National Property Management Association (NPMA) founded Asset Management Awareness Month in 2015 to better inform organizations of resources and tools available to them to maximize their assets. The Registrar at National Day Calendar declared Asset Management Awareness Month in 2016.
Asset management is vital to any organization looking to grow its portfolio. No matter the kind of organization, the benefits of asset management are valuable:
- Improved budgeting and planning
- Increase efficiency
- Decrease loss
- Manage equipment and improve maintenance
- Provide compliance with regulations
Whether your organization owns, leases, or manufactures space shuttles, IT equipment, fleet vehicles, biological samples, or spare parts, good asset management practices provide value. They are also essential to running a successful business.
Below are a few ways in which you can help raise awareness of your company’s asset management program.
Attend free online webinars provided by the National Property Management Association (NPMA)
Understanding that the intent is to raise awareness of our profession, and the benefits a good asset management system provides, here’s a few ways we can all raise our own awareness, along with our peers.
During Asset Management Awareness Month the NPMA hosts weekly webinars, during traditional working hours, on topics related to asset management.
As an additional benefit, all training is recorded and posted to the association’s YouTube Channel, which serves as a great resource to share with employees unable to attend the live training. As new employees join the company, you can share the training to help aid in your team’s technical development.
Quick note, as a benefit to attending the live training, NPMA members earn 1 Continuing Education Unit for each live training attendance.
Another way to maximize awareness through the use of these webinars is by inviting your organization attend, ask questions, and learn about the topics at hand.
For example, the company’s IT department may benefit from attending the 2022 AMAM Management Equipment at a University.
Does your organization dispatch a fleet of company vehicles? They may benefit from this year’s Federal Fleet Management webinar.
What if your working hours don’t align and you’re unable to join the live training sessions? Or perhaps you found other training more relevant to your organization?
Does your company enter purchasing agreements with subcontractor/vendors? Invite your contracts, procurement, vendor management staff to attend a subcontractor review or vendor management session.
Read: Building Supply Chains For the 21st Century https://www.smartbizpractices.com/building-supply-chains-for-the-21st-century/
Previous Recordings
Another way to help raise awareness of your company’s asset management program, YouTube it!
All AMAM webinars, and a host of others from National Education Seminars, Spring/Fall seminars, are posted to the NPMA YouTube Channel.
The YouTube Videos are a great resource because:
- You can save them to a curated playlist
- You can view them on-demand
- There’s a host of varying topics available
You can use these videos to promote asset management awareness by sharing the videos with your staff during the week/month.
Have a lunchtime watch party. If you’re back at the office you can schedule a 1 hour lunch and learn event, where you watch the presentation and share lessons learned with your staff.
Open the invite to others in your organization so they can listen in and participate in cross-functional collaboration and networking.
Now that many of us are working in a remote environment, you may host the same… but virtually. Watch from MS Teams, Slack, Zoom, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs7n4Au-g-NovfhjeXuKpeA
While watching the videos you can supplement and target the discussion by pausing the content, and sharing strategies and best practices shared within your organization and/or industry.
Does your company have a social media presence? The next tip for raising awareness of the asset management profession, and your role in it, is to:
Join and follow social media campaigns
Share a behind the scenes look at how you reutilized something, what systems you use, etc. anything publicly available which you’re free to share, and have your social media person tag #AssetManagementAwarenessMonth
Listed below are two of the most popular Asset Management Groups on social media.
The third is there vamped NPMA Online Community, which offers great resources as well. Its our own, stand-alone NPMA community.
Within these communities asset management professionals often share articles, news, policy changes, training sessions, questions and much more on the groups. I invite you to check it out.
Learn about asset management professionals.
Learn about other asset management professionals through any of the previously mentioned examples.
Each presentation includes the presenter’s name and contact information.
Get to know your fellow presenters, facilitators, online community members, and invite them to present at an NPMA chapter meeting. Asking them to present a topic of interest at a team meeting, and cross pollinate affords your company/chapter direct access to an industry leader to help broaden your staff’s technical competency.
Spread the word
You can help spread the word by creating material to be disseminated within your organization. Below are a few examples:
- Webinar Flyers
- Post flyers with webinar info in common areas
- Include a link to the AMAM landing page, along with a brief description of each webinar
- Add your office’s contact info, should they have additional questions or be interested in joining your watch party!
- Share monthly events list at the beginning of the month
- Email your peers and stakeholders, to remind them about the upcoming month’s asset management sessions, any watch parties or initiatives you’ve outlined during the month
- re-share a weekly reminder of the upcoming webinar
- Share content on LinkedIn and Facebook Groups
- Are you part of an industry group? Are there mutually beneficial and relevant presentations you may share? Examples may include compliance-related topics to internal auditor groups.
- Post-webinar notes
- Once the webinar presentation has concluded, and you’ve taken some awesome notes, share them! Share your training notes, lessons learned, potential opportunities for consideration, or additional questions to your fellow attendees and/or to anyone that wasn’t able to attend. This allows others the opportunity to collaborate, and perhaps share awareness to those that were unable to attend the live webinars or your lunchtime meeting.
- Handouts. Everyone likes walking away with something. Consider giving your meeting attendees a few resources – as your budget allows. Examples include:
- Bookmarks. Procure or make your own bookmarks with your company’s Asset Management office’s contact information. Add a few tidbits of “did you know ?” Information relating to your profession.
- Trifold. Same as bookmarks, but in trifold format. This allows you room to include more information relating to your company’s specific policies, procedures, points of contacts, or reminders. This is a great tool because you can add it to your training documents packet, or informational packets provided to new employees.
Asset management is a team sport. Safeguarding company assets to help improve profitability and reduce inefficiencies is vital for organizations to succeed.
But I’d like to hear from you, how do YOU help raise asset management awareness within your organization?