Setting up a ‘new normal’ for the nextgen

No doubt, Facilities Services companies engage in continued knowledge dissemination and training to get quality output from the workforce. However, there are no standard methods of teaching followed to churn out truly professional next gen FM performers. Clean India Journal came across a very interesting interview with an FM professional of a university campus which has a FM department. Speaking to Greg Zimmerman, Executive Editor, FacilitiesNet, Peter Strazdas of Western Michigan University at the Kalamazoo, Michigan campus, converses about the changes he has brought about in the 22 years of service.

This new era of facility management is not without its challenges. But many of these components of the new normal are interrelated, and Strazdas is not one who fears change – a trait he demands of his department as well. The end goal is to raise facility management from the windowless room in the basement to the boardroom, to show millennials that facility management is an attractive, demanding career, and to “build a wider bridge between the academy and facilities,” as he says. “We’re not the boiler room guys, and they’re not in the ivory tower.”

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