Outdated management practices and comparatively low salaries in traditional surveying firms are accelerating the exodus of talented young recruits from the profession, as recently qualified surveyors leave to find more lucrative posts as property consultants with accountants and lawyers or to work directly for clients. In the second of our three-part special Spotlight on Surveyors, Lawrence Higgins looks at the problems of recruiting and retaining quality staff while Melanie Clarkson talks to headhunter Robert Smith.
Exclusive research by Estates Gazette into the challenges facing the leading firms of surveyors revealed a strong consensus. “The single most difficult dilemma facing surveying firms in the next year is increased competition from accountants and management consultants, which are increasing their control over downstream property services.”
The comment from WS Atkins is remarkable for two reasons. First, it reveals the scale of the threat posed by rival professional property advisers, which now successfully compete with specialist surveying firms for work and for staff. And secondly, the quote comes not from a traditional surveying firm but from a civil engineering group which has built up a chartered surveying division of 250 staff.
In the EG100, published last week, WS Atkins now ranks 21st, an illustration of the in-roads that expansionist newcomers are making on traditional surveying practices. Debbie Russell, a personnel officer at WS Atkins, says: “We made many acquisitions and now have the largest management consultancy in the UK. And this sector is still expanding.”
Having muscled into the market, WS Atkins recognises the threat posed by a second wave of competition from aggressive accountancy and legal firms. If the current trend continues, it is likely that in a couple of years the EG100 will also include the likes of KPMG and Ernst & Young.
KPMG is looking to recruit seven staff to its London property department, bringing its team up to 35. It also has property offices in Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Philip Ingleby, head of property and projects consulting at KPMG, says: “This expansion is driven by growth in the property business.”
Peter Hardy, managing director at recruitment consultants Reuter Simkin, believes that there is still a place for traditional surveying firms. He says: “Accountancy firms have bigger fish to fry. Top surveying firms are strong in terms of their core business.”
But rival professions are beginning to encroach not only on surveying firms’ business, but also on their ability to recruit top-quality staff. Worse still, KPMG and its fellow accountancy firms do not recruit graduates, and as a result many surveying practices face the prospect of bringing their trainees through ACP, then seeing the best poached by rival consultants.
To a newly qualified surveyor, the attractions of a position with a blue-chip company offering a broad range of experience are apparent. Ingleby says: “Surveyors are pigeonholed too early. A newly chartered surveyor ends up spending 25 years in rent review.”
Diana Gott, head of human resources at J Trevor & Webster, believes that many surveyors are not attracted by the more academic work of consultancy. She says: “If you’re a retail agent, you’re not going to join KPMG.” But she admits: “There is no doubt that the employment boundaries are increasing.”
The ability to put graduates through ACP is the trump card held by the surveying practices, which target the top graduates at the university milk rounds. Then, once employed, the recruits should be offered clear career advancement in an interesting job, to dampen the allure of moving elsewhere.
Gott says that JT&W puts trainees on fixed-term contracts that allow the company to retain the best and to lose the underachievers. This practice is reinforced by JT&W’s goal of attaining an Investors in People certification. For this, the company has to prove that all employees have a promotion path, and are set clear goals.
Such innovative management may be a way of countering the perception that promotion in traditional surveying practices is more “filling dead men’s shoes” than merit-based ascent. Ingleby believes that many surveyors are attracted to accountancy firms because promotion is by merit. He says: “Age is no bar here. When you walk into a surveying practice, the oldest tends to be the most senior.”
The promotion chase is made worse by the dominance of the old-school tie in many of the practices. Accountancy practices are not immune to this accusation but they have been quick to respond to clients’ demands for the best skills, not the best connections.
The most obvious way to win the competition for staff is to throw money at the problem. The Reuter Simkin salary survey on p138 in this week’s issue shows that the industry does not compete well with the banks and the accountants on wage terms, and this is unlikely to change without a more fundamental shake-up of the sector.
Ingleby says: “The higher packages offered here reflect the fact that we work in higher-value markets.” Russell, personnel officer at WS Atkins, agrees: “We do offer a better package than the traditional surveying practices and we can also offer a broader range of work experience.”
The case studies indicate that the importance of salary cannot be underestimated, but also that good old-fashioned job satisfaction appears to top the wish list. Hardy says: “Salary is not the be all and end all. Many are keen to move jobs because they want better long-term options. Property offers far wider career options than ever before.”
He maintains that many surveyors are reluctant to leave a property practice for an accountancy firm for fear that they will become bit players in a giant multi-national. “Why would a surveyor want to work in a massive law firm, where they’ve no chance of becoming a partner?” he asks.
Ingleby disagrees: “KPMG has partners who are surveyors, as does Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand.”
Best of a bad lot
A more fundamental issue facing the surveying sector is the widely held belief that the rivals are creaming off the top of what may be a bad lot. Although no individual company will admit that their own graduates are inadequate, many firms privately fear that the quality of students graduating from the various estate management courses is inferior. The RICS’s recent refusal to accredit a course at Abertay University highlights the widespread concern that there are too many poor courses producing too many underqualified graduates.
