Issue 6: Ramblings of a Recruiter in Real Estate

I talk a lot about data in the below article, taken from The Macdonald & Company Annual Salary Survey. It is now open and if you haven’t completed it I encourage you to do so using this link:?https://surveys.insightadsurveys.com/s3/GlobalSurvey2022UK .

I was inspired by the Twitter/Elon Musk debate, but there is no doubt two trends are emerging within real estate employers. Those who consider flexible working arrangements a "perk" and those who consider it the new normal. I checked the first 1000 respondents in the Global Salary, Rewards and Attitudes Survey for the UK this week and found some interesting statistics on the topic of flexible working.

Q. Has your senior leadership team reversed its attitude to flexible working in the last 12 months?

42.4% YES - my employer has changed some or all of my flexible working practices

57.6% NO - my employer are committed to all flexible working practices they introduced

Q. Which of these statements about working in the office best describes the working pattern available to you?

32.1% I have complete autonomy over where and when I work

29.1% I must be in the office 1-2 days per week

37.8% I must be in the office 3-4 days per week

1.0% I must be in the office 5 days per week

So the number suggests that 2 in every 5 employers have changed their views or application of flexible working. However, the extent and the tone to which this is being done is what makes this such an interesting topic for retention and recruitment. With just 1% of our first 1000 UK respondents saying they need to be back in the office 5 days mandatory it puts into perspective the seismic shifts. However, I wanted to dig a little deeper – if the tone of the employer was too harsh or too quick to reverse flexible working policies what would be the outcome? I asked, in a much less scientific way my connections on LinkedIn. Here is what the first 250 respondents had to say:

If you've enjoyed flexible working or working from home since the pandemic, how would you feel if this was REVOKED?

I prefer the office….23%

I would make the best of it….21%

I would consider a new job….44%

Impossible - I would resign….12%

54% of respondents would either consider a new job or resign immediately. In the face of sustained demand for talent, it seems an incredibly delicate topic and one easily mismanaged to sound alarm bells to employees.

Elsewhere in the world of real estate recruitment, I got a chance to sit down with Luka Vukotic , Development Director at Art-Invest Real Estate to record an episode of the Accelerating Careers in Real Estate Podcast. Luka is someone who has experienced a meteoric rise in his career and personal development working for several of the biggest and most highly regarded institutions in the UK market: Arup, Lend Lease, and Argent before joining German powerhouse ART-Invest on their first foray into London major projects.

If you aren’t immediately familiar with ART-Invest, they recently completed one of the largest and fastest planning permissions of 2022 the 1.5m sq/ft development at Canada Water. Luka tells his career story from the perspective of an ambitious engineer who thrives in the detail and curiosity of why development happens in the way it does.

You can listen to the episode here:

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-66-luka-vukotic-development-director-art-invest/id1506496352?i=1000587241053

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uVoRvRa5kBPvauHCrzU4t

Despite the headlines and headwinds caused by interest rates the UK team remains to be very busy, we might need to work a little harder and wait a little longer but junior through to executive management positions are registered, negotiated and accepted daily. To hear how we can recruit or secure your next position please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

Director of Growth, High Tech Real Estate Developer ￡Executive

Commercial Director, Build to Rent developer ￡160,000 plus 50% bonus

Development Director, Land Acquisition for logistics use ￡120 - ￡140,000 plus 50-80% bonus

Project Manager, Life Science, Oxford ￡70,000 plus 25% bonus

Development Manager, Build to Rent ￡65,000 plus 30% bonus