Facilities Appointments for The City of London Corporation

Background

The City of London Corporation owns a large investment property portfolio of commercially let, multi-tenanted buildings in the City and West End. Its site-based facilities management team looks after around 80 of them. It asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit into the team, and our work covered more than one appointment, including a Building Manager and a more senior role leading a complex of buildings.

The Challenge

Building Managers represent the Corporation on site. They work from a satellite property office and report to an Assistant Property Facilities Manager. Their job is to keep buildings clean, secure and in good repair, manage staff and contractors and respond to tenants' queries, issues and complaints. Tenants pay commercial rents and service charges, and expect a high standard of service.

The more senior complex building role adds line management of building managers, facilities supervisors and assistants, as well as responsibility for a large complex serving business, retail and residential tenants. The post holder is the Responsible Person for health and safety and other statutory compliance, some of which carries criminal liability. It involves managing the building management systems, security, permits to work, waste and utilities, and controlling non-recoverable costs, such as those associated with vacant space.

The roles call for autonomy and decisiveness, since many buildings operate away from a central office. Candidates needed commercial building management experience, a record in tenant liaison, up-to-date knowledge of statutory regulations, IOSH or an equivalent, good report writing and a willingness to join a call-out rota and attend out of hours.

Because the buildings include business, retail and residential tenants, the work involves balancing conflicting priorities, avoiding the escalation of complaints and communicating accurately and quickly. The client also asked for evidence of influencing and diplomacy, since contractors, surveyors and tenants all have different priorities.

Our Approach

• We took the brief from the property facilities team, including how the two levels of post differ.
• We searched for building managers and assistant property managers from commercial, mixed-use and multi-tenanted portfolios.
• We screened for compliance ownership, tenant handling, contractor control and the resilience to work with a call-out rota.
• We shortlisted with full CVs and our notes, and managed each offer with the client.

The Outcome

Maxwell Stephens made the appointment.

If you manage tenanted property and need on-site leadership, talk to Maxwell Stephens about how we would approach the search.