Some people think facilities and operations managers just make sure the lifts are running and the lights are on. In reality, an FM wears many hats. From space management to sustainability and security in the built environment, responsibilities can vary from FM to FM. It’s a career full of opportunity that takes people down many different paths.
Facility Management’s ‘How I Got Here’ series chats to impressive people who have worked in the field to map out some of the paths taken and demystify this essential profession.
Although often misunderstood as an exclusively behind-the-scenes and lone-wolf profession, building management necessitates ever-plentiful doses of empathy and attentiveness and a willingness to collaborate. Such qualities contribute to a human-centric skill set that Goodman Group building manager Lisa Taylor is proud to possess in her role and attributes to time spent working as a beauty therapist and a vet nurse.
“Although those industries are very different to facilities management, they provided me with strong customer service skills that I still use in my role to this day,” says Taylor. She has now worked at Goodman Group as a building manager for seven years, following previous stints at Sodexo’s call centre, Optus and Colliers.
Taylor manages some of the largest industrial estates in Australia such as Oakdale South Industrial Estate and Bungarribee – stressful yet rewarding responsibilities that see her reflect on how far she has come from Sydney Corporate Park.
She cites flexibility, adaptability and patience as essential for endurance in building management and is guided by the belief that career success and triumph involves more than just “climbing the ladder”.
Facility Management: Talk through your career and education background and what led you to be a building manager at Goodman Group.
Lisa Taylor: I initially studied vet nursing and went on to become a qualified beauty therapist, working in the beauty industry for three years. Although these industries are very different to facilities management, they provided me with strong customer service skills that I still use in my role to this day.
My first role in facilities management started with Sodexo in 2008, where I worked at a call centre and triaged maintenance jobs for Westpac, 7Eleven and Starbucks. This gave me a good grounding in building maintenance and sparked my interest in the field. After five years in that role, I joined Optus in 2013, where I managed their premises at Macquarie Park.
When I started working for Colliers in 2015, I was based at 52 Martin Place and managed maintenance on the base building. There were some high-profile tenants at Martin Place with a range of diverse needs, including Channel 7, the New South Wales Premier, four floors of barristers and lawyers and a Red Cross blood donation centre.
I’ve now been working as a building manager with Goodman Group for seven years. The first estate I managed was Sydney Corporate Park in 2017. I worked at the park for a year and a half before moving to Western Sydney. I joined the team at Smithfield for a year, then was at Erskine Park for three years. I now manage two industrial estates – Oakdale South and Bungarribee.
What does an average day look like for you?
My day usually starts the night before, when I check my calendar to see what the next day will bring. When I drive to the office, I usually make a detour to an estate, meet contractors and organise access. I also need to drop my five-year-old son at daycare, so I like to organise my mornings ahead!
I like to have a bit of ‘me time’ during the commute, so I often listen to interesting podcastsor uplifting music to get me ready for the day. Once I arrive, I’ll check my emails for any correspondence or requests that have come through overnight, in addition to reviewing work orders, following up on jobs and starting administration or compliance-based reporting.
While I do have a typical workday routine, there are a lot of unexpected things that can happen, so a large component of my day is reactive. No matter how much you try to structure your day, there is an element of flexibility and agility needed to be able to quickly respond to situations as they arise.
What are your responsibilities and who are your stakeholders?
In a nutshell, I facilitate smooth day-to-day operations of our industrial assets. I’m the first point of call at Oakdale South and Bungarribee Industrial Estates, so my stakeholders are mainly our customers – Team Global Express, Linfox, DHL and Iron Mountain.
I meet with our customers regularly to answer any questions they might have about facilities and attend to any incidents or maintenance requests.
I also deliver operations budgets and service contracts and monitor on-site safety compliance. It’s essential that our warehouses meet safety standards and that everything is working as it should to optimise customer experience.
What other departments do you work with?
I work alongside the balance of the property services team, together with our operations
team. I’m also currently working with our developments team as three of my newest warehouses completed their Defects Liability Period (DPL) in September. Additionally, if I am working on any financial or capital expenditure projects, I generally collaborate with our projects team as well.
What are the biggest challenges and obstacles of your role?
Time management is probably the biggest challenge for me as I’m working in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
I need to be able to complete my core daily tasks and manage schedule conflicts while allowing wiggle room to respond to urgent issues, such as time-sensitive maintenance. The ‘people management’ part of my role can also be a juggle due to competing priorities and meeting customer expectations.
Are there any misconceptions about facilities management that you’d like to address? What do you think people assume when you say you’re a building manager and how does that assumption differ from reality?
People often think that building managers operate in a residential setting, whereas my role is quite different because I’m managing an industrial asset.
The way I frame it is – “I represent the landlord’. After all, I’m looking after the essential infrastructure of a building – fire systems, electrical, plumbing, landscaping – on behalf of the company that owns it.
My role is to ensure the smooth day-to-day operations of the building. However, customers often see me as the face of Goodman as I’m onsite, and I’m always happy to manage enquiries for them, even if they fall slightly outside of my remit.
What are some career or industry highlights?
A career milestone for me was moving into the commercial and industrial property sectors after working in beauty and vet nursing. When I look back at my career, vet nursing and beauty seems about as unrelated to industrial property as you can get, however, the experience I gained has been invaluable. I’ve taken a lot of customer service skills with me, such as empathy and communication skills, and applied them to my current role.
Career success to me is more than just ‘climbing the ladder.’ I think of career highlightsin terms of my portfolio. When I joined Goodman, I started at Sydney Corporate Park, whichhad a mix of retail customers, offices and smaller warehouses. I’m now managing some of the largest industrial estates in Australia. I currently manage Oakdale South Industrial Estate, where some of our multinational customers have temperature-controlled warehouses that store valuable goods, so it’s a huge estate and very different from Sydney Corporate Park.
What do you love the most about your job?
The thing I love most in my career is building relationships with our customers. I enjoy strong professional and personal relationships. It’s so satisfying when I overcome obstacles on behalf of our customers. I can step away knowing that I’ve turned the situation around for them. I also like that no two days are the same – even though I’ve been with Goodman for seven years, there’s always an opportunity to learn something new.
Have you come up against obstacles in the historically male-dominated industry of facilities and building management?
Facilities management has traditionally been seen as male-dominated, but times are definitely changing with more women now in the sector. Goodman has some great gender equality training programs in place for everyone across the business.
I genuinely feel that it makes no difference that I am a woman. Also, almost half of my team are women, so the industry and attitudes are changing.
Featured Image: Lisa Taylor
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