The day in the life of a School Site Manager – Gary Broad.

Before the Christmas break we asked Gary (part of the Sansum team) to share this experience and overview of his important role.

1. What attracted you to working within educational facilities. 

I enjoy meeting and interacting with people and that’s what kindled my interest in this role. This role offers flexible work hours, and that’s also something that’s important to me. I’m confident in my organisational, communication, technical, and time-management skills, so I know I can execute the responsibilities of this role effectively.” By working within the educational facilities I am able to create a comfortable and safe environment where students are able to come to school and enjoy it.

2. Please explain your role and responsibilities with Sansum Solutions Group.

In a way my position crosses over with both Project Management and Facilities Management, therefore it’s unique in the way the service is delivered. My main duties are to Manage the maintenance, development, performance and delivery of the facilities to the school to produce an efficient service and delivery solution, maximising performance & profitability against pre-agreed targets.

– ensuring that the team understands its duties and its role within the school

– responsibility to adhere to budgets and plan to maximise profitability

– meet your targets and those of the Client and school as a whole

Contribute to training and develop the team, Project managers regularly participate in client meetings, as they’re responsible for relating the client’s expectations to team members and Operations Manager. During client interactions, a project manager learns about aspects such as the volume of work the client expects the team to perform.

Assist management in achieving maximum customer satisfaction in accordance with school plans This cross over happens when:-

The need arises to maintain responsibility for performing all duties in compliance with related legal/statutory, regulations, professional duties, responsibilities and obligations e.g. Best Practice Guidelines

3. How important is Health & Safety at work and key safety measures.

Safety is freedom from physical harm; the condition of being protected from, unlikely to cause, danger, risk or injury. Its is also about promoting and maintaining the highest degree of physical, mental and social wellbeing of all Staff. This means keeping Staff as healthy as possible, by removing and preventing the hazards and risks that can cause harm to people at work.

4. What advice would you give to any new recruits within school facilities.

Start with finding out about the current situation and condition compared to where your organisation wants to be and work out a plan to make it happen. Identify your mission and share your vision. Engage your team. Make them realise their value and their contributions and make them make a difference.

Standardize, make sure the team is continuously learning and evolving. The technical language adopted is unified. Customer support is key to your success starting with logging issues, planning inspections or PPM, arranging for RM. The communication, the records, the data analysis. Identify areas with troublesome issues to tackle first. It’s needless to mention that you should also know your budget and if there is a deficiency what mitigation you’ll have. Also, safety cannot be mitigated. Safety is a priority. Make sure this is how you operate. 

5. Describe a typical day at work?

The overall aim of the Site Manager, s role is ensuring that the internal and external school facilities are available, fully functional, H&S compliant and aesthetically pleasing where this falls within the remit of the caretaking team.

  • Be observant for H&S issues and ensure that they are rectified or made safe and reported to management.
  • Where appropriate provide access, escort, liaise with and assist service providers on site to undertake remedial work or Planned Prevented Maintenance.
  • Being proactive by noticing deficiencies in the facilities.
  • Any other duties as assigned by Head Office or Client that relate to maintaining the facilities in a clean, functional, and aesthetically pleasing state.
  • Any other duties that are specific to the school being worked in i.e., swimming pool maintenance including cleaning, water testing, use of chemicals and minor repairs to the pool.
  • Be available for lettings of the premises outside of normal hours with agreement of client.
  • Maintain communication in the event of any incidents to ensure availability of school accommodation and facilities. Reporting to Client and Sansum Health & Safety Department.
  • Carrying out statuary testing tasks such as fire alarm tests, emergency light test, fire door checks, plantroom checks, water flushing and recording them in an accurate, concise way in accordance with current regulations and contractual requirements. Also adhering to the snow plan in winter months.
  • Work with the Site Co-ordinator to inform them of any jobs outstanding that need to be logged and close off any jobs that have been completed.
  • Oversee cleaning supervisor making sure that Supervisor is completing specific tasks given by yourself, be involved in short- listing of any cleaning or site staff when recruiting along with Site Manager.

6. What advice would you give a young Gary Broad.

I want to talk to you about something really important to me: believing in yourself!

We are all special and smart in your own ways. Sometimes, we might feel like things are too hard or that you can’t do something. But guess what? You can! When I tried my best, I learnt that If you get something wrong, that’s okay! just a step on your way to getting it right. Every mistake is a chance to learn. Remember, even the greatest athletes and scientists started as beginners. They practiced and practiced until they got better. So, when you find something tough, don’t give up! Keep trying, and you will reach your goals but please do not ever stop learning.

Also, remember. always be kind to yourself and to others. If someone is struggling, help them out. We all grow older, wiser and better together.

7. Funniest moment at work?

I can’t really say about the funniest Ha Ha moment, but through the years at the school we have many fun moments. This included setting up the show, playing with props, singing on the mic. Various times come to mind was the night we joined the quiz competition and came 2nd what a laugh that was having staff out of work time just being themselves.

And finally……when you eventually retire what is the first thing you will do?

Throughout my life I have been extremely lucky to have travelled to holiday destination throughout Europe, Turkey, also done safaris to Kenya. My plan is a tropical holiday Bora Bora or another far away place.

Thank you Gary for sharing your experience, thoughts and words of advice. Keep up the good work!

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