The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Macdonald & Company report on professional feelings about the property industry has found general optimism for working in it on job opportunities, salaries, job satisfaction and the gender pay gap.
The 20th Rewards and Attitudes Survey sees a positive outlook from respondents about the success of a career and the attraction and motiovation of the people working in it in 2019. A third of those surveyed saw an increase in permanent roles this year, despite Brexit, though Britain’s new status in Europe was predicted to see fewer talented people on the jobs market and general negative effects on the industry as a whole.
More than half of respondents foresaw an increase in company revenue despite Brexit, while 58% felt ‘valued’ or ‘very valued’ in their role working in the built environment, though 37% were either ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to move jobs this year – close to the percentage (42%) who reported feeling ‘neutral’ to ‘very undervalued’. Salary and work-life balance both scored very highly for reasons to feel valued, closely followed appreciation by line managers, colleagues and senior managers.
The survey also that working from home and flexible hours and were the most important focuses for increasing productivity at work, followed by family healthcare, employer pensions and critical illness/life cover.
RICS professional qualifications command a higher industry salary, said the report (a median salary of £48,600, compared to the median salary of a non-qualified professional of £35,000), and that the gender pay gap has narrowed in some sectors, including construction, though much more needs to be done generally, with bonus payment disparity still significant.
Sean Tompkins, CEO for RICS, said: “Addressing the needs of the industry of the future, in recent years RICS have used our leadership role to ensure the awareness of surveying and the built environment as an aspirational career path for a diverse audience, and we’re encouraged to see progress in the gender pay gap, as well as RICS professional qualifications being held in high regard in the marketplace.”
“The Rewards and Benefits Survey 2019 shows that attaining skilled workers will likely be harder post Brexit, despite a generally positive outlook for 2019, and the standards that our professionals work to that cross markets will be key. Making the sector an attractive place to work for a wider talent pool will become ever more important in future markets, and some sectors have made great progress in reducing the historical pay gaps between male and female colleagues. This year, 25% of all newly RICS qualified professionals and almost a third of new enrolments are women, and while this is positive and shows the increasing numbers of women that view the sector as an attractive career, we can all do more.”
“Looking at the areas cited in the survey as increasing work satisfaction for employees across the board, these also are the key areas that promote a diverse workforce – for example flexible working and positive work life balance. Employers would benefit greatly by focussing on these, as with Brexit likely to impact the talent pool, opening up our industry to all is imperative. The future of our industry hinges upon its young leaders.”
Peter Moore, CEO of Macdonald & Company, said of the survey results: “Closing the gender pay gap is an issue that cannot be solved overnight. Headway is being made across most sectors of our industry and overall, the pay gap has fallen to 20% and is close to the national average of 18%. As more women are encouraged into the real estate and built environment realm, we expect the pay gap to close further.”
