First Rate Exchange Services Facilities Manager Recruitment

Client Overview

First Rate Exchange Services is one of the UK's leading foreign exchange providers, delivering travel money and international payment solutions through an extensive network of retail and corporate partners. It operates within a highly regulated financial services environment and relies on safe, compliant and efficiently run workplaces to support its operations.

To strengthen its property and workplace function, First Rate Exchange Services asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Facilities Manager to oversee multiple office locations and lead all aspects of facilities management, compliance and workplace services.

The Challenge

First Rate Exchange Services needed a Facilities Manager who could take ownership of its corporate estate while keeping operations running well, meeting statutory obligations and giving employees and visitors a good workplace experience. The successful candidate would become the organisation's lead facilities professional, managing multiple sites and acting as its designated Health & Safety Competent Person.

Key responsibilities included:

• Managing the day-to-day operation of multiple office locations.
• Acting as the organisation's Health & Safety Competent Person.
• Ensuring compliance with all Health & Safety, fire safety and statutory regulations.
• Managing planned and reactive building maintenance.
• Building strong relationships with landlords, contractors and service providers.
• Leading procurement and contract management.
• Developing and maintaining business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
• Supporting office projects, workplace improvements and space planning.
• Monitoring supplier performance and service delivery.
• Providing expert advice on facilities, property and workplace compliance.

The role therefore called for excellent technical knowledge, commercial awareness and the confidence to operate within a regulated financial services environment.

Being named Competent Person is not a formality. UK health and safety law requires an employer to appoint someone with the training, knowledge and experience to advise on the measures it must take, and the individual carries that responsibility personally. Combined with multi-site cover and a regulated setting, it means a search cannot stop at "experienced facilities manager": it has to establish that a candidate has genuinely held that responsibility and understands what it involves.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens worked closely with First Rate Exchange Services to build a thorough understanding of its operational priorities, workplace culture and longer-term business objectives. Using our specialist facilities management network, we ran a targeted executive search for professionals with experience of corporate office environments and regulated workplaces.

The search focused on candidates with:

• Multi-site facilities management experience.
• Strong Health & Safety and compliance expertise.
• Corporate office and financial services experience.
• Contractor and supplier management capability.
• Business continuity and workplace resilience experience.
• Property and landlord management expertise.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Professional qualifications including IWFM (formerly BIFM), IOSH and NEBOSH.

Each shortlisted candidate went through a comprehensive assessment covering technical capability, leadership, commercial awareness and cultural fit.

The Outcome

Maxwell Stephens appointed an experienced Facilities Manager who combined technical expertise, compliance knowledge and operational leadership. The successful candidate quickly took responsibility for the organisation's workplace operations, helping to keep every office safe, compliant and aligned with business requirements. Since the appointment, the organisation has seen:

• Improved workplace operations. Stronger day-to-day management across multiple office locations, with consistent standards of service delivery across the estate.
• Tighter Health & Safety compliance. As Competent Person, the Facilities Manager strengthened governance around Health & Safety, fire safety and statutory compliance, reducing operational risk and supporting a safe working environment.
• Better supplier performance. Effective contract management and supplier oversight improved service delivery while maintaining value for money across facilities services.
• Business continuity and resilience. Business continuity planning and testing left the organisation better prepared for operational disruption.
• Strategic facilities leadership. By advising senior leadership on workplace operations, property management and compliance, the Facilities Manager became a trusted partner in the organisation's continued growth.

Why This Placement Worked

The appointment strengthened First Rate Exchange Services' facilities function by bringing experienced leadership to workplace operations, compliance, supplier management and business continuity in a single role. The combination of technical expertise with a proactive, customer-focused approach has produced a safer, more efficient and more resilient workplace that supports the organisation's ongoing success.

In financial services, facilities is rarely just about keeping the building running. Compliance, continuity and workplace performance are business-critical, and the facilities lead is expected to speak the language of risk as fluently as the language of maintenance. Assessing for that, rather than for a list of duties, is what made the difference here.

If you are recruiting a Facilities Manager for a regulated, multi-site organisation — particularly one who will carry Competent Person responsibility — Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and find the right person. Get in touch with our team.