Hardy maintains that the problem is more general. “There is always a shortage of quality surveyors. For example, though many people wish to get into the investment side, there is a clear skills shortage,” he says.
In a damning indictment of the problem, Ingleby says: “There is no doubt that the quality of graduates has declined. From a recent recruitment campaign, we had 250 surveyor applicants. Only four were deemed worthy of interviewing and just one was up to scratch for the post.”
The calibre of graduates is being tackled within various RICS-affiliated working parties, such as Latham Working Group Nine. But a short-term option is for the practices to recruit elsewhere. “We take on non-cognate graduates already,” says Gott. “At other levels, we would look to the banks and others to recruit staff. We are looking at broadening knowledge and benefiting from the wider experience offered.”
Companies such as Jones Lang Wootton are big enough to withstand any competition. The likes of J Trevor & Webster can rely on their regional strength and training policies, and the niche players can continue with their specialist skills. But for the bulk of the firms that do not fit into any of the categories, the recruitment problems can only continue. RICS figures show that 30% of surveyors work for a small practice. These are the companies that may not be able to afford to improve their graduates’ training path, nor provide a broad work base, nor pay large bonuses.
One possible solution is the development of the Principal Practice network. The system, being chaired by Ian Colston of Glamorgan-based Colston Colston, will initially be a network of principal surveying firms that advertise for staff through one phone number and benefit through general economies of scale. As the network develops, Colston says that the system may be used to train graduates through ACP at, say, four different companies, allowing them to get a broader range of experience and allow the firms access to otherwise unaffordable new blood.
The industry may do well to heed the words of Charlie Fulford, our profiled surveyor (see panel above) who took his talents elsewhere.
He comments: “There has been a dumbing down in the industry. The practices have a blinkered view that surveyors are good for just surveying. Virtually no companies are looking at the wider aspects. The property industry has to change.”
see also Salary Survey, p138
| Julian Stocks, partner, Jones Lang Wootton | |
| 1988: | Graduates from Central London Polytechnic with a degree in urban estate management |
| 1988: | Joins Jones Lang Wootton on ACP |
| 1991: | Gains chartered surveyor qualification |
| 1997: | Promoted to partner |
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At college, Stocks recalls that he was far more aware of the attentions of the larger surveying practices than any of the banks or accountancy firms. The practices all targeted graduates who then decided, using a variety of criteria, which company to join. The allure of a big name proved decisive and Stocks opted for Jones Lang Wootton. “JLW offers a great opportunity to a young graduate. You’ve got the chance to work abroad and to advise top clients,” he says. Another plus was the chance to test the boundaries of career development. “The breadth of experience here is very wide,” he says. And though he feels it is unlikely a trainee would end up doing 25 years in rent review, he adds: “Your actual career placing tends to be by mutual agreement.” Stocks, 31, describes the salary and fringe benefits at JLW as “competitive”, but feels that bonuses are where the action is. “When profits are up, bonuses are good. Some people are getting 50% of their salary,” he says, adding: “Each individual knows that if the company does well, he will be rewarded.” Stocks believes that for a company to attract and retain top staff, it must “offer a financially competitive package, a clear career path, involvement with top clients and the opportunity to do headline deals.” |
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| Charlie Fulford, consultant, KPMG | |
| 1994: | Graduates from Reading University with an MPhil in land management & development |
| 1994: | Joins Drivers Jonas as a trainee |
| 1995: | Becomes chartered surveyor, his MPhil allowing him to finish the course of study a year ahead of schedule |
| 1996: | Appointed consultant in KPMG’s property & projects group |
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Career disappointment came early to Fulford. “When you qualify, it’s not a major milestone on your career. There’s no sudden wage increase or promotion,” he says. Opportunities are limited. Surveying practices, Fulford, 28, believes, are not giving enough credence to employees’ educations. His MPhil did not open up many more opportunities. “It’s a pre-planned, hierarchical system of promotion based on solely on seniority. Age, education and experience are discounted,” he states. Fulford enjoyed working in consulting at Drivers Jonas but moved to KPMG because he “felt the financial rewards would be better”. He says: “Consulting in a surveying practice is seen as a niche. You are put on the periphery. At KPMG we are taken seriously. It is too easy to get pigeonholed in a firm of surveyors. Here, opportunities are very wide.” Fulford works in a multi-disciplinary team, an experience that, he feels, cannot be matched by the surveying practices. “If we are working on, say, a PFI project, we will have a property expert, an accountant, a local authority expert and so on. At Drivers, we would have to use external team members such as lawyers, and the resources just weren’t available.” Fulford feels that KPMG does offer him career prospects. “The traditional view that if you’re not an accountant then you struggle to become a partner is changing,” he says. “The company is moving far more towards consultancy and the opportunities are there.” |
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