The personnel touch

In these times of renewed recruitment, what kind of real estate professional is in demand and what kind of qualifications are employers now looking for? According to Anna Czyż, the section manager of international recruiting firm Hays, it is currently those companies that still have a stable financial situation as well as development projects in the pipeline that are most willing to employ new people. And the people they are looking for are mostly middle management or leasing and retail specialists. "We also see a need for experienced development managers in preparing complicated projects and experienced project managers to run several projects at the same time," she says. According to Alexander Morari, managing partner of PropertyTalents, "the hunt for leasing managers is on." This is being driven by what he predicts is to be a huge delivery of new office space on the Polish market, with many international companies now viewing Warsaw as the city where they can park their regional headquarters. Mark Twomey, a managing partner of Tara HR
Consulting, also talks of the current need for leasing managers: "As long as there is stock to lease then leasing people will always be in demand." He also explains that recently property owners have become less willing to outsource the search for tenants to the agencies. "Companies are trying to reduce the fees being paid to agencies so there is more of an expectation on in-house leasing people to go out and find tenants themselves rather than relying on an agent to deliver the tenant," he claims. Now when agencies do deliver tenants, the expectation is that they will be more financially secure with more secure heads of terms.

Licence to print money
Mark Twomey also sees another clear trend.
"Asset management in its true form is still a relatively new concept in Poland. A lot of funds are coming in with equity and are looking to buy quality assets. They want to turn it into a profitable asset. There are many very good property managers in Poland but few people who understand the management, leasing and financial requirements of an asset. A good asset manager can command between PLN 25-30,000 per month," he says. Other recruiters are less enthusiastic. Although they do not deny that there may be a trend, they also do not confirm that there is one. According to Anna Czyż, her agency has certainly seen more demand for such people over the past year, but, "as the situation on the Polish market is still not very stable and predictable it's hard to say whether it's already a trend," she admits. The situation seems somewhat similar in the Czech Republic. As Pavla Kulovaná, the branch manager of Grafton Technologies in Prague, remarks: "We can say that in the Czech Republic the demand for asset managers has been gradually growing since last year. As the construction market has changed, there has been a growth in the field of property management." Alexander Morari believes that asset management is perceived more as the next step on the career road for leasing managers. Many enquire as to the possibility of moving in this direction and are even prepared to move from retail into the office sector in order to find such an opportunity. When it comes to the qualities that Alexander Morari says are important, communication skills come top of his list, especially for centre managers. Such professionals, he believes, are ever more important as they now need to persuade their tenants not to leave. "In the retail property environment, it is clearly a tenant's market now, so some tenants are sometimes treating their landlord counterparts unfairly, we hear. Some are trying to "take revenge" for how they were treated by the landlords when the market was booming and tenants sometimes had to agree to very difficult terms if they wanted to keep to the planned pace of their expansion. To advance in such environments really takes an effective communicator," claims Alexander Morari. But the requirement for communication skills for Mark Twomey is simply obvious: "As in any business, communication skills are vital," he says. For him the ability to communicate well and to speak English are components of salesmanship, a skill that he considers to be of even greater importance. "In today's real estate market everyone is expected to be able to cross-sell opportunities if they arise, especially in the agency environment. So sales skills now apply to all and are not just limited to leasing people," he claims.

Green in demand
But what are the qualifications that are sought after on the market? Everyone seems to agree that green building practices are taking on ever greater importance and therefore BREEAM and LEED certificates are becoming ever more sought after. "Certification is being applied for practically every new office building now, so project managers, engineering consultancies and international agencies are trying to equip their employees with ?green qualifications'," explains Alexander Morari. He claims that Jones Lang LaSalle is the most advanced in this process, but it is not only the agencies that are "greening up" their employees.

Skanska already has around 15 LEED professionals (out of around 70 in Poland) and JLL has around 10. There is around half the number of LEED professionals in the Czech Republic as in Poland, while in Russia there are around 15, all in Moscow.

Pavla Kulovaná also confirms that BREEAM and LEED are the qualifications to have: "Yes, currently these certificates are very valuable and companies are looking for people with this knowledge. You can already study this field at technical universities in the Czech Republic but there is still a lack of people with deeper experience on the market." But according to Mark Twomey: "Developers are still quite sceptical about these qualifications. Many see it as just the latest trend which will be eventually replaced with something even ?greener' therefore will only train the minimum number of people." But in his opinion this does not change the fact that buildings "which are not certified run the risk of not being able to attract large corporate tenants. Most developers do not appreciate the extra cost involved in construction and fees to bring a building to BREEAM or LEED grade but they know it is now a minimum expected requirement.". Perhaps the ebullient mood of the property consultants is justified. Maybe it is not just hot air for the sake of drumming up more trade. Both Property Talents and Tara HR Consulting are placing bets on an improved economic climate by taking on new staff themselves. "By the end of the year the plan is that Tara HRC will have five people based in Warsaw and one person based in Czech," says Mark Twomey. Meanwhile, Alexander Morari hopes to set up in Turkey by 2013 and has recently hired Piotr Kanclerz as a resourcing consultant.