Background
Capita's Real Estate & Infrastructure division is one of the UK's leading providers of property, infrastructure and facilities management services. With more than three decades of experience, the business manages an extensive commercial property portfolio across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, overseeing thousands of assets with a combined value of approximately £20 billion.
Its facilities management team is responsible for keeping a diverse range of commercial properties safe, compliant, efficient and attractive to occupiers, while protecting long-term asset value for clients.
Maxwell Stephens was appointed to recruit a Building Manager to join Capita's regional facilities management team and take on the day-to-day management of one or more commercial properties.
The Challenge
Capita needed an experienced Building Manager able to deliver a consistently high standard of service across a multi-let commercial property portfolio. The successful candidate would be the primary point of contact for occupiers, clients and service partners, keeping buildings running efficiently while maintaining customer service, statutory compliance and financial control.
Key responsibilities included:
- Managing the day-to-day operation of commercial properties.
- Building strong relationships with occupiers and client representatives.
- Managing facilities management contractors and service partners.
- Overseeing planned and reactive maintenance programmes.
- Managing service charge budgets and expenditure.
- Ensuring full compliance with health & safety legislation and statutory obligations.
- Monitoring contractor performance against agreed KPIs and SLAs.
- Supporting tenant satisfaction and retention.
- Protecting and enhancing the long-term value of client assets.
The role called for strong technical knowledge of commercial buildings, sound organisational skills and the confidence to balance competing operational priorities without letting customer relationships slip.
Building Managers with solid technical knowledge are not scarce. Those who pair it with genuine commercial awareness of service charge budgets, and the stakeholder skills to hold a multi-let building together across occupiers, client representatives and contractors, are a much smaller group. Reaching them called for a targeted search rather than a broad advertising response.
Our Approach
Drawing on its specialist facilities management network, Maxwell Stephens ran a focused search across the commercial property and corporate real estate sectors to identify experienced Building Managers with a track record on high-profile commercial assets.
Our assessment concentrated on candidates who could demonstrate:
- Experience managing multi-let commercial office buildings.
- Strong technical knowledge of building services and infrastructure.
- Proven contractor and supplier management capability.
- Financial management experience, including service charge budgeting.
- Excellent client-facing and occupier relationship skills.
- Thorough understanding of statutory compliance and health & safety legislation.
- A proactive, customer-focused approach to facilities management.
Throughout the process we worked closely with Capita's management team, so that every shortlisted candidate had not only the technical expertise but also the professionalism, communication skills and commercial awareness expected in a client-facing environment.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens placed a Building Manager who brought extensive commercial facilities management experience together with strong operational leadership and stakeholder management skills.
The successful candidate quickly became an integral member of Capita's regional facilities management team, taking responsibility for the smooth operation of their assigned properties while maintaining consistently high service standards.
Since joining Capita, they have:
- Strengthened relationships with occupiers and client stakeholders.
- Improved contractor management and service delivery performance.
- Maintained robust compliance across all statutory obligations.
- Managed service charge budgets and operational expenditure effectively.
- Raised tenant satisfaction through proactive facilities management.
- Supported Capita's wider objective of protecting asset value and delivering a high standard of client service.
Why This Placement Worked
A multi-let commercial building puts its Building Manager in front of three audiences at once: occupiers who judge the building by how it feels day to day, client representatives who judge it by service charge performance and asset value, and contractors who need clear direction against KPIs and SLAs. This search was scoped around all three from the outset, and candidates were assessed against them rather than against technical knowledge alone.
If you are recruiting a Building Manager or a similar property-facing role across a commercial portfolio, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach candidates with the right blend of technical, commercial and client-facing capability. Get in touch with our team.