FM Careers Spotlight Interview: Sean Robson, Account Manager, OCS

• How did you get into FM?
• Did you get any advice around moving into FM?
• How diverse did you find the range of projects you worked on?
• How do you feel that the skills that you learnt when you were in the military have translated into FM?
• Do you have any advice about training and qualifications?
• What are the biggest positives of working in FM?
• Any other advice for people getting into FM from the military?

Michelle: Okay. Welcome, everyone. I really am delighted to welcome Sean Robson to our latest Spotlight interview for careers in FM. Sean is a strategic leader in the FM space, having held senior roles with both OCS and MITIE. Following the transition from the military. So hi Sean.

Sean: Hi Michelle, how are you?

Michelle: I'm good, thank you. I'm good. Really excited to hear about your transition into the FM space actually, and understand that the career that you've had since leaving the military.

Sean: Brilliant. Yeah, I'm quite excited to share it with you because there's a lot of people who transition out of the military that don't know their value within this industry, and they are very valuable.

Michelle: So how did you get involved in FM?

Sean:I mean, it came about quite strangely. I think a lot of people say they find themselves in FM instead of angling towards that particular career, and I suppose I learned a lot when I was in the military about asset management and buildings and people and how they all interact intermingled together.

I left the military back in 2017 and took up a role with Jaguar Land Rover as a learning consultant. I spent about four years working as a learning consultant or learning development manager before realizing that actually, you know, there's a bit more to my life than just that.

And I sort of missed that operational side. So I’ve put a plan together to get myself into FM because I figured out what FM is at that point.

And part of that plan was to transition over to interserve as their learning development manager, help to understand the business from within and then gain a foothold and onto an operational role, which worked out quite well for me.

And in 2020, very early when the pandemic had hit, I was asked to mobilise, one of the nightingale hospitals, and that was my foothold back into operations.

Michelle: So did you get any advice around, you know, moving into FM? How did that come about?

Sean: So, my brother is is quite high up in strategic role within the FM as well. And me and him are very, very close, both ex-military and we were speaking about it and his advice to me was you have all the operational skills, why don't you just do it?

So, you know, with that sort of very loose advice, I ran with it.

Michelle: Brilliant. Okay. And in terms of some of the projects and things that you've been involved in since and since you've come into FM, I mean, it's obviously well known for being a sector that're really diverse and dynamic.

Sean: Yeah, absolutely. So I think there's two projects that I've been involved in that really stick out to me. The first one being the Nightingale up in Manchester. I was asked to go on the on the Monday and on the Tuesday morning I was there and mainly just advising on the mobilisation from a people perspective.

And it was very, very flexible, fluid, diverse. And the fact that I turned up and there was an empty building and within 12 days we had to have a fully functioning hospital up and running.

So there was a lot of on the hoof decisions and sort of urgency about how we do things. I found, you know, that a really, really good challenge. And we did learn a lot about how rapid FM can be scaled out.

But not only just scaled out but make it effective. You know, we learned how to manage complexity at scale, so we had to turn this empty building into 750 bed hospital, you know, in a very tight timeline.

And there was a lot of a lot of subcontractors there. And we're all working together. And of course, when we were building COVID-19 was changing the environment was changing constantly.

So, you know, from one day to the next, we might need to change a completely entire design of a ward. But it was really, really good to see and, you know, working very closely with NHS England on that front. I think they learned a lot about how to make decisions at pace because we know that the NHS are not necessarily the best at doing that.

And I learned a lot about the sort of builders aspect and their requirements and that constraints about what I'm asking them to do to make it easier for my guys to maintain.

Sometimes it wasn't possible. So yeah, that was quite good. I suppose when you come up with the challenges there’s a process. I've always looked at and the first thing is sort of that assessment and evaluation piece.

Okay, what is the scenario we're looking at? What is going wrong or what needs to change? And then what's the impact on the operations, the safety the critical systems that might be in play here? And then we conduct the sort of risk analysis to find out, if by doing nothing, what would be the impact, by doing the bare minimum or going above and beyond.

We then start to see the priorities fall out naturally? I think that the criticality of systems in a hospital environment is generally the key one, You know, making sure the oxygen is getting through to the patients, electricity to the lifesaving equipment, that NHS use all the way through to making sure we get the correct air changes within that environment, keep it pathogen free.

I then focus on what resources are available. How best to achieve this. And communication to stakeholders, and management is key as well. You know, you've got to keep your client in the picture at all times.

And then what is the longer term impact? So, yes, we fixed the immediate problem, but you know, could that develop over time? Could it fail again? And how do we mitigate against that? And then the lessons learned at the end of it. How did it all work? What could we have done better if we could have done anything better? And what could we do differently in the future?

Michelle: So using, you know, huge amount of different skills there, obviously through just that one scenario that you've come up with there. How do you feel that the skills that you learnt when you were in the military have translated really into the different roles that you've had in FM you've touched on, obviously, some of it there.

Sean:Absolutely. I think, you know, a lot of a lot of soldiers or veterans will say the ability to keep calm under pressure. I think it's the ability to work well under pressure. And veterans have got that.

You know, a lot of your career is designed towards training for doing the job that may or may not happen, which inevitably is war. So you constantly train. So you know what pressure is and you know how it feels and you know how to get excited by it, which is key. So that ability to react under pressure and work under pressure working is key. A methodical approach.

