APPA Advisors Major Categories

Organizational Effectiveness

The omnipresent challenge of institutional funding and budgeting has led to an increased need for assessing the outcomes and value of facilities management’s service and stewardship effectiveness. APPA Advisors provides comprehensive evaluations on how well the facilities organizations serve their missions as compared with peers, industry-proven methods, and best practices. 

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers

We evaluate strategy, processes and procedures, staffing, organizational structure, service level expectations, data and information systems, collaborative relationships, organizational and unit leadership, budget and financial systems, billing and cost recovery rates, budgetary transparency, risk tolerance, and more in adopting an integrated and systems approach to organizational effectiveness. 

We draw on APPA’s Facilities Performance Indicators database, APPA business partner data and metrics, comparative peer construction costs, and APPA’s library of staffing guidelines to conduct analytic assessments that lead to deeper investigations into evaluating the outcomes and value received for the funding committed by the institution.

Organizational Readiness

The pandemic experience is rapidly driving the facilities management industry into a future that was inevitable, and having institutions rethink the utilization and repurposing of campus space. The Internet of Things, Big Data, Predictive Analytics, Operations Technology, and Artificial Intelligence are interdependently accelerating the industry adoption of smart building technology and utilization of cost-saving analytical tools. These emerging technologies along with healthy environment concerns and budgetary pressures are driving facilities organizations to shift from a mindset of “doing more with less” to one of “doing different with less.”

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford

Organizational readiness is an assessment on how well your facilities management organization is prepared for major changes and fundamental transformations.  APPA Advisors prepares organizations to take a strategic approach to managing change.  At the core of our analysis is an assessment of the organization’s culture of curiosity and innovation, tolerance for risk, and acceptance of embracing change. 

Our organizational readiness assessment evaluates leadership, organization capacity, staff skills and talent, inter-disciplinary collaboration, and technological infrastructure to provide a strategic framework for preparing for change and for the future. It will prepare your organization to respond to change in ways that will increase productivity, reduce risk, and provide physical environments that enhance the student experience.

Organizational Development

Elevating organizational effectiveness and ensuring organizational readiness requires a workforce and leadership team with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful. The facilities profession is facing a shortage of both the technical and soft-skilled workers that are in high demand in today’s market.  Drawing on APPA’s well-established brand of professional development and continuous learning, APPA Advisors can provide an evaluation of your organization’s training needs to ensure your team is prepared for the ever-evolving demands placed on them. The emerging generation of employees in today’s workforce highly value continuous learning and skills development, and will increasingly demand organizations to provide career growth opportunities.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John Kennedy

“The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” – Benjamin Franklin

In addition to individual skills development, APPA Advisors prepares organizations for planning and implementing team-based initiatives.  We provide preliminary advice and guidance on such efforts as:

• pursuing a new work order system,
• adopting building Fault Detection & Diagnostics,
• implementing mobile technologies,
• starting up a building commissioning program,
• pursuing P3 investment opportunities,
• preparing facilities renewal plans and strategies,
• developing cost recovery rates,
• eliminating embedded budgetary subsidies,
• staffing for a looming capital construction boom or bust, and
• other targeted initiatives pursued by the organization.