By Kyle Robin
Over the last 2-3 months I’ve been speaking with lots of companies and summarised 3 items that have been continuous talking points.
- Candidate availability / shortage
- Rise in salaries
- Candidate movement with borders reopening
As we all know there is a severe shortage of candidates within the Australian Quantity Surveying market making it very difficult for companies to attract enough talent, putting a strain on their capability to handle current and forecasted project workload. Two major reasons for this are of course with International & inter-state borders being closed for a prolonged period of time, it has limited the amount of fresh talent entering the market. As a result, companies have also come to the realisation that the only way to secure new team members is by looking closer to home (ie. Competitors), meaning they must do what they can to ensure they hold on to the talent already onboard so not to lose them to the competition.
Due to this, we have begun to see a long overdue improvement with benefits such as flexible working and workplace perks but also, more importantly, a rise in salaries throughout the industry. With multiple companies working in similar sectors and operating similar sized teams the driving factor to pulling candidates in recent months has mainly come down to dollars and cents. Will this remain and become the “new normal” for industry salary ranges or will it have a longer-term impact and possibly see people lose their jobs or taking pay cuts when talent levels begin to rise again… this has yet to be seen.
But with borders beginning to reopen (woop woop) there is a growing excitement in the market that new talent will arrive and help drive the rebuild of what was lost during Covid as well as capitalise on the projected workload that is going to be flooding into the industry. On the flipside however, there has been a growing concern that with a major population of the QS industry being from the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and other countries, could we see companies lose some of their talent as people look to travel / move home to reunite with family, etc…
I believe the next 3-5 months will be crucial in discovering just how the market responds to borders reopening, salary increases and how this will play into the ability to push forward with anticipated project capabilities.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss current Quantity Surveying opportunities, please contact Kyle Robin on 0416 286 829 or via email; kyle@franklinsmith.com.au