The creative thinker with an eye to the profession’s future
Today, Jack Flanagan is contract compliance manager for Pareto FM on the company’s ZSL account. But his story in FM starts with the end of a professional rugby career following an injury.
Subsequent to this terrible blow, Flanagan soon found new work in the retail unit at Whipsnade Zoo – just as Pareto FM was mobilising the Whipsnade part of its ZSL contract. The connection has proved life-changing.
Flanagan came to the attention of Alex Mills, associate director of Pareto FM, in the main because of his inquisitive nature and obvious natural enthusiasm. He volunteered to help the Pareto maintenance team prepare for a visit by the Queen in 2017, thereafter joining the company in the role of help-desk administrator. Within a year, he’d been promoted to FM coordinator. Flanagan wanted to know all about FM, and has since made the most of the opportunities afforded by the sector.
Flanagan, realising that having not made the most of his secondary education, found out that there is much in FM to learn and succeed in. Having completed both IOSH Managing Safely and IWFM Level 4 training, he now aspires to IWFM Level 6 qualification.
He’s taken part in charity events, personally proposing, researching and helping deliver a mental health awareness programme. Flanagan also arranged for eight Pareto managers to help to feed the homeless, feeding 300 homeless people in one night. More broadly, he’s demonstrated a huge amount of professional development over the last couple of years.
“2020 HAS GIVEN ME THE CHANCE TO DEVELOP MY SKILLS AND TAKE CONTROL OF SITUATIONS”
Promotion to the role of FM compliance manager came in April this year, at a time which also saw Flanagan stepping out to become Whipsnade site lead for the zoo’s Covid-19 response programme. He was immediately thrust into deputising for the site manager who, being in a high-risk category, was forced to remain at home. Flanagan deputised for him and ran the site for two months.
Beyond Whipsnade, Flanagan has presented the capabilities of Pareto’s compliance system to five other UK zoos, in so doing opening up further conversations about the potential implementation of better practices.
The key to Flanagan’s success, he believes, is in the freedom he has been given to implement a host of new service delivery ideas. Moreover, Flanagan’s impact on his employers is significant; they call him “the future of the facilities management sector” and a perfect example of the opportunities FM can provide “to hungry, enthusiastic,
hard-working talent.”
https://www.facilitatemagazine.com/content/features/2020/11/02/iwfm-impact-awards-2020-brought-fore-individual-category-winners
