Head of Facilities Management and Estates for Unite Students

Background

Unite Students, a leading provider of student accommodation in the UK, approached Maxwell Stephens to recruit a pivotal role within its organisation: the Head of Facilities Management and Estates. The role is central to maintaining and enhancing the quality of the estate, ensuring a safe and secure environment for students and staff, and delivering high standards across estates, engineering, planning and facilities.

The Head of Facilities Management and Estates was required to provide strategic leadership and effective management across all facilities and central estates functions. The responsibilities were extensive, covering maintenance, statutory compliance, cleanliness, safety, and the optimisation of building infrastructure and grounds. The role also called for involvement in project identification and delivery, a student-centric approach throughout, and consistently high operational standards.

The Challenge

The search was demanding because the role needed an unusual blend of strategic vision, operational expertise and a strong service ethos. The ideal candidate had to demonstrate:

• An innovative approach to facilities management
• Extensive experience of managing large-scale estates
• Strong leadership skills in a fast-moving environment
• The ability to work within a complex matrix organisation
• Excellent planning, organisational and communication skills

Student accommodation raises the stakes on all of these. Residents live on site, so safety and compliance are round-the-clock obligations rather than office-hours ones; the estate is judged by young people and their families on cleanliness and presentation as much as on engineering; and a facilities leader in this sector has to hold operational detail and long-term estate strategy in view at the same time. Candidates who have led estates in other sectors do not always appreciate how different that is.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens adopted a comprehensive approach to finding the right candidate for Unite Students:

• Deep understanding. We began by thoroughly understanding Unite Students' strategic goals, the specific requirements of the role and the particular challenges it presented.
• Targeted search. Drawing on our network and search techniques, we identified candidates with the requisite experience in facilities and estates management, particularly those with a background in student accommodation or similar environments.
• Rigorous screening. Candidates went through a rigorous screening process to assess their strategic thinking, operational expertise and cultural fit with Unite Students.
• Client collaboration. Regular communication with Unite Students kept the search aligned throughout. We provided detailed candidate profiles, facilitated interviews and gathered feedback to refine the search as it progressed.

The Outcome

After an extensive search and evaluation process, we placed a candidate who met and exceeded the role's demanding criteria. The new Head of Facilities Management and Estates brought substantial experience, innovative thinking and a clear commitment to the quality of the student experience.

Why This Placement Worked

Senior estates appointments fail most often when the brief is written as a list of technical competencies and the service dimension is left implicit. Here the service ethos was treated as a core requirement from the start, the search prioritised candidates who had worked in student accommodation or comparable settings, and the client stayed close to the process, so that feedback could sharpen the shortlist rather than arrive after the event.

For senior estates, property and Facilities Management appointments, see our specialist Estates Management recruitment expertise, or get in touch with our team to discuss a similar brief.