The Problem?
Time is a very important factor when it comes to hiring professionals. In addition to time you need to find the perfect match between the job requirements and your company's culture. Every day spent without a key member of your Quantity Surveying department may have a detrimental impact on your projects and your business. This ultimately affects your workload, then your team and will potentially have a knock-on effect on your invoice payments which may lead to cashflow issues.

The truth is that there are various challenges posed by recruiting Quantity Surveyors nowadays.

According to the REC, recent trends indicate that the time to hire has increased by 50%, having jumped from 60 to 90 days on average. What's more, RICS's UK Construction Market Survey, results show that 57% of companies are indicating that a shortage of Quantity Surveyors is impacting their growth plans.

The solution?
At Calco we would recommend you create a plan or forecast of upcoming recruitment requirements. Contact your trusted recruitment provider to help you devise a strategy to reduce time and stress. Planning your recruitment enables you to make sure that you and your recruitment professional are up-to-speed and you have people in post when you need them. Every day that you have a vacant role will significantly impact your business. Quick feedback on CVs/interviews is essential to securing the right professionals for your role.

In addition, we believe there are some other things you should consider:

1. How many members of the commercial team do you lose on an annual basis generally? What would be the impact if that were to double?
2. What if your 3 best QS's were to leave? How would that impact the commercial function of your business?
3. Would you consider freelance members of staff in the interim of finding the right QS on a permanent basis?
4. Who are your competitors interviewing at the moment due to the shortage?

Taking everything into consideration, planning is the best way to avoid the repercussions of having a vacant role for a prolonged period of time. Thus, thinking ahead about the staffing requirements – whether your business would benefit from interims, should people unexpectedly leave – and prioritizing them according to your needs, is just one of the things that Calco can help you with. Our past experience and most up-to-date network and market intelligence, are the benefits to assist your growth strategy.

So please, do not hesitate to contact us, should you have any questions about this.