Newsmaker

Johnson Controls' Anne Hart waS named BIFM FM Manager of the Year last month for her work as customer business manager at BP sites in Milton Keynes and Hemel Hempstead.

Hart has been at BP, working at the Milton Keynes sites, since June 2000, and in June this year she added the Hemel Hempstead sites to her duties.

Hart said she is proud of her win, and thoroughly enjoys working in the sector: 'Facilities management is growing so fast, it's an exciting industry, and it's good fun.'

She said that the secret to being a successful facilities manager is enthusiasm for customer relationships.

'It's understanding what they want and what they need, and delivering that. As long as you are a good listener you can succeed in facilities management.'

In her time working with BP, Hart said the fuel crisis posed the most challenges. BP had to switch to a 24-hour-a-day service, and the facilities management operation had to match.

Under normal operations, catering and security were operated on a 9-5 basis. Hart didn't wait for BP to ask for extra services — she saw the need and put everything in place.

Some 900 people work at the Milton Keynes sites, with 1,200 more at Hemel. They needed extra, hot meals and this meant extra staff, especially chefs and cleaners.

'It's not just about the building. I see that anything that takes away from the core business is the job of the facilities manager.'

Onsite Hart works with a team of managers that is responsible for operations, technical work, health and safety and finance, as well as helpdesk staff. Many services are outsourced to a variety of suppliers.

When Hart left school she went into retail management before 'falling' into facilities management at National Home Loans when the company was relocating.

To help her learn the new role she asked suppliers how they would like to be managed. They told her and she still deals with some of them today. 'They regret it,' she jokes.

While working at British Gas, the company outsourced to Procord, which later became Johnson Controls. In June 1994 Hart started with Johnson: 'It was then I really started to find out what facilities management was about.'

* Finalists for the award were Trevor Payne, Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust and Mike Freeland, facilities manager for Amec at Tate Britain.