be used by the PM or the FM  when they are out in the field.

It is also not only about the customer experience but also about the client experience where  the back offIce process between the client and the project managers be totally streamlined.

We have seen on a couple of projects now where people can track how their request are actually  progressing.  This allows the customer and the client to be kept up to date with the progression of each specific job. 

It is also about having the people that bring together  the technical skills and the empathy of dealing with the customer into one role. You could say its all about improving the "bedside manner". Maybe some of our medical professionals could take some advise from our emerging FM's and PM's.

You don't need to be 23 years old to ne an emerging PM or FM, its not generational, its about the person and their personality and their ability to adapt and change and cope with the change. 

Its also about the ability of the PM or the FM to take the customer on that change journey as well.

This is not going to work or come easy for everyone, I know a project manager, who came from being a mechanical engineer , technically solid, technically a leader in his field . You speak to him about a customer centric approach and empathy and he looks at you like your speaking Japanese and he has zero interest in speaking Japanese, very much the old school - my way or the highway.

This customer focus shift is really challenging these personalities and they are either getting there or they are leaving the industry. It seems to be either one or the other.

It is also about the customer, all of our clients have customers.  Its about the relationship or customer management. Unfortunately