Whirlpool Facilities Manager Recruitment, Peterborough

Background

Whirlpool, a global leader in home appliances, appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Facilities Manager to support its operations in Peterborough and across multiple sites.

The role was central to the reliability, safety and efficiency of the estate, with responsibility spanning utilities, building maintenance, health, safety and environmental compliance, project delivery and team leadership.

Whirlpool needed a Facilities Management professional who could pair strong technical knowledge with commercial awareness, sound judgement and the capacity to carry a broad operational workload in a complex corporate environment.

The Challenge

The Facilities Manager was accountable for keeping essential building services and utilities running while holding full compliance with statutory and organisational requirements.

That called for technical FM expertise and the leadership to manage people, contractors, projects and competing operational priorities at the same time.

The brief covered:

• Utilities and building services management. Overseeing the provision of utilities and building services across multiple sites while maintaining reliability and controlling costs.
• Maintenance management. Coordinating planned and reactive maintenance to support the continued performance of buildings and critical assets.
• Health, safety and environmental compliance. Holding rigorous HSE standards and ensuring statutory inspections, testing, waste-management activities and the associated documentation met the relevant requirements.
• Project management. Running Facilities projects from concept to completion, delivered safely, efficiently and within agreed budgets.
• Team leadership. Leading a team of six direct reports and building a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Cost and budget control. Monitoring Facilities expenditure so services and projects delivered value against operational requirements.
• Strategic asset planning. Developing longer-term programmes to protect and preserve Whirlpool's buildings and infrastructure.

Briefs of this shape narrow the field quickly. Plenty of Facilities Managers are strong on compliance and weak on commercial control, or confident with projects but uncomfortable holding a team to standards day to day. Where HSE responsibility sits directly with the FM across several sites, a candidate who treats statutory testing as an administrative task rather than a personal accountability is the wrong appointment however well they interview.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens ran a targeted search for Facilities Management professionals with proven experience across building services, utilities, compliance and multi-site operations, concentrating on people who could carry a technically varied workload while providing leadership and clear stakeholder communication.

We looked for professionals with:

• comprehensive Facilities Management experience
• strong knowledge of building services and maintenance
• experience managing HSE and statutory compliance
• relevant qualifications such as NEBOSH and BIFM
• project-management capability
• strong commercial and budget-management skills
• experience leading operational teams
• the ability to build productive relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers

At this level, NEBOSH and BIFM qualifications are worth more than the certificates themselves: they indicate someone who has treated safety and facilities management as disciplines to be studied rather than picked up on the job, which matters when the postholder is the person signing off on compliance across sites.

Following a detailed search and assessment process, Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced Facilities Manager with Whirlpool.

The Outcome

The appointment strengthened Whirlpool's Facilities Management capability across several areas at once.

• Operational performance. The Facilities Manager took ownership of utilities and maintenance operations across the estate, keeping essential services running efficiently and reliably, with closer oversight also supporting firmer cost control and better use of Facilities resources.
• HSE and compliance. Robust health, safety and environmental standards were implemented and maintained across the sites, including oversight of statutory inspections, testing and waste-management requirements, keeping Facilities operations aligned with legal and organisational expectations.
• Project delivery. Project works were led from conception to completion, managed with close attention to HSE requirements, legal obligations, budgets and operational priorities.
• Team leadership. Managing six direct reports produced clearer accountability and a more collaborative approach to service delivery, with continuous improvement encouraged alongside a steady focus on performance and compliance.
• Cost management. Greater oversight of utilities, maintenance and projects strengthened financial control and kept expenditure aligned with business requirements.
• Long-term asset preservation. A longer-term preservation programme for Whirlpool's buildings gave the estate a structured approach to maintaining assets, supporting operational longevity and contributing to broader sustainability objectives.

Why This Placement Worked

The placement gave Whirlpool a Facilities Manager able to balance technical operations, compliance, project delivery, cost control and people leadership across a complex multi-site environment.

It also illustrates a distinction worth making at the shortlisting stage. A Facilities Manager who only keeps the estate running is doing half the job; the value of the appointment showed in the asset-preservation programme, which is the part of the remit that never appears as an urgent task and is therefore the first thing to be dropped by someone operating reactively.

If you are recruiting a Facilities Manager to strengthen technical operations, compliance and asset performance across your estate, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach candidates who cover the whole of it. Get in touch with our team.