How are construction employers winning talent in an inconsistent market?
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I'm Aaron Higgins, National Head of Development and Construction at deverellsmith. On our latest devcast podcast, I sat down with Verity Hampson-Smith, our Principal Consultant covering construction in London, to talk about which sectors are actually moving, where the work is going and what employers need to do to hold onto good people.
What does the London construction market look like right now?
Tough, and more than anything, inconsistent.
It's genuinely hard for businesses to plan and move forward with residential developments at the moment, and residential is where a lot of our focus sits. The market is moving, but sporadically. Some businesses are cash rich and building a lot. Others are far more cautious about committing to projects at all.
The causes are well known by now: getting through planning, the gateways, securing investment, and house builders sitting on too much stock and not wanting to build more. The result is a market with no consistent pattern to read.
Which construction roles are actually hiring?
There isn't one area showing consistent movement, but there are clear pockets.
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Document control, which is the standout. There are companies that have never had a document control function at all and are now seeing a significant need for one, driven by the gateway regime and the golden thread of information
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Project leads and project directors, particularly people who can get involved at the earlier stages of a site and hold a holistic view of the process rather than simply running a live development
The common thread is that anyone with gateway or pre-construction knowledge remains in demand, whatever the wider market is doing.
Where is the work moving to?
In three directions, and all three are worth paying attention to.
The first is asset class. Developers who would usually build purely for private sale have diversified into build to rent, co-living and student accommodation, partly because sales have been at close to an all-time low and partly for planning reasons. There are definitely fewer homes being built to sell, but homes are still being built, mainly for the rental and student markets.
The second is region. A London based PM and QS consultancy that has traditionally worked in and around Greater London now has sites in Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham and Leicester. Businesses are going further afield, and they want to know what candidate pools exist there. Well established London businesses are also opening regional offices, because they value boots on the ground who know the local contractors and planning authorities, and they're bringing that London pace with them.
The third is sector. Consultancies offering project management, quantity surveying and building surveying are increasingly turning their hands to life sciences, data centres and industrial logistics. Things move faster in those areas, planning is quicker out of town, there's less competition and the finance is stronger. As Verity put it, a good project manager should be able to build an office, a school, a hospital or a house. It's the same core skills, slightly adapted.
Interestingly, it's rarely the very large businesses with teams dedicated to a single asset class that are growing fastest. It's the ones working across two or three. Candidates tend to enjoy that variety too.
What has happened to construction salaries?
Commercial salaries continue to climb. There will always be an increase available for a really good quantity surveyor, and on a 20 thousand pound rise to move, you'll make that back quickly.
Beyond that, salaries have largely plateaued. There wasn't a significant increase last year and there hasn't been one this year. Expect a steady year on year rise rather than anything dramatic, and nothing resembling the COVID boom when people picked up 10 or 20 thousand overnight.
That matters because, redundancy aside, there still has to be an element of financial motivation for somebody to move. If the money isn't doing the work, something else has to.
If you can't offer a big pay rise, what else works?
Flexible working is the first question Verity gets asked, but the honest answer is that flexibility is a proxy for something bigger. What people are really asking for is autonomy, whether that's working from home or simply having core hours and the freedom to come in late or leave late. What sits underneath it is a culture of trust.
Culture builds a reputation in this market, and that reputation reaches candidates long before your job advert does. If you're known for high turnover, a lack of flexibility or a lack of autonomy, people will write you off before they ever reach interview stage. The reverse is just as powerful. If your people are advocating for you, everybody is interested. As we put it on the episode, if it's a great place to work you might tell one or two people, but if it's a bad place you'll tell everybody.
Culture isn't pizza on a Friday and a beer on a Thursday. It's the raw things: trust, autonomy, and letting people work where they need to and when they can.
The other thing that genuinely moves candidates is a significant pipeline of work. The last few years have been start, stop, start, stop, with unexpected redundancies and businesses going into administration that nobody saw coming. People are looking for security and longevity, quite possibly more than they're looking for a pay rise.
This, incidentally, is why we go out and meet the businesses we work with, visit sites and see offices. If the answer to that is "just send us a few CVs and we'll pick the best one", that's the worst possible outcome. You wouldn't recommend a restaurant to a friend without having eaten there, and the same applies to recommending somewhere to work.
What should the hiring process look like?
Stick to a timeline, and commit to it.
There's nothing more frustrating than a business saying it needs to hire somebody tomorrow, then going quiet. We understand people are busy and holiday season happens. But if a candidate doesn't hear anything for three or four weeks, they talk themselves out of the opportunity, and by the time it comes back around the engagement has gone.
