CAREER PATHS CHRIS NEWTON
BANKING ON ENERGY LEVELS Chris Newton, facilities management director at Lloyds Banking Group believes that bags of energy is the key attribute for prospective facilities managers What first attracted you to facilities management? Prior to facilities management I studied quantity surveying and worked for a number of contractors and property developers. I rather fell into facilities management, as I was appointed as a project manager at Asda leading the build and operation of a 350,000 sq ft multi temperature distribution centre. Within this I became the facilities manager for the site setting up all the site contracts, such as fork lift trucks, mechanical and electrical maintenance, cleaning, catering, gyms and crèches. As well as facilities management, I was asked to lead the customer service team dealing with all the stores’ queries served by the site and health and safety responsibilities for the site. Prior to my current role as facilities management director for the entire Lloyds Banking Group, I led the estates and FM function with HBOS. Thus a bit of a fall
into facilities management, but I love every minute with the fast pace of making a difference every day, it is hugely demanding and I have to ensure that all my team manage their energy levels appropriatley (and thats not the utilities in Lloyds!).
How many people do you manage? I have 221 within my team, however at last count we have about 10,000 supply partners serving our estate willingly and well everyday, without whom we could not deliver our service.
What is the size of your annual budget that you oversee? The total annual property budget is about £1billion
What was your big career break? Graduating and successfully finding a role in a local property
developer/builder in north-east England; small in number of employees but carring out some industry leading and award winning projects. I had a great mentor and learnt how to do most things in construction but also how to manage a business including doing the VAT return! I believe you make your own career and that you constantly need to develop yourself... three degrees later I am still learning.
Facilities management makes a difference because... The facilities management team are the hidden doers within an organisation... they deliver 24/7/365, but many in the organisation just take it for granted and think that it happens by magic. Many don’t realise the effort it takes, for example, to clean 3,200 branches and 400 office locations to the performed high standards as we do at Lloyds Banking Group. And when things don’t go to plan, it’s the facilities management team that are at the heart of getting things put back together. If anybody asked me 20 years ago when I graduated that I would be chairing the winter maintenance
committee for Lloyds Banking Group, known as The Grit Team, I would have laughed. But this team was so valuable during last year’s harsh winter, with many plaudits throughout the business keeping us operational. Currently I am leading the integration of the two large facilities management functions from the old LloydsTSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) days into a new class facilities management provision for Lloyds Banking Group. This is having a huge impact on the organisation as is assisting the definition of the culture of the new organisation, as well as having harmonised specifications and providing some significant economies of scale in terms of cost reduction, thus assisting the overall integration target communciated to the City.
The three most important attributes of successful facilities professionals are... As with all things facilities management, we need more than three! The ability to communicate, build lasting relationships, internal and external, be able to project management at any scale and to be cool in a crisis are essential. Oh and yes, you need to have bags of energy!
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