Deputy Facilities Manager

As a UK operations department, the Facilities Department's role is to secure, maintain and support our colleagues to enable them to fulfil their roles in business and/or client services in the Manchester office environment.
We do this by:

• Carrying out our individual roles within the department to the best of our ability.


• Being observant and communicating consistently with our colleagues and our team.


• Looking to innovate, improve or create efficiencies.


• Investing in technology or resources to support the office and team.

Services include Maintenance, Catering, Hospitality, Reception, Facilities, Security, Cleaning, Post, Courier & Logistics, Reprographics and Space Planning.
The Deputy FM is a primary point of contact for the occupants of the Global Centre, Manchester office and the Dublin office, principally providing support to the Facilities Manager. A key part of this role will be to be innovative, adaptable, decisive, provide leadership and create efficiencies at all times communicating well and keeping to the standard expected.

The role carries a high degree of autonomy and requires a self-motivated individual who understands business needs within a fast-paced, professional services environment. This includes being adaptable and identifying efficiencies, communicating well and developing and maintaining the profile of the FM department.

Dynamic, flexible and proactive, this role offers responsibilities that are wide-ranging and provide a real opportunity to add value to the business. You must be dedicated, flexible and resilient, and thrive on opportunities to take on new challenges.

The Deputy Facilities Manager will be required to support the Facilities Manager with the following activities that facilitate the successful running of the Offices

Contractor Management, including:

o Operational/day-to-day decision-making responsibility and main point of communication, between Freshfields and the supplier

o Carrying out monthly audits and monitoring of service provision to the required standard

o Assessment of Management Information supplied, along with first line audit of invoices against contract, specification and budgeted costs (fixed and variable)

o Oversight and understanding of contracted budget, inclusive of creation of annual PO's (fixed costs) / as required PO's (variable costs) and receipting

o Indirect people management and, whilst being mindful of building a one team collaborative department

o Carrying out monthly audits and monitoring of service provision to the required standard

o Indirect people management and, whilst being mindful of building a one team collaborative department

o Support and attendance at monthly meetings and Quarterly Business Reviews

o Support and oversight of Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators

Premises/Facilities, including:

o Support with Health and Safety and ISO compliance requirements


• Including fire drills/emergency evacuations, DSE requirements, inspections and risk assessments


o Support with Business Continuity Planning

o Environmental data collections and ISO compliance requirements


• Including WEEE waste, supplier and documentation compliance


o Support planning and implementation of facilities and function projects - including internal and external events or internal furniture reconfigurations

o Key liaison and decision maker in line with management duties within the firm

Historically, the Freshfields Global Centre, Manchester office has created and embraced change throughout its existence within the Freshfields network. On a smaller scale the newly set up Dublin office is also expected to embrace innovation.