Facilities Manager - Oxford

Facilities Manager jobs

Facilities managers are charged with ensuring all logistics premises, vehicles and personnel are working efficiently, safely and within the regulations appropriate to the sector. The job description for facilities managers and directors is often quite wide, since busy depots, warehouses and distribution centres have so many simultaneous and interacting elements that need to be overseen in concert.

A new facilities manager will need to get up to speed very quickly with the contracts and regulations that determine his or her facility’s operation. A typical day might be split into many strands, including dealing with personnel and contract management, security, fire safety, vehicle safety, insurance and other appropriate tasks.

The facilities manager might also have a more direct role in the financial management of the facility, using the departments under his or her direct control to achieve savings and efficiencies without compromising safety, legal requirements or staff morale.

The skills required

Experience of the specific heath and safety requirements of the sector in which the facility operates will be a useful skill, along with an ability to manage personnel and communicate changes and routines with equal assertiveness.

A keen ability to keep track of budgets will also be required, as much of what the facilities manager does will be incurring expenses rather than increasing revenues.

A methodical personality, able to keep track of potentially dozens of distinct areas of facilities management, will be a key attribute in such a diverse role. Understanding and good working use of common IT solutions such as spreadsheeting, word processing and presentation software will help with the task.

Facilities Manager Jobs in Oxford

The county town of Oxford and famous throughout the world for its university, Oxford is actually a thriving, self-contained city with a diversity of industries not directly related to its county status or education sector. It has been a successful city for so long that its architecture spans the millennia, and since much of the most important buildings were churches, it got the name “city of dreaming spires”.

Without doubt the university and its related activities (bars, cafes, hotels, shops, theatres etc.) is the key single employer of the city, and the university heritage also plays into its thriving tourism industry. All this contributes to the thriving nature of the city, which is busy all the year round.

But a major industry just to the south east of the city centre is car manufacturing, at the Cowley BMW plant, home of the new Mini. The plant used to be the Morris Motors plant during the First World War, and this attracted a railway and other communications to serve it. During World War Two the plant made training planes for the RAF. After the war mergers and acquisitions changed the company to BMC, then British Leyland, Austin Rover, the Rover Group and finally BMW (but locals still call the factory Morris’s).

With a thriving, ever changing population and various high-tech and heavy industries, Oxford often throws up Facilities Manager positions to help oil the wheels of commerce. It’s certainly an exciting place to live and work.

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Find your facilities manager at Cast UK

If you’re on the lookout for a facilities manager, Cast UK should be the only people you need to ask. We’re used to dealing with the best managers and executives in a huge range of roles, and our consultants understand the sectors they are recruiting in. Please give us a call on 0333 121 3345 so we can find your ideal candidates.

Do you have experience as a facilities manager? Are you looking for new challenges or to take a step up the career ladder? Why not register with Cast UK? That way we can help you find your next career move.

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