FM Consultants for Gardiner & Theobald

Background

Gardiner & Theobald is one of the UK's leading independent construction and property consultancies, providing project management, cost management and advisory services across a wide range of sectors. With a heritage spanning more than 180 years, the organisation has built a strong reputation for high-quality strategic advice on complex property, construction and asset-related projects.

As its facilities management consultancy offering continued to grow, Gardiner & Theobald engaged Maxwell Stephens to recruit experienced FM Consultants capable of supporting clients with strategic reviews, procurement activity, lifecycle costing, performance improvement and operational transformation.

The Challenge

FM consultancy roles sit in a narrow part of the market. Candidates who understand how facilities services are actually delivered tend to come from operational backgrounds with little experience of advising; those with consultancy polish often lack the delivery experience that gives their advice weight with a client's own FM team. Gardiner & Theobald needed people who could do both: combine practical FM delivery experience with the ability to advise clients strategically and commercially, and do so to the standard the firm's name carries.

Our Approach

Understanding the Requirement

Maxwell Stephens worked closely with Gardiner & Theobald to build a detailed understanding of the consultancy roles, client expectations and technical competencies required. It was clear from the outset that the successful candidates would need to be credible on both sides of the advisory relationship.

Specialist Search

Drawing on our established facilities management network, we ran a targeted search for candidates with experience across:

• Facilities management consultancy
• Corporate facilities management
• Hard and soft FM services
• FM procurement and contracting
• PFI and PPP environments
• Lifecycle costing
• Asset management
• Performance improvement
• Strategic FM reviews
• Risk and compliance management

The search concentrated on candidates with a blend of consultancy experience and senior operational FM backgrounds, so that they could understand client challenges from both an advisory and a delivery perspective.

Candidate Assessment

Candidates were assessed against technical, commercial and behavioural competencies: facilities management expertise; consultancy and advisory capability; procurement and contract management experience; lifecycle costing and asset planning knowledge; project management and delivery discipline; stakeholder engagement and communication; commercial awareness and financial understanding; and risk management and quality assurance capability.

Throughout, the process focused on identifying candidates able to deliver immediate value within a consultancy setting while upholding Gardiner & Theobald's standards for quality, professionalism and client service.

The Outcome

Maxwell Stephens placed two highly experienced Facilities Management Consultants who closely matched the technical, commercial and cultural requirements of the organisation.

• The first candidate brought extensive experience managing FM services for major corporate clients, with a strong background in complex PFI and PPP environments. Their expertise in FM procurement, contract strategy and senior stakeholder engagement equipped them to provide strategic advice across high-value client commissions.
• The second candidate brought deep expertise in lifecycle costing, performance improvement and hard and soft FM service optimisation. Their understanding of asset performance, service delivery models and market trends equipped them to help clients identify efficiencies and improve FM outcomes.

Together, the appointments gave the team additional depth in FM procurement and tendering, lifecycle costing and asset planning, and performance improvement work.

Why This Placement Worked

The two appointments complement each other. One brought the procurement, contracting and PFI/PPP depth that large-client commissions demand; the other brought the lifecycle costing and performance improvement skills that turn a strategic review into actions a client can implement. Recruiting for the shape of the team, rather than for two interchangeable CVs, is what made the combination work.

Maxwell Stephens supports consultancies, managing agents, corporate occupiers and service providers with specialist recruitment across facilities management, property and workplace advisory roles. If you are building or expanding an FM consultancy team, get in touch with our team.