Background
Recruiting for The Charterhouse was an unusual prospect because of the context of this historic organisation. Founded in 1611 with buildings dating back to 1348, The Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London. It aims to provide a home, a community and lifelong care for older people in need, while sharing its rich heritage with the wider community.
The Charterhouse approached Maxwell Stephens exclusively to support the recruitment of a Facilities Manager to join its team.
The Challenge
Going into the project, we were mindful of how extraordinary both the role and the organisation would be. Working at The Charterhouse means becoming part of a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone else. First and foremost it is a home: the residents of the almshouse are known as 'Brothers', a purely traditional term acknowledging The Charterhouse's monastic past. Alongside them there is an on-site care home, the Infirmary; staff housing; private residents; commercial business tenants; and a chapel which is open to all.
The Charterhouse also encourages interaction with the wider community. Tours of the buildings, gardens, museum and chapel are open to members of the public, and the historic rooms and gardens are available for event hire: weddings, social and business gatherings, concerts, lectures and even film productions.
It was clear to us that whoever filled this role would need to become an integral part of that community, with a genuine passion for the aims of The Charterhouse and for maintaining the heritage and historical integrity of the organisation. That brought three specific challenges which ran through the whole recruitment process:
- Experience. There are very few organisations, if any, like The Charterhouse, which made directly applicable experience a rarity.
- Specific requirements. Given the variety within the role and the organisation, some very specific skills and experience were needed, including working with CAFM systems and GENT fire systems.
- Personality. This was among the most important considerations of the entire project. We needed someone who would thrive in this environment and quickly become a member of The Charterhouse community.
Heritage sites of this kind compound the difficulty. A facilities manager on a listed estate has to balance statutory compliance and modern building services against fabric that cannot simply be altered, and where the site is also a home and a care setting, the safety of vulnerable residents sits alongside public access and events. Few candidates have worked across all of that at once.
Our Approach
As with many of our recruitment projects, this assignment required a bespoke strategy. Through a comprehensive assessment of the requirements of the role and of The Charterhouse as an organisation, we made personality fit a key priority of the executive search. We used our combined decades of headhunting experience to assess candidates well beyond their CVs, which meant extensive direct communication with a large number of potentially suitable people and in-depth screening interviews with over 30 applicable candidates.
Alongside personality fit, it was imperative that candidates had the specific experience the position demanded:
- Experience of, and appreciation for, working with historic listed buildings within heritage sites
- Experience of working with vulnerable people, with first aid training and extensive risk assessment experience
- An impeccable health and safety track record, with appropriate qualifications
The Outcome
Our tailored strategy resulted in 8 candidates being presented to The Charterhouse, of whom 5 were invited to face-to-face first-stage interviews. Of those, 3 went on to second-stage interviews and 1 to a final interview, resulting in a successful appointment.
Why This Placement Worked
When an organisation has no real peer, recruiting on like-for-like experience does not work, because nobody has done this exact job before. The search instead separated what genuinely had to be evidenced (heritage buildings, working safely with vulnerable people, health and safety, the specific systems) from what had to be assessed in person (temperament, motivation and the ability to belong to a close community), and spent the time on the second where a CV could not help.
If you are recruiting a facilities manager for a heritage site, an almshouse or care setting, or any organisation where fit with the community matters as much as technical skill, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and find the right person. Get in touch with our team.