The Challenge
A leading UK landlord was hiring a senior retail property management and operations leader for a complex Central London portfolio.
The role was not a traditional “head of PM” position. It required someone who could:
- Lead an experienced property management team
- Set operational standards across a high-profile retail portfolio
- Deliver customer-centric, value-adding landlord services
- Operate confidently with senior internal stakeholders
The client initially attempted to recruit directly. This produced candidates with solid day-to-day property management experience, but limited evidence of:
- Strategic operational leadership
- Innovation in service delivery
- Ability to lead peers and high-performing teams
A contingent recruitment approach followed, but delivered similar profiles — operationally competent, but misaligned with the seniority and influence required.
At that point, the risk wasn’t time-to-hire. It was making the wrong hire.
The Solution
Constable Green was engaged to reset the search and recalibrate the brief around what the role actually needed.
Rather than filtering for “retail PM” backgrounds alone, the search focused on:
- Senior operations and property management leadership within retail-led portfolios
- Experience improving service delivery, governance, and operational performance
- Ability to influence across functions and partner effectively with internal teams
- Commercial and customer-focused decision-making
We advised against advertising and database-heavy approaches, instead running a targeted headhunt across:
- Client-side retail property management teams
- Senior operators within high-quality managing agents
- Leaders with experience running complex retail operations at scale
Candidate assessment went beyond CVs, testing how individuals:
- Thought about operational strategy
- Led capable teams
- Approached innovation in landlord services
- Prepared for and understood the specific portfolio
Clear, candid feedback was shared throughout — including why some technically strong candidates did not progress.
The Result
The revised approach produced a material uplift in candidate quality.
The client progressed candidates who demonstrated:
- True operational leadership, not just functional competence
- A customer-first mindset suited to high-profile retail environments
- The ability to raise standards and influence change across the organisation
Most importantly, the client regained confidence and clarity in the process — moving from volume-led hiring to a deliberate, senior appointment.
