Do or Die: Red-Alert for Land Surveying

In February 2017, it was reported that 43% of surveying firms were declining an average of five new contracts each year - due to a lack of skilled and qualified surveying staff - and the RICS simultaneously issued warnings that the critical conditions would worsen between then and 2022, when we hope to see new graduates & qualified surveyors emerge through the ranks in order to fulfil the constant demand.

With a lack of guidance towards the sector and the temptation of moving to Australia bestowed upon UK Land Surveyors, we have ended up with a deficit which is having detrimental effects on service delivery for a lot of companies in 2018. There are a lot of sound theories as to why we have ended up with the shortfall and the fact that the biggest scarcity is in the below-forties category doesn't leave much to the imagination, but ultimately we have been left with a sub-sector that has more demand than capability and we are currently seeing a race between new surveyors gaining experience, and understaffed companies losing contracts & revenue.

Whilst we have high hopes that qualified surveyors will win the race to lost business opportunity, we cannot pretend that the sub-sector is not in for a difficult few years if overall construction (and subsequently demand) continues to excel. Over the last 6 months, we have been working with a variety of different businesses including Land Surveying, Utility Surveying, Civil Engineering & Groundworks firms who have all been affected by the skills-deficit, and we have spoken with thousands of construction workers and managers to ascertain an understanding of the current state of play and how businesses need to start approaching the matter, if they are going to survive.

It seems that the extreme pressures are causing more and more surveying firms to reach out to external consultancies to help them to resource relevant & skilled workers. Whilst it is the obvious strategy, it also comes with its own risks, due to an overall lack of understanding about the practice, the technicalities and its variations that could add to the threat on productivity. Many people confuse Land Surveyors with Site Engineers & Setting Out Engineers, with a lot of agencies turning to a unified category on their databases but this is a big enough, and diverse enough sub-sector to warrant a dedicated consultant to specialise in understanding and sourcing specific skill-sets within Surveying. This being said, it might be important for your organisation to utilise agencies whilst you are taking internal action on the matter.

Due to the critical-nature and significance of the survey data, surveying practices assume a huge amount of trust and accountability, which is difficult to deliver and sustain with limited resources. As permanent surveyors are such a commodity, it is a buoyant period for freelance workers, with some being offered longer-term arrangements to secure the manpower, but the lack of commitment can also cause some detrimental issues and accounts towards the reasons that surveying organisations are forced to turn down so much work year after year.

The term "there is enough business for everyone" is more than true in this field, but the fact that there is too much work for the amount of people in the industry means that someone needs to upset the apple-cart and establish themselves as the go-to company for both clients and surveyors in their region. Wider-aimed market research claims that 85% of people in employment are satisfied and not looking for a new role, but 45% of the same category would consider a new role if it presented itself obviously enough. However, market-research conducted in the surveying sector unveiled a quiet stand-off over salaries, as over 65% of the surveyors that we spoke to claimed that they would move for a better financial package, whilst almost all of the employers have set salary-bands that they are not willing to upset in the interest of their current workers. 45% of land & utility surveyors openly admit that they feel underpaid & undervalued, and a staggering 70% of utility surveyors are disgruntled at their belief that they will never reach a salary above ￡35,000 per year, despite the fact that over three quarters of these said that they would move for a definitive path to ￡40,000 or above.

Surveying has been an integral part of construction for decades, but it is becoming increasingly demanding as work is required to be checked, rechecked and checked again to avoid discrepancies and additional costs. Notably, it has been published that the "2017 pipeline sets out over ￡460 billion of planned investment, of which over ￡240 billion will occur in the next four years" so the assumption is that whilst we can not magic any new surveyors tomorrow, someone is going to take the opportunity to invest heavily into candidate attraction (and possibly even salary structures), in order to reap the rewards of surveying's busiest era. Whilst it sounds like a bold move, the more aware that developers and contractors become of the role and associated risks of surveying practices, there is going to be an increased demand for stable & experienced teams to be able to deliver data and drawings seamlessly. This will encourage 'forward-thinking' companies to prepare their company-structure early, ready for opportunities to step in on contracts where other companies are unable to deliver due to a lack of qualified and experienced employees.

Salary increases unfortunately come with their own risks, such as counters by competitors, and the undesired possibility of driving up market-rates without being able to justify an increase in service-charge. It is seen as a particularly aggressive approach and will require long-term commitment as you will hope to retain the structure whilst believing, and waiting for competitors to fall out of the picture - assuming this happens before current investment in new talent pays off. Fortunately, this isn't the only option when we are looking at making organisations attractive to passive surveyors, as they have a great desire (like most employees across most sectors) to feel like they are valued and invested in, so regardless of whether or not you agree with salary increases, it is important to invest in setting yourself apart in order to turn the right heads. For instance, we launched a new employee-engagement process in a civil engineering company that focuses incentives and rewards around industry accreditation as a way to encourage employee-loyalty and subsequently result in pay-increases as the workers develop their skills, knowledge and value - the direct, relevant applications have increased dramatically; their agency-spend has reduced by 85%; and the business-productivity, engagement and retention is at an all-time-high.

There are a multitude of strategies that can be deployed to establish your company as the most desirable place for surveyors and clients to turn to, and most of them are very cost-effective and often will have a positive return on investment after year one. The biggest challenge should be ensuring that the right people are consuming and understanding your intent as a business, whether your are focusing on candidate attraction or business development.

If you are contemplating taking action for your business, it is advisable to share and generate ideas with someone who understands the market and its' operations in order to effectively facilitate innovation. Whilst people inside your organisation are going to provide invaluable input, speaking with an unbiased party will help you see the solution from inside and outside your business.