Parking and transportation professionals historically do not like change, and don’t always feel comfortable doing things differently from the way they always have. One of the key benefits of change in a workplace is the opportunity to convince these professionals that evolution can make their job easier, especially with new technology and innovations. We need to excite our teams and focus them on the technology evolution, and how it will streamline and transform the way we do business.

The focus on technology gives us key insights into the most relevant drivers for change. Mobility innovations—connected apps, frictionless technologies like blue tooth low energy (BLE), license plate recognition (LPR), and online sales channels from multiple solution providers—challenge even the most experiences operator/owners. With decades of expertise and an emphasis on technology, we as professionals guide our customers into the future of parking. Parking technology, operations, and transportation are evolving at speeds never seen in the industry.

The Transportation Business Unit (TBU) at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has implemented a business strategy and continues to be the largest source of non-aviation revenue for the airport. It maintains cost competitive operations and financial strength striving for exceptional customer and team member experience through leadership, engagement, innovation, technology, and analytics.

We build the relationships to leverage and develop the technology by focusing on the fact that it’s all about the employees and customers. By engaging and developing employees and better caring for customers, we yield employee engagement, customer-centricity, and accountability that stems from a personal-professional integrity in all that we do. The strategic plan ensures the employees are engaged to drive a strong customer service and teamwork through the innovation and technology alignment and building a culture of trust.

Providing and encouraging professional development is critical in the upskilling of the parking employee, setting the team up for success. This ensures they have the tools, training, and knowledge to get the job done. We as leaders must explain how this new innovative space we are entering will give them empowerment and confidence to take ownership when making decisions. We must evolve to adapt to align with the concept of a seamless customer journey, and to actively identify and mitigate challenges when encountered.

It is stated that in the next decade artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to impact nearly 60% of all jobs. While most jobs are unlikely to disappear entirely, the nature of work will change dramatically as AI assumes routine activities leaving employees to handle tasks with the highest requirements for social and creative intelligence. We need to get smarter by learning the critical skills and the right process for generating more revenues.

Our leaders will need to look beyond the technology and focus on transparency and trust-building while developing a learning organization to ensure the right skills are in place to enable employees to adapt to change and support the successful implementation of technology. ◆