Back to Basics

Recently I wrote about the current property downturn and how it was affecting recruitment in our sector. Well I'm in the UK at the moment and due to the financial crisis and the abatement of inter bank lending, the property market has slowed considerably.

I think property recruiters will now find out what the real world is like! I was talking to a recruiter from a competitor of ours and he said that their property team were now realising they have had it too easy over the last few years. A candidate driven market has now returned to a client driven market in a very very short space of time. I honestly believe that this is just what property and construction recruitment needs. Recruiters can now return to the basic tasks of sourcing positions and presening clients with a selection of relevant candidates.

Rather than clammering over the same candidates who, due to being touted by various recruiters and companies, get delusions of grandeur and think they are worth way way more than what they are. There needs to be a return to stability, its all been too mad and too many clients have been frustrated by the process. The recruitment industry has been tarnished by the madness!

We can now focus on the best candidates for our clients and get back to some basic recruiting.

Part 2: Recruiting Quantity Surveyors when there aren’t any!!

By flexibility in the search for Quantity Surveyors, I mean do not limit your search to a QS who is 25-35 with excellent all round skills and local experience. This demographic makes up 15% of the total QSs worldwide and everyone wants them. They are in high demand and their salaries are escalating rapidly!

Good alternative options lie with:
a. Estimators looking for a career change and a chance to learn cost planning rather than lump sum tendering – however slightly tricky as Estimators are very well paid these days.
b. Contract Administrators who want to move away from site and persue a career path within an office environment and put a suit on! They often have excellent first hand experience on how a building goes together.
c. Construction Planners with abilities in estimation – often forms part of their role. However again the dollar factor can get in the way here as they are very well paid all over the world.
d. Building Surveyors looking for a change and a pay rise. BSs often retain estimating skills when pricing up scopes of work and have excellent technical knowledge too.
e. Carpenters who have priced work – often this skill group have excellent first principle estimating skills that can be added to. Perhaps someone who wants a steadier income.
f. Engineers who have specialised in the costing side of their specialism – often you will find the building services crowd have good first principle costing abilities. In a shrinking pool of available candidates we need to look in other pools. I think one of the biggest challenges faced by growing QS businesses these days is the sourcing of relevant staff. And not only finding them – but then keeping them!! But that’s another topic all in itself.

Happy hunting.

Recruiting Quantity Surveyors when there aren’t any!!

Its not that they’re aren’t any QSs left its just that they are very hard to find when you have a vacancy. This is mainly due to a number of reasons that we are all well aware of by now including a major slow down in the market ten years ago and a drastic slowing of university entrants and graduates on relevant courses.

Most of us will also be well aware of some alarming statistics that are bantered around including one from the RICS which is either that 47% of chartered QSs are 50 and over or 50% are 47 and over. Either way it doesn’t bode well for the future – especially as 25% of the QSs are student members who unfortunately don’t seem to arrive at the work place that well equipped with basic measurement skills these days!

Anyway, enough winging, what’s the answer?. The answer is two fold, and we will look at the first answer today - "Look under every stone".

By looking under every stone I mean use every means open to you to source suitable candidates.
These include:
a. Advertising regularly on the internet with on-line job boards and institutional websites
b. Advertising in the press and relevant journals with stand out adverts that express your point of difference and the career opportunity (avoid pictures of buildings and men wearing hard hats or shaking hands!!)
c. Advertising overseas – an excellent source of strong relevant candidates – eg the UK – the poms are keen on Australia. Also Dubai – its getting hard to live there and lots of QSs are getting fed up and want to come home. Interviews can be held over the phone or cost effective video links through Skype. Sponsorship these days through a temporary 457 visa is a relatively easy process that employers need to embrace. Also, candidates under the age of 31 can arrive on a 417 visa and start work immediately – this will give employers a 6 month window to apply for their sponsorship if both parties want to stay together!
d. Registering with specific focussed recruitment agencies who know exactly what you want.
e. Paying a finders fee to existing staff for introducing candidates – rife in the Middle East and the UK.
f. Attending offshore Career Expos – beware as some are way better than others.

What Type of Recruiter are You?

I found this great article on passive and assertive recruiters. What type of recruiter are you?

Passive recruiter (to candidate): "What time can you make it for an interview?"
Assertive recruiter: "I can meet with you at 8.00am or 12.30pm tomorrow - which suits you best?"

Client: "I am going to register this vacancy with two other agencies so I can get the best market coverage for good candidates."
Passive recruiter: "I would appreciate you giving me an opportunity to work on this role exclusively."
Assertive recruiter: "I understand why you might think that would be a good idea but let me explain to you why multi-listing a job has a greater chance of delivering a lesser calibre candidate and the process taking longer than you expect."

Client: "I don't want to interview the candidate. Please forward over some other resumes."
Passive recruiter: "okay"
Assertive recruiter: "There's no point in sending over other candidates until I understand why and where you believe this candidate is lacking. Please let me know specifically which of the candidate's technical skills, behavioural competencies or other areas you believe is not matched to your vacancy."

Client (for temp vacancy): "Send over the candidate's resume and I will come back to you with a decision about an interview."
Passive recruiter (to client): "okay"
Assertive recruiter: "I am very concerned that if I do that, this candidate will take another temp role in the interim. To prevent that happening, I am prepared to extend our normal guarantee from one day to 5 days if you accept my recommendation now. This offer demonstrates how confident I am that the candidate will be an excellent match for your temp job."

Client: "and don't send me any candidates with funny names, my customers get annoyed with people who can't speak proper English."
Passive recruiter: "er, okay"
Assertive recruiter: "you can be assured that I will only send you candidates who have the required level of verbal communication skill, regardless of their name.

