Deckers Health & Safety and Facilities Manager Recruitment

Background

Deckers, a global footwear and apparel organisation, appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Health & Safety and Facilities Manager to oversee operations across its EMEA portfolio.

The role combined regional Facilities Management with responsibility for health and safety, maintenance, workplace projects, sustainability and stakeholder management across multiple countries. Deckers needed a professional who could maintain consistently high operational standards while adapting to different local requirements and supporting the organisation's wider corporate objectives.

The successful candidate therefore needed to combine Facilities expertise, health and safety leadership, commercial awareness, people management and strong communication skills within a complex international environment.

The Challenge

The Health & Safety and Facilities Manager position carried a broad regional remit and needed someone capable of balancing operational delivery with strategic improvement. The main strands of the role were:

• Regional facilities management. Overseeing Facilities and maintenance operations across multiple EMEA locations, ensuring workplaces remained safe, efficient and professionally managed.
• Health and safety leadership. Developing, implementing and maintaining effective health and safety policies and procedures while ensuring compliance with the relevant local requirements in each country.
• Stakeholder management. Working with a broad range of internal departments, senior stakeholders, suppliers and external partners, which called for strong communication, influencing and negotiation skills to balance competing requirements and keep relationships productive.
• Team leadership. Leading a small Facilities team, providing clear direction, support and development while ensuring projects and operational responsibilities were delivered effectively.
• Project delivery. Planning and coordinating facilities-related projects across the region, which required strong organisational and project-management capability.
• Corporate responsibility and sustainability. Supporting the development and implementation of corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives, keeping regional activity aligned with wider global objectives.

Regional roles of this kind are harder to fill than a single-country equivalent. Health and safety legislation, contractor markets and workplace norms differ from one jurisdiction to the next, and the candidate has to be credible in all of them while managing a team and a project pipeline at a distance.

Our Recruitment Approach

Maxwell Stephens conducted a targeted search for experienced Facilities and Health & Safety professionals with the capability to operate across an international, multi-site portfolio. Given the breadth of the role, our assessment focused on candidates who could demonstrate:

• Regional or multi-site Facilities Management experience.
• Strong health and safety knowledge.
• Experience managing maintenance operations.
• International stakeholder engagement.
• Supplier and contractor management.
• Team leadership and development.
• Workplace project delivery.
• Commercial and cost-management awareness.
• Sustainability and corporate responsibility experience.
• The ability to operate effectively across different cultures and regulatory environments.

Cultural fit was equally important. Deckers wanted someone capable of building trusted relationships across the organisation while bringing a proactive, collaborative and improvement-focused approach to Facilities Management.

The Outcome

Following a detailed search and assessment process, Maxwell Stephens placed a highly experienced Health & Safety and Facilities Manager. The appointment strengthened Facilities Management and health and safety performance across Deckers' EMEA operations, and the new manager's contribution has included:

• Improved facilities operations. A more streamlined approach to Facilities Management, helping improve operational efficiency while maintaining high standards across the regional portfolio.
• Stronger health and safety management. Robust policies and procedures that strengthened workplace safety and kept operations aligned with the relevant local health and safety requirements.
• Improved cost efficiency. Closer oversight of Facilities activity and service delivery, helping identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary expenditure while protecting service quality.
• Enhanced stakeholder relationships. Strong communication and relationship-management skills improved collaboration between Facilities, internal departments, suppliers and external stakeholders.
• Stronger team performance. Clear leadership and ongoing support helped the Facilities team take greater ownership, strengthen accountability and build a culture of continuous improvement.
• Greater sustainability focus. The successful candidate championed environmental and corporate responsibility initiatives, helping align EMEA Facilities operations with Deckers' wider sustainability objectives.
• Better regional consistency. A coordinated approach to Facilities and health and safety management created greater consistency across different EMEA locations while still recognising local operational requirements.

Why This Placement Worked

The placement gave Deckers a regional leader capable of combining Facilities Management, health and safety, stakeholder engagement, team leadership and sustainability across an international portfolio. Rather than treating the health and safety element as an add-on to a facilities search, or the reverse, the brief was assessed as a single integrated role from the start.

The appointment reflects Maxwell Stephens' ability to recruit senior Facilities professionals for complex regional roles where operational performance must be balanced with compliance, commercial efficiency and corporate responsibility. If you are looking for an experienced regional Facilities or Health & Safety leader to oversee an international portfolio, get in touch with our team.