Salus Services have become the latest Corporate Affiliate of the Association for Project Management (APM), adding to an ever-growing list.
But what does this mean for the SME Project Services Consultancy, founded nearly two decades ago, and their clients? And how will utilising the APM Body of Knowledge and following the APM Competence Framework help the company ensure best practice delivery in the future?
Who are Salus Services?
Salus Services are a North West-based SME who advise their clients in the field of capital project delivery and offer services such as Principal Designer, NEC Project Management and Project Management Office (PMO), among many others. Part of the British and Irish Trading Alliance, Salus support numerous clients across the UK & Ireland in a variety of industries and sectors.
The name of the company (Salus), founded by Wayne Jones in June 2006, is a Latin word for health, safety and well-being. Salus was the Roman goddess of safety and well-being.
Committed to putting health and safety first, Salus’ team are highly experienced across an extensive range of disciplines and have a wide breadth of knowledge on construction projects across multiple sectors, including aviation, energy and power, infrastructure, residential, commercial, retail and sport, and leisure and events.
They provide a variety of project management services, ensuring their clients manage change to allow for safe, efficient and “right first time” delivery. Salus help make sure their partners can sleep easy at night by delivering projects safely and taking the “Complexity out of Compliance”.
Why APM membership? And how do our values intertwine?
APM are the world’s only chartered membership organisation representing the project profession. As a registered charity, they deliver education and develop qualifications, carry out research and supply resources. They run events, share best practice and provide the project management community the chance to connect and debate.
APM membership requires commitment to a Code of Professional Conduct, which sets out the standards of conduct expected of those working in the project professions. Delivering “right first time” is at the core of Salus’ vision statement, and we’ll put that into practice on every commission by aligning ourselves with the APM Code of Professional Conduct.
APM’s four values – Progressive, Thoughtful, Warm and Excellent – are shaped by what their members and staff said they thought and felt towards them. Each value contains associated behaviours, with “Warm” making reference to them being “flexible, friendly and collaborative” and “Excellent” stating their commitment to “promoting the profession and raising its profile”.
These values are very much in sync with those of Salus, we have a collaborative approach to projects along with a desire to hire and develop local talent and an understanding of the value of being present on site. Furthermore, we’re keen to innovate – a term referred to within APM’s “Progressive” value – by supporting the development and growth of people.
Our aim is to work with any given project team to help deliver the clients’ and projects’ objectives, whilst helping to ensure key duties under the regulations are also complied with.
The APM Competence Framework
Salus will be following the APM Competence Framework, which sets out the 29 competences required for effective project, programme, portfolio management and PMO.
The third edition of the Framework was launched in January 2022 and is aligned to the eighth edition of the APM Body of Knowledge, a foundational resource which defines how to deliver projects across six chapters, including a new one on “Data and AI”, and 33 sections.
The latest version of the Framework includes two new competences: “Sustainability” and “Diversity and inclusion”. These were among the key changes made by the APM to “better reflect the changing world of projects today”.
Establishing what needs to be considered for continuity and future efficiency is one of the points highlighted under the “Sustainability” competency. This ties in well with Salus as we appreciate the importance of delivering to key milestones to support business continuity.By having a diverse-skilled team with both client-side delivery experience and technical construction expertise, we can ensure minimal disruption to live operations.
We also share best practice from other industries to support transformation and continuous improvement – a key theme running through the APM Competence Framework to ensure high-quality programme and project management.
A key corporate objective for Salus is to continue to develop our services, thus making sure we embed benefits for our clients and deliver sustainable solutions. The APM Competence Framework gives us the tools we require to continue to grow our service offering.
This, in turn, will ensure we continue to realise our overriding goal of doing the “right thing for our clients”, while access to APM’s digital resources will provide opportunities for our project staff to develop skills and competences.
