Facilities Appointments for Queen Mary University of London

Background

Queen Mary University of London is a leading university with its main campus in East London. Over time it worked with Maxwell Stephens on 4 appointments across 3 roles, and this case study covers one of them, a Facilities Manager in the Estates and Facilities directorate. The post reports to the Operations Manager and works across all of the university's sites.

The Challenge

The Facilities Manager is accountable for a broad operational portfolio: residential and non-residential cleaning, waste management, portering, postal services and grounds. That means leading large teams, managing supplier contracts and keeping the service customer focused for students, staff and visitors.

The post also carries more strategic work. It includes service level descriptions, performance reporting to stakeholders, planning goods movement from receipt on campus to point of use, and the reuse and segregation of waste to reduce cost. Statutory obligations, health and safety accountability and sector data returns sit on top, as do budget forecasting and the procurement and review of supplier contracts. Flexibility was essential, because the postholder moves between residential and academic buildings and campuses at short notice and covers peak academic and residential periods.

The university wanted a recognised facilities management qualification or equivalent experience, with chartered status and a health and safety qualification as advantages. It also wanted proven change management in a large services operation and confident use of CAFM and financial systems.

Our Approach

• We took a full briefing on how the role fitted within the management team, which services it covered, and the balance between hands-on operations and strategic service development.
• We targeted managers with large, mixed soft services experience, particularly in universities, residential settings and other multi-site estates, rather than relying on general facilities manager applications.
• We screened for evidence on cleaning and waste performance, contract procurement, budget ownership, change programmes, stakeholder influence and CAFM use, and checked each person's right to work and appetite for flexible patterns.
• We submitted a shortlist with full CVs and our own interview notes, then supported the university through interview, offer negotiation and acceptance.

The Outcome

Maxwell Stephens made the appointment.

If you are recruiting a facilities manager to lead soft services across a large or multi-site estate, talk to Maxwell Stephens about how we would run the search.