A new deal but holding the same aces

Everybody fears redundancy in an economic downturn… No, it only seems so! Civil engineers have not been affected by the worsening construction market at all –  in fact, employers at the moment are going to some lengths to court them

Emil Górecki

Lack of finance means a lack of projects and consequently a lack of work. Fortunately, those finding themselves out of work should manage in time to find new jobs, although these may be lower paid than what they are used to. Nevertheless, some people, especially the more sought-after type of specialist, have not felt any ill-effects from the credit crunch at all, and are still able to pick and choose from what is on offer.

Business people have glimpsed a silver lining, however. This is at least what the Instytut Badawczy Randstad recruitment agency and statistical researchers TNS OBOP have observed about them in a recent survey. Three out of four employers are not planning any changes in terms of staffing levels. As many as 14 pct want to employ additional staff and 23 pct have declared a willingness to increase salaries. According to Kajetan Słonina, Randstad’s managing director: “However, I do not recommend looking for a job in the construction and real estate industries. Companies in these sectors have not yet formulated their plans. There is a common feeling in construction companies that the crisis will last at least two years.” This probably results from the fact that the production cycle in this business is relatively long and that current projects are coming to an end, so managers are afraid of new contracts drying up this spring.

Mature candidates, stable expectations

Anna Czyż, a senior consultant managing the real estate and construction division at Hays recruitment agency, admits that the situation on the job market has changed completely. It used to be the employees who dictated the terms, but now it is the employers who have more negotiating power. “I was surprised during interviews with candidates to see them applying for positions even though the salary on offer did not match their qualifications or expectations. Because there are many candidates looking for jobs on the market at the moment it is possible to offer them much lower salaries,” explains Anna Czyż. These cases are not very common, though. “The market seems very stable and mature, even though this will be confirmed by its behaviour in the next few years. I do not expect candidates’ expectations to grow exorbitantly, nor that they will accept jobs with salaries that are too low,” adds Ms Czyż.

There are, however, certain industries where companies are having difficulties finding the right staff. “I mean, specialists in civil engineering and renewable energy sources. Both sectors started to thrive about a year ago and there are more and more contracts being signed. So far, civil engineers were sought after mainly because tender specifications required such specialists to be working for the contractors. And for a long time Polish universities did not produce enough engineers. Moreover, engineers specializing in renewable energy sources could not gain any experience here because this branch of the power industry is still in its infancy in Poland. Besides, specialists connected with the conventional power industry are also sought after,” claims Anna Czyż.

Who do they want and who isn’t needed?

Last year, in response to market trends the structure of engineering company Arup was also changed. The move was no surprise: the infrastructure department took on several new employees, especially for its road and transportation section. However, the buildings construction department was reduced. The market itself indicated who was needed in the business and who would have to look for another job and deal with all the problems connected with it. “In 2009, I used to get a lot of offers from people who wanted to work for us, especially in the spring and summer. Since the autumn there have been fewer of these, which might mean that people who had been made redundant have managed to find new places of employment. The most popular positions in the offers were: project manager, constructor and fitter. The requirements of candidates are indeed a little different compared to several months ago: they expect slightly lower salaries and they care more about employment stability. It is different in the case of civil engineers. They are needed on the market and so they are not afraid to change jobs. Their requirements have been growing,” notes Magdalena Majkowska-Cieciura, Arup’s human resources manager.

Development companies have become less frequent clients of headhunting agencies. They have suffered as a result of the crisis and have had to limit their expenditure, including that on salaries. Many of them were forced to say goodbye to a lot of their personnel. Dom Development is one such example: even though the company coped relatively well with the crunch, it was forced to lay off over 30 pct of its workforce. There have been exceptions, however, and some developers are also contracting out the recruitment of new staff to headhunters. “Searching for new people for such companies mostly springs from an immediate need rather than for the development of the business. There are some job offers for administrators, retail space lease specialists and for people to work in apartment sales offices. But there are not too many of those,” admits Anna Czyż.

Who has suffered most? These jobs include business expansion specialists, land acquisition specialists and buildings construction specialists, as well as project managers. Their salaries dropped at the very beginning of the crisis and have not changed much since September-October last year. “At the moment, property managers want salaries app. 15-17 pct lower than those at the beginning of 2008 – 20 pct in the case of leasing specialists, and even 30 pct for business expansion specialists and project managers,” she estimates. “It must be added, however, that salary is not the most important element of negotiations with regard to employment. There is much more stress on the stability of the company, its reputation on the market and the number of signed contracts. Candidates are not changing job on a whim any more, but only if they want to earn more money,” remarks Anna Czyż.

Real estate agencies were among the companies most affected by the crisis. “We worked hard and we had a bit of luck. We did not panic, and yet reacted quickly with cut-backs, including reductions of salaries. Until we feel that the crisis is completely over, we are agreed that each employee, whether they are assistants or partners, will earn 7.5 pct less. Thanks to this we only had to part with two junior employees and could guarantee employment to all the other staff. We did not close any of our departments, and I now know that it was a very good decision, because we were able to take some of the clients from competitors who had closed their land departments. Knee-jerk reactions to a deteriorating market situation are a strategic mistake: short-term savings might come back haunt you later and for a longer time. We are planning to increase our team in 2010 and employ new people in each of our departments,” declares Hadley Dean, managing partner at Colliers International in Poland and for the CEE region.

“Unfortunately, it was necessary in our company to let some people go, especially those who were working on the initial stages of projects. Five people had to leave the company. At the same time, we are looking for people to fill other positions, but we have not noticed any difference in expectations. This is probably because there is only a small pool of specialists that meet our requirements. We do not plan to employ new people this year. Only three new projects are being launched in 2011, so we will recruit then,” declares Beata Kokeli, management board member and sales manager at Centrum Development and Investments.

The subject of employment plans for 2010 is viewed with caution by Arup, as such planning would depend on current needs, which are also related to the number of signed contracts. “Companies are much more flexible nowadays in terms of employment policies, they act on an ad hoc basis and in a much faster way,” explains Magdalena Majkowska-Cieciura.

The young ones, shouldn’t be afraid

Construction company Hochtief Polska parted with several dozen employees last year, of which one third were blue-collar workers. This resulted mainly from the completion of a number of temporary contracts, with some of the people then leaving to work for rival firms. The list of specializations that the company is lacking at the moment is hardly surprising: contract managers for system networks, site managers for infrastructure and qualified engineers in the same field. “These specialists are having their day now – and quite a long one too,” concludes Agnieszka Wierszyłło, HR manager of Hochtief Polska. “I have been trying to recruit a site manager for our company. 
It is not easy. There are very few people specializing in this field on the market, and their financial expectations are very high and growing despite the crisis,” she adds.

However, there are many more job applications on her desk than there were in the middle of 2008. Why? People who have a job do not want to change it at this point, because in spite of salary and professional issues they also value the stability of employment. Besides, there have not been enough engineers on the Polish market for a long time. This situation provides more opportunities for young people with little experience. “Recruitment of young people is very profitable for the company. We can accustom them to our company from the very beginning and teach them everything we expect from them in the future. Our extensive training programme is a huge support for them. A newly recruited employee with previous experience has to learn about our company for some time. Besides, young people, despite their lack of experience, do a very good job for us,” argues 
Agnieszka Wierszyłło. ν