As you consider selecting a new building automation system (BAS), you’re not just investing in a robust and powerful software engine. You’re investing in a relationship with a new vendor. 

As you and your facility staff are evaluating your BAS upgrade, there’s often one critical element that we see many of our clients don’t consider: Access to training. The moment the new system is installed, it will be functional and ready to go, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be utilized correctly. That’s why it’s critically important that your new BAS vendor includes access to initial and ongoing training for facility, maintenance, and IT professionals. 

Employees and New Technology Often Don’t Mix 

Each member of your staff likely has a plan of action for the day when they walk in the door. The moment that a new system goes live, it represents a significant disruption in their workflow. New technology isn’t necessarily embraced equally, for that very reason. It may have taken a long time, after all, for some of those very same professionals to learn and understand the frameworks and systems they’re currently using.

When your staff doesn’t have the confidence to use your new system, they could come to resent it, and of course that has a massive impact on their overall productivity. Those disruptions don’t just impact your building operations. They can also impact your staff’s sense of job satisfaction. Where some staff members see opportunity, others may see roadblocks. 

The solution? Work with a BAS vendor that offers a long onboarding period with early, free, hands-on training, as well as ongoing training. When the new system feels less like an intrusive obstacle, and more like what it is—an opportunity to increase efficiency—they will be less frustrated and resentful. 

Improved ROI on Your Investment in BAS

Customizing and designing your BAS is time-consuming and an investment you won’t repeat soon. Making sure the staff is confident in how they use it is as important as knowing they’re using it correctly. 

While measuring ROI for training is often subjective, consider what not training your staff costs an organization. At best, you will have spent considerable money on features and functionality that the staff never utilize to the full extent. The worst-case scenario? Your employees will train themselves. 

Self-training or peer-training can be helpful, but it can also involve guesswork. While most BAS interfaces are designed to be intuitive, effective training ensures the entire staff is playing from the same rulebook, so to speak. Inconsistency can be costly, especially when your staff misuses features, or, worse yet, ignores security protocols.   

Bad training upfront can also mean expensive retraining later. Instead, work with a BAS vendor that invests valuable resources for staff training throughout the deployment. 

Better Employee Retention

In a 2021 survey, PwC found that 35% of millennials stated they were drawn to employers with excellent training and educational programs. Deploying a new BAS with improved automation, reporting, and feature sets will help attract those workers, but training them and providing the necessary upskilling will retain them. 

Training also provides opportunities for team-building. By bringing members of different teams together, you create a better sense of community across various departments, giving the staff a view into how other teams and areas of the business function. That cohesion creates even more job satisfaction, giving each member of those teams a sense of investment in the company’s future. 

Automatic Controls’ On-Site, In-Depth Training 

In the 1990s, most of the world was still tied to analog systems. Even as the computer age came into its own in that decade, the software industry that developed web interfaces and online reporting for building systems was in its infancy.

Automatic Controls was leading the way at the time and has been a licensed and authorized Automatic Logic vendor since 1990, giving us over three decades of experience in training and educating our clients. We’ve designed all of our training courses to provide building managers and facility professionals with the skill sets necessary to maximize the efficiency and precision of our control systems. Offering our training right here in our St. Louis office, our trainer, David Walsh, has been a part of the Automated Logic training team since 1997. He uses an active and engaging style to educate and empower all attendees. 

We offer three training levels, ranging from user-level education of the WebCTRL system and a basic overview, to trouble-shooting and identifying solution protocols for facility managers, IT, and building engineers. 

Summing Up

When you empower your team with the knowledge and confidence they need to implement a new system, you’re likely to reduce friction and frustration while also improving building operations and employee retention. 

Automatic Controls provides your facility and your team with a best-of-breed solution as well as the training they will need. Our commitment to their knowledge effectively demonstrates that you are committed to their skills and the quality of their professional experience. 

That’s why we provide FREE training to all of their clients. We take great pride in educating our  customers on their new BAS so you can feel confident in what you’re doing and get as much value as possible in your new investment. Ready to learn more about our upcoming trainings? Contact us today.