Recruiting an Operations Manager for Bespoke Cleaning

Background

Bespoke Cleaning is a specialist commercial cleaning provider delivering premium cleaning and support services across London. The business is known for meticulous standards and a customer-first approach, and manages prestigious commercial contracts where service quality, responsiveness and consistency are paramount.

As the company entered a new phase of growth, it needed an experienced Operations Manager capable of leading frontline operations, supporting expansion and protecting the standards its clients had come to expect. Bespoke Cleaning partnered exclusively with Maxwell Stephens to find an operational leader who could combine strategic thinking with a hands-on management style.

The Challenge

This was more than a conventional Operations Manager appointment. The successful candidate would join the senior leadership team, with responsibility for multiple client contracts, operational teams, compliance and the continued growth of the business. In London's highly competitive commercial cleaning sector, that meant someone who could work under pressure while maintaining strong customer relationships and consistently delivering a first-class service.

The role carried responsibility for:

• Leading operational delivery across multiple prestigious client contracts.
• Building strong relationships with demanding corporate clients.
• Managing contract mobilisation and service transitions.
• Leading and developing operational teams, including performance management and employee engagement.
• Supporting recruitment, HR and employee relations.
• Managing compliance across all contracts and maintaining accreditation standards including CHAS, SafeContractor and Avetta.
• Driving service improvements and operational efficiencies.
• Managing KPIs, audits and client reporting.
• Supporting business development and contract retention.
• Ensuring consistently high service standards across the business.

Technical expertise was only part of the brief. Equally important was finding someone whose personality matched the entrepreneurial culture of a fast-growing business — energetic, commercially aware and willing to lead from the front.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens spent time with Bespoke Cleaning's leadership team to understand both the operational demands of the role and the culture of the organisation. It became clear early on that technical capability alone would not guarantee success: the right candidate also needed strong interpersonal skills, resilience and the ability to inspire confidence in clients and colleagues alike.

Using our specialist facilities management and cleaning services network, we ran a targeted executive search focused on professionals with experience across:

• Commercial cleaning operations and facilities management.
• Multi-site contract management and service mobilisation.
• Client relationship management.
• Compliance and accreditation, and health and safety.
• HR and employee relations.
• Operational leadership.

Each shortlisted candidate went through detailed competency-based interviews covering leadership style, commercial awareness, contract management, compliance knowledge and cultural fit. We also tested candidates' knowledge of the industry accreditations that matter in this sector — CHAS, SafeContractor and Avetta — alongside professional qualifications such as BICS and IOSH, and membership of recognised facilities management bodies. In commercial cleaning, these accreditations are frequently a condition of winning and retaining corporate contracts, so an operations leader who understands them in practice is worth considerably more than one who has merely heard of them.

Throughout the process we kept in regular contact with Bespoke Cleaning, refining the search on their feedback so that only the strongest candidates progressed.

The Outcome

Following an extensive search, Maxwell Stephens placed an Operations Manager whose experience, leadership style and commercial mindset matched Bespoke Cleaning's ambitions. The successful candidate brought extensive operational leadership experience from the facilities management and commercial cleaning sectors, together with a strong understanding of compliance, people management and service delivery.

The role covered operational leadership across contracts, client relationships, compliance, and team management.

Why This Placement Worked

Operations Manager roles in commercial cleaning are often recruited on contract-management experience alone. In a growing, entrepreneurial business that is rarely enough: the appointment also has to fit the culture, carry credibility with corporate clients and be willing to lead from the front. Assessing for all three from the outset, rather than after the shortlist, is what produced the match here.

If you are recruiting a senior operational role in the commercial cleaning or facilities management sectors — where technical expertise, customer service and leadership all matter — Maxwell Stephens can help. Get in touch with our team.