Keeping Workplace Operations Running Smoothly for Stonehage Fleming

Overview

Stonehage Fleming approached Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities and Maintenance Assistant for their London office. The requirement was for someone able to support the smooth running of the office through a combination of facilities management, hospitality, post room and general administrative duties — a genuinely hybrid role drawing on hard and soft services in equal measure.

Roles of this kind are more difficult to fill than the job title suggests. The post sits at assistant level, but the breadth is closer to that of a generalist: one person covering reactive maintenance, vendor coordination, health and safety support and front-of-house standards, often within the same day. Candidates who can do all of it well, and who want to, represent a far smaller pool than the level of the role implies.

The Brief

Stonehage Fleming were clear about the shape of the person they needed. The successful candidate would support day-to-day operations across the London office while contributing to compliance, health and safety, and budget management. Just as importantly, they would be visible — engaging with internal teams and external vendors daily, and setting the tone for how the workplace felt to everyone using it.

That combination of practical technical capability and a genuine service mindset defined the search from the outset.

The Challenge

Three factors made this appointment harder than a standard assistant-level facilities hire:

• A genuine hard and soft FM blend. The role required practical experience across minor repairs, office moves and vendor liaison — not depth on one side with passing familiarity with the other. Most candidates at this level have specialised, and CVs rarely make the distinction clear without close scrutiny.
• Substantive health and safety knowledge. The client needed someone who understood health and safety policy and the underlying legislative requirements, rather than someone who had simply completed an induction. At assistant level, that requirement narrows the field considerably.
• Stakeholder-facing credibility. With hospitality and post room responsibilities sitting alongside the facilities remit, the appointment had to be someone comfortable engaging across the business and with external suppliers, and confident doing so in a professional office environment.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens drew on its established network within the facilities management sector to identify candidates with the right mix of technical and interpersonal skills, rather than relying on advertising response. In practice, that meant:

• A targeted search against defined criteria. We focused on candidates with at least two years of combined hard and soft FM experience who held NEBOSH or IOSH qualifications. At this level, those certifications signal a candidate who has treated health and safety as a discipline rather than a formality.
• Assessment beyond the CV. We tested organisational capability, communication and a proactive approach to facilities management directly. These are the attributes that determine whether someone succeeds in a hybrid role, and the ones a CV is least able to evidence.
• End-to-end process management. We ran the search from shortlisting and interviewing through to offer negotiation and onboarding support, keeping the client's time commitment proportionate to the level of the appointment.

The Outcome

We placed a Facilities and Maintenance Assistant who exceeded the client's expectations. The successful candidate brought:

• Strong practical experience managing office facilities, minor repairs and vendor relationships.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and other key office systems.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail, supporting smooth day-to-day operations.
• A proactive, can-do attitude and a clear commitment to high standards of customer service.

Why This Placement Worked

Hybrid facilities roles tend to fail at one of two points: they are recruited as administrative appointments with facilities duties attached, or as maintenance appointments with a service expectation bolted on afterwards. Neither framing survives contact with the job.

This search treated both halves as equally weighted from the beginning, and assessed against both. The result was an appointment that fitted the role as it actually operates, not as it reads on paper.

If you are recruiting a similar position — a single appointment spanning hard services, soft services and workplace standards — Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief realistically and reach the candidates who genuinely cover it. Get in touch with our team.