Tom Satterly once asked a captain he knew during his time in the U.S. Navy how someone knows when it’s time to retire.
“When you start asking that question,” came the reply.
Satterly’s last day as associate vice president of Facilities Management is April 5, when he will retire from a career that included 22 years as a civil engineer in the Navy, eight years as an assistant vice president for facilities management at the University of Georgia and eight years at CSU.
When asked about highlights of his time at CSU, Satterly focuses on his team rather than himself. He focuses on three buckets: people, projects and processes. And the people bucket is always first.
“When I arrived here, fortunately, folks trusted me enough to come to me and say, ‘Hey Tom, these are things that are going well, and here are some things that could be much better,’” he recalls. “So, we needed to address some things in culture, just in terms of trust and respect.”
SPARK Program
In his first year, FM’s Engagement and Recognition Committee created the “SPARK Program” to recognize employees who display one or more of the five Facilities Management core values: caring, expert, good steward, progressive and collaborative. Those who receive a SPARK card can redeem it for a $20 gift card, and they are featured on video monitors throughout FM’s offices. To date, about 3,000 cards have been issued to FM’s 550 employees.
“Employee recognition has been really big,” Satterly said. “How do we recognize folks? We make it value-based, based on research, and then we actually make it meaningful in terms of a financial reward. They display the values, somebody recognizes them, they get issued a card, they redeem it for a gift card.”
Other areas of pride for Satterly include the creation of the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Team – whose initiatives have included boosting bilingual translation services – and a successful effort to improve FM participation in the campus climate survey from 29% to over 80%. Four years ago, the department created an FM Leadership Academy to broaden employees’ knowledge of the facilities management profession, expand their professional network and create pathways for career advancement. In recent years, he said, the department has been averaging three promotions a month.
‘Facilities Friends’
Satterly added that the onboarding process now includes a program called “Facilities Friends,” in which a seasoned staffer takes the new employee out for coffee or tea to check in on how things are going. Onboarding is also electronically automated now, with a system that generates reminders on everything that needs to be done for a new staff member. During his tenure, FM also agreed on a motto: “Proud to Run This,” which appears on buttons and other materials.
In terms of projects, Satterly recalls that he had to hit the ground running when he started at CSU because a $1 billion construction boom adding over 1 million square feet of building space was getting underway.
“When I got here, within a month we were breaking ground on the stadium, then the Biology Building, and then Chemistry Research,” he said.
Other construction projects during Satterly’s time at CSU include the Health and Medical Center, the Translational Medicine Institute, Aggie Village North, the Johnson Family Equine Hospital, the Nutrien Building and the Clark revitalization.
Satterly also highlighted the award-winning GeoX system, which consists of 342 wells stretching 550 feet deep under the intramural fields, which has reduced the cost of heating and cooling Moby Arena by about 50%. In addition, he said, the number of solar installations at CSU has nearly doubled during the last eight years.
“The CSU community will always be appreciative of Tom’s leadership and influence on initiatives like GeoX, the expansion of solar arrays and SPARK, and for his leadership in advocating for investments in controlled and deferred maintenance,” said Vice President for University Operations Brendan Hanlon. “Tom’s commitment to employees, the Facilities Management team and Colorado State University has been exceptional, and he has been an integral part of the University Operations team.”
New work management system
Regarding the process bucket, Satterly notes that FM, the Lory Student Center, Housing and Dining Services and the Student Recreation Center each used to have a different workplace management system. They decided to acquire a single shared system called RamWorks that has expanded mobile capabilities: FM crews can see all of their work orders for the day on a digital tablet, and anyone can submit service requests through a mobile app.
When asked what advice he would give to his successor, Satterly emphasized listening.
“Do a lot of listening those first few weeks,” he said. “Listen to the leaders, listen to the experts. Ask good questions. And then work as a team to come up with collaborative decisions to take us to the next level. The leader at the top has got to be accountable, just like he expects all the other leaders to be. And we have 550 leaders here.”