You know, if anything, the military teaches you, step one, you start here and you work through the process. A process is only any good if you're following it. if you're not following that process, it isn't a process at all. It's just a written document. So I think they’re two key pieces but the ability to communicate that and to get people to buy into what your vision is the key as well.

And soldiers, sailors and airmen are all very good at that. You know, we're all taught how to deliver a plan in a certain way to get by in, via the orders process. And this is what we're going to do. This is how we go to achieve it. Should X fail. This is how we deal with at that point in time.

And I think that methodical approach really, really sets us above most people.

Michelle: Yes. And would you have any advice on things like training and qualifications? Because we get a lot of questions like that, you know, particularly from service leavers and veterans that have come into the industry early thinking about how they can really develop their career over time.

Sean:Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, I think I read an article from CMI recently where there's this thing called Accidental Managers where 88% of managers find themselves in a position of management without any formal qualification. That formal qualification to me is key.

It shows that you're invested in looking after your people and how to manage them. Now, you know that's different to leadership. Leadership, as we know, is that ability to sell the dream and bring people along on a journey. So those two are key and they're hand-in-hand.

So a formal management qualification is definitely advisable. Get some industry knowledge and that can be gained in, you know, many different ways.

And I did it through a level six diploma in facilities management. Just to translate my military knowledge into a civilian lexicon, in a civilian way speaking.

And it depends on the company you’re aiming for, most FM companies will ask for an iosh qualification as a bare minimum. And again, project management is key.

So you might want to get an understanding of project management. And again, the company may or may not dictate whether or not they wish to have a formal qualification in that. But I would say that management ability, understanding what leadership is and the ability to pull it through.

Health and safety is definitely key and project management.

Michelle: Yeah. Okay, that's brilliant. Thank you. And it sounds like you're really passionate about the sector Sean, which is brilliant. It comes across well.

What are the things about it that you really love for somebody moving into the sector that doesn't really know a huge amount about it.

But what would you say all the positives are?

Sean: Absolutely. Yeah, I do. I absolutely love the challenges of managing accounts within this industry. I think for me, because I work so closely with the NHS, it's that ability to facilitate them, enable them to do their job.

You know, they are the frontline heroes of the UK and they face a lot of challenges. And if we can make it easier by making sure that their equipment works and their wards are correctly sanitised, cleaned, etc.

I think that's a huge positive for me. But also the industry is moving now towards the big umbrella of ESG and how we can support not only the clients, etc., but how do we make things better for everybody in the world.

And, you know, so that the environmental piece is massive and we know that we're aiming towards a carbon neutrality and that target is fast approaching and we're looking at sort of delivering social value into economies, which is absolutely incredible.

And I absolutely love that piece. And of course, what comes along with it is all the governance piece, which is all of that that process in making sure that we're doing it correctly.

So if we've got to do something, let's do it properly. And it's not only do it properly, but let's get someone into to have a look independent and make sure that we are actually doing it.

Because what we don't want to do is have that sort of safety bias that we think we know what we're doing and we're happy in what we're doing. We want to eliminate that and get somebody in come just that quick once over and not just in the right direction if we need it.

Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. So any other advice that you might have for aspiring FM professionals or people that are looking to get into the field from the military that you haven't covered already?

Sean: I would say, like I said at the beginning, it is easy to find yourself in FM and it's something that quite a lot of us veterans happen ourselves in, but it's quite hard to be a success in that sense. I think having a positive mindset and a sort of approachable mindset really, really will help you, you know, keep your mind open, broaden knowledge. So really good things that veterans are good for.

Listen to everybody's opinions and make a plan with the best opinion and go forward with it. But always have a plan for success and a plan for success is your strategy, your delivery of that account.

We know that the you know, the big companies MITIE, etc, they all work on accounts that 5, 10, 15 years that they class as projects What come what happens at the end project. Well as a whole rebid so you know but you might come in at day one and start looking at

your strategy for that you know year five how can we retain this and go forward with it.

Michelle: Okay. Well, that has been so I've loved listening to and hearing about your own career journey in FM and, you know, some amazing, amazing advice there

And I think FM is that place isn't it? I don't know if you felt this but it's a huge industry but also a small place and there's always people willing to provide that guidance and mentorship.

I don't know if you've found the same there.

Sean: Absolutely. Yes. So since I joined IWFM recently as last year I've opened up a massive door into advice and bits and pieces. My trust that I'm currently working with, that we're all involved in, IWFM and, you know, meeting those guys outside of the work environment and talking strategy. Alister from IEM has been absolutely fantastic to chat to.

Meeting you guys up at the arboretum was absolutely fantastic. Again it’s all opening doors. I did have and currently still do have a couple of mentors within the industry, Carl Roberts, who sort of encouraged me to take the Nightingale on as a lead was absolutely fantastic.

And my current line manager, Caroline, she's absolutely fantastic in guiding in the right direction and there is that tacit knowledge sharing you need to be able to do it and it's not necessarily always in the work environment. Go to an expo, walk around, have a coffee with people, just talk and the ideas will come flooding in.

Michelle: Brilliant. Thank you so much, Sean. It's been great talking to you. Really enjoyed that and thanks again for your time.

Sean: No worries. Thank you.