Facilities Manager Interview Questions

Hiring a facilities manager is not something most human resources teams are familiar with. Why? The scope of responsibility can drastically vary between organizations and industries. This lack of consistency makes it difficult to have a standard hiring process.

So, what is a facilities manager? As described by the International Facility Management Association, a facilities manager manages an organization’s most valuable assets, such as property, buildings, equipment and other important elements of operation. These facilities can range from an event venue to a convention center or large distribution center. All of these are technically facilities, but they would require very different skills to manage each of them.

To find out if your candidate has what it takes, use our best facilities manager interview questions!

What Should You Ask a Facilities Manager Candidate?

What is your experience managing facilities or similar spaces?

This question may seem like a given, but your new facilities manager needs to have experience in managing several moving parts. This is a definite job requirement, not just a preference. Your candidate either needs to have gained this experience by being in charge of a facility in the past, or being an assistant manager of one. All in all, your facilities manager is an essential person in your company, and they need to be experienced enough to succeed in the position.

If I told you that we were to have an event for vendors, or customers, here in a few days time. What would your next steps be?

Facilities can be anything from a wedding venue to a large-scale brewery. Locations like this often have events, or will have investors, coming through to inspect and see what is going on. Your candidate should have a set plan of what their next steps would be to welcoming anyone into the facility and they should know immediately how to proceed.

How often did you inspect the facility at your previous job?

Thorough inspections of facilities are what keep them running at optimum capacity. Usually these inspections are either run by the facilities manager or a third party expert. Your ideal candidate should have experience either running the inspections or managing the third party coming in to help. A knowledge of necessary standards and compliance is necessary.

Tell me about a time you had a difficult member of your team. How did you handle it?

Facilities managers will have teams of people under them to help run the facility. You will not always have cooperative members of your team and your new facilities manager needs to be aware of this. In this situation, your ideal candidate is a good enough leader to work with this person and know that they won’t always get along.

Recall a time you spotted a potential hazard on the premises. What measures did you take to correct it?

Not everything is perfect at all times in a facility, this is the way of the world. Your ideal facilities manager will be able to identify this, and know the next steps to correct it. The key to the answer to this question is how they identify potential hazards. A keen-eyed facilities manager is one that you want on your team.

These are only a few of the questions you can ask your facilities manager candidates. If you have success with these questions, or need help with recruiting your next facilities manager, contact our recruiting staff!

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