Facilities Manager for the Chartered Institute of Housing

Background

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is the professional body for housing, dedicated to supporting housing professionals and promoting high standards across the sector. With operations spanning multiple locations, including key offices in Coventry and London, CIH asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Facilities Manager to oversee its workplace environments, support operational effectiveness, and make sure the organisation's assets, people and facilities were managed to the highest standard.

The role formed a critical part of CIH's operational infrastructure, supporting staff, members, visitors and stakeholders while ensuring compliance, efficiency and value for money across the estate.

The Challenge

CIH needed a Facilities Manager who could provide both strategic leadership and day-to-day operational oversight across multiple locations. The successful candidate would manage a broad range of facilities responsibilities while supporting organisational objectives around governance, efficiency, compliance and service delivery.

Key responsibilities included:

• Managing facilities operations across the Coventry and London offices
• Ensuring statutory compliance and health & safety management
• Overseeing building maintenance and workplace services
• Managing procurement processes and supplier relationships
• Driving value for money across facilities contracts and operational expenditure
• Supporting asset management and workplace planning
• Managing facilities-related budgets and service agreements
• Leading a multi-disciplinary team including reception, office support and facilities personnel
• Supporting remote workers through appropriate facilities and compliance measures
• Ensuring safe, secure and productive working environments

The role demanded strong leadership, commercial awareness and the ability to operate effectively across multiple sites while maintaining high service standards. For a professional body, there is an added dimension: the facilities function is visible to members and visitors as well as staff, and the standard of the workplace reflects on the organisation itself. The remote-working element also widens the brief, since compliance and support obligations extend to people who are rarely in either office.

Our Approach

Understanding the requirement

Maxwell Stephens worked closely with CIH to develop a detailed understanding of the role, the organisational culture and the operational priorities behind the appointment. Particular emphasis was placed on identifying candidates with experience in multi-site facilities management, health & safety compliance, procurement and supplier management, budget and contract management, team leadership and people management, workplace operations and customer service, asset and property management, and governance-led compliance environments.

Targeted search

Drawing on our specialist facilities management network, we ran a targeted search focused on experienced facilities professionals with a proven track record in managing diverse operational environments. We prioritised candidates who demonstrated:

• Strong facilities management expertise
• Multi-site operational leadership
• Experience delivering cost efficiencies and procurement savings
• Health & safety and compliance knowledge
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• The ability to lead and develop operational teams

Candidate assessment

Each shortlisted candidate went through a comprehensive assessment to evaluate their technical competence, leadership capability, commercial acumen and alignment with CIH's values and organisational objectives.

The Outcome

We appointed an experienced Facilities Manager who brought a strong blend of operational expertise, leadership capability and strategic thinking. The successful candidate quickly took responsibility for facilities operations across both offices, working closely with senior leadership to improve operational performance and support the organisation's long-term objectives.

In post, the appointed manager delivered on each part of the brief:

• Facilities operations. Strengthened day-to-day facilities management processes, giving consistent service delivery and operational efficiency across both locations.
• Health & safety compliance. Through proactive compliance management and robust governance processes, raised health & safety standards across the organisation while supporting both office-based and remote employees.
• Procurement and supplier management. Introduced effective procurement practices and supplier performance management measures, improving service quality and delivering greater value for money.
• Team leadership. Provided clear leadership and support to the facilities, reception and administrative teams, helping to create a collaborative, service-focused operational culture.
• Operational efficiency. Improved processes, stronger controls and better contract management contributed to greater operational resilience and workplace effectiveness across the organisation.

Why This Placement Worked

The appointment strengthened CIH's facilities management function, giving the organisation the leadership it needed to support a modern, multi-site workplace. Beyond the operational gains, it brought better workplace support for employees and stakeholders and a closer alignment between facilities operations and organisational objectives.

The search succeeded because the brief was treated as a leadership appointment with an operational remit, not the other way round. Multi-site roles in membership organisations need someone who can run two offices, a remote workforce and a support team to a consistent standard, and the assessment was built to test exactly that.

If you are recruiting a facilities lead for a multi-site organisation — where compliance, procurement and team leadership all sit with one person — Maxwell Stephens can help you find the right candidate. Get in touch with our team.