Time kills deals. A candidate who hears nothing starts to think the business doesn't want them, and then when the offer does arrive they assume the business simply couldn't find anybody better. That's the worst possible position to make an offer from.
So if you're hiring, commit to a process, commit to a timeline, and commit to fair, honest feedback. It pays off beyond the current vacancy too. Somebody who had a good experience but didn't get the job will happily re-engage with you in a few years' time. Somebody who had a bad one won't.
Should a candidate accept a counteroffer?
Our view is no, in most cases.
When a business makes an offer, around 90% of the time it's a fair reflection of what they think that person is worth. Unless they've gone in with a low-ball offer, there's no real case for a counteroffer. And if a candidate's only reason for moving was financial, they probably weren't the right person for the job in the first place. There need to be other motivators.
The statistics back it up. Something in the region of 80% of people who accept a counteroffer leave anyway. The phone call we least like receiving is the one a few months later saying the money wasn't worth it, or that the flexible working they were promised has quietly turned back into five days a week in the office. By then the other role has usually gone.
How do you keep your best people when you're not busy?
Be honest with them.
When candidates come to us, it's usually because of broken promises, doubts about the leadership team, or a lack of visible projects ahead. If you've told a project manager or QS that hitting certain metrics means a promotion, a pay rise or a bonus, give it to them. If it isn't going to happen, don't make the promise in the first place. Make a smaller promise that you can actually keep.
People aren't asking for the world. They aren't expecting 20 or 30% pay rises and enormous bonuses every year. What they will notice is a big corporate away day for the directors followed by news of pay cuts.
The last point is the simplest one. Treat people like adults. The days of micromanaging and banging on the table to get things done are gone. We hear endless conversation about Gen Z, Gen X and millennials and how to manage each of them, but people are people. Whether somebody is 21 and entering the industry, 40 with a family, or later in their career and wanting to do their own thing, their expectations will be individual.
Ask them what matters to them and, within reason, give it to them. It takes time upfront, particularly in a large business, but it saves a lot of money, time and heartache later. Far too many counteroffer conversations begin with a manager saying "you never told me you needed to come in late on a Monday to drop your son at school."
What's the outlook for the next 12 months?
Delays, and then a pick up.
Our main contractor partners are extremely busy, but almost all of that is pre-construction services agreement work. There's a lot of design work going on and a lot of jobs being priced. If those jobs come to fruition, we'll be very busy again in 12 to 18 months. For now, turnover is down because there's a significant lack of live sites.
Realistically, expect the rest of this year to continue as it is, with things starting to pick up in the early part of next year. In the meantime the work is out there, particularly outside London and outside traditional residential. You just need to know where to look.
Frequently asked questions
Which construction roles are most in demand right now?
Document control is seeing the sharpest rise, driven by the gateway regime and the golden thread of information. Project leads and directors with pre-construction experience remain in demand.
Why is there more temporary than permanent hiring in site management?
Because businesses can't reliably pipeline their work. Where a developer or contractor can't plan its needs beyond the current site, temporary and contract hiring gives it the flexibility to staff up without committing permanently.
Are construction salaries rising?
Commercial salaries, particularly for quantity surveyors, continue to increase. Elsewhere salaries have largely plateaued, with a steady year on year rise rather than the sharp jumps seen during the COVID period.
What do construction candidates want besides salary?
Autonomy, and the culture of trust that comes with it. Alongside that, a visible pipeline of work, because several years of start-stop projects, redundancies and administrations have made security and longevity a genuine priority.
Is it worth accepting a counteroffer?
Usually not. Around 80% of people who accept a counteroffer go on to leave anyway, and if the only motivation for moving was financial, the underlying reasons for looking tend to resurface within months.
About the podcast guests
Aaron Higgins | National Head of Development and Construction, deverellsmith
Aaron leads deverellsmith's development and construction practice nationally, working with developers, contractors and consultancies across the UK. He has built out the firm's regional desks and partners with businesses on senior appointments across residential, student, industrial logistics and life sciences. Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn or email aaron.higgins@deverellsmith.com.
Verity Hampson-Smith | Principal Consultant, deverellsmith
Verity has spent four years at deverellsmith and oversees construction recruitment across the London market. She works with developers, main contractors and consultancies on site-based and pre-construction appointments, with particular depth across residential, build to rent and student development. Connect with Verity on LinkedIn or email verity.hampson-smith@deverellsmith.com.
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