An assertive recruiter knows both their candidate and client target market so well that they know when to respectfully challenge a client or candidate when an ill-considered or short-sighted decision, that is not in their best long term interest, is about to be made.
A passive recruiter doesn't challenge because they are afraid of having a robust conversation, hurting other people's feelings, or as coming across as ‘pushy'.

An assertive recruiter doesn't hear ‘no' as final, they hear ‘no' as ‘not yet' - an indication they need to make a different approach to be successful in gaining a ‘yes'.
A passive recruiter hears ‘no' as final, and they regard themselves as a failure.

An assertive recruiter makes things happen.
A passive recruiter watches things happen.

Part 2: Why must QS always be spelled out?

Over the weekend, I got talking to a mate in a pub who is employed in the advertising industry. I asked how one should market a company and what was real recognition.

In reply, he suggested: “When I mention a particular product line, tell me the company that comes to mind.” So he started: “soft drinks” – and I replied “Coke”; then “supermarkets” – I answered “Tesco”; then “cigarettes” – and I said “Marlboro”. So then I said: “Well, that’s fine – but that’s because everyone uses the products and it’s in your face the whole time.” He said that was exactly correct: top-of-mind awareness.

There are construction projects on every street corner throughout the year, so how can it be that the public know nothing about them or who is involved in them? The reason is that they themselves are not involved or engaged.

Somehow the industry has to engage the public on a personal level and get them talking about construction projects and construction companies. It might be the case that we will have to resort to flashing lights and feel-good posters on every tower crane, site compound or piece of safety clothing, but the industry must do something about its level of public awareness.

Our industry has a long way to go to involve members of the public and get that knowledge out there on what we do. I am looking forward to the day when I can answer the question “What is it that you do?” with a simple “QS” and the response will be “Okay, wow – what’s happening with such-and-such a project?”

Confused about climate change and what it means for your business?

Climate change is big news. A national carbon emissions trading scheme is coming, as soon as next financial year. It will impact your business and every other business you deal with. There’s talk of another world energy crisis. Your staff, too, may well be asking what the firm’s doing about carbon emissions and corporate sustainability. And perhaps your clients are starting to ask too. They talk of “greening their supply chain” and you suspect they might mean you.

Australia’s biggest companies today have teams of environmental managers and consultants planning for a carbon-constrained economy. But that may not be the right approach for your business. You might like the sound of going carbon neutral but would like someone to explain the concept, benefits and costs better.

Actually, you wonder what all of this emerging issue means for your business. Who can you turn to for advice? Who can you trust? What will it cost?

Gavin Gilchrist: Former journalist, government advisor and now business director delivering climate change solutions. Gavin Gilchrist is a regular commentator in the media on climate change and has spent the past 12 years of his professional life primarily focussed on climate change solutions for business.

Gavin is a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee of the NSW Climate Change Fund and is on the panel of experts of the national Energy Efficiency sub-group in Canberra.

Gavin is the Managing Director of Big Switch Projects, formed in 2000 to help business deliver reduced energy use and carbon footprints through energy efficiency upgrades.

http://www.bigswitch.com.au/

Why must QS always be spelled out?

Besides the credit crunch, the talk on everyone’s lips is about sustainability and implementing responsible construction practices for the benefit of future generations. But how can this be achieved if there is nobody there to do it?

Over the past few months, I have been working in a team that is continually expanding and has gone from strength to strength in its range of services – and workload.

I have noticed a similar trend in other industries, such as finance and the media, but not as much as in the building sector, where skilled cost managers are increasingly hard to find.
It seems to me that there has been an incredible demand for construction personnel, while the response in terms of growing and training the workforce has been slow.

So how do we go about attracting individuals to our industry? It could be viewed as a company’s responsibility to target other industries in the hope of attracting professionals that can be trained and moulded into construction professionals. But how do we make the industry attractive to these potential recruits – and to new graduates?

While the industry does have many attractions, these are just not being conveyed to the right individuals or being publicised strongly enough in general. Why is it that when somebody asks you what you do for a living, you have to explain yourself in detail, explicating cost management from first principles? You might as well have replied that you are an ocularist! Quantity surveying is not a commonly recognised profession.

I believe that the reason individuals are not being attracted to our industry is that the general public are not generally aware of what we do or how we do it.

Stay tuned as I continue this discussion.

The Interview - How to Identify High Performing Candidates, Part 3

We are now at the conclusion of our Interview Tips on "How to Identify High Performing Candidates".

Following the basic steps that we have discussed will help you eliminate some of the risks of making wrong hiring decisions. It is not an exact science and you will never really know what a person is like until they start, but that’s why you have a probationary period.

7. If a candidate seems purely focused on the salary then make sure they are not just using the process to get a pay rise from their current employer. This can usually be spotted by them saying that the reason they are looking for a new job is because they feel they are currently underpaid! Ask them if they would stay if their current employer gave them a pay rise and pay attention to how they answer.

8. Watch out for the ‘victims’. This is where a personality conflict is the reason for leaving almost all of their jobs and their genuine accomplishments are very thin on the ground.

9. Don’t base your decision totally on technical abilities. Yes, they have to be able to perform in the role but any technical deficiencies can usually be trained and learned. However, a good work ethic and emotional maturity cannot! You need ‘can do’ people, not people who constantly say, “that’s not in my job description”!

10. Dress smart for the interview. If you are interviewing the perfect candidate you don’t want them to be put off by your appearance and then take another position elsewhere.