Wanted: Real talent

That A reliable work force is a company’s greatest asset may be an old cliché, but should their numbers continue to drop, wages will rise and the recruitment process will take longer. Not everyone gets a job automatically, but good and experienced specialists are never out of work for long

Emil Górecki

Indisputable data on the number of employees and their specializations is hard to come by, while what does exist varies widely. What is an accepted fact is that specialists are in short supply on the labour market. The country and the particular region are deciding factors; for instance, road, bridge and transport infrastructure engineers are worth their weight in gold in Poland, and it is in this respect that this country has relatively the greatest shortfall and largest investments. For example the Polish railway network has been rundown for some time, hence the lack of railway infrastructure specialists. Another area where engineers are lacking is with environmental protection, especially those specialists with knowledge of constructing sewage treatment plants and refuse dumps. According to Agnieszka Jurkowska, senior consultant and leader of a team focused on the construction industry at Hays recruitment agency, argues that: “Such investment can count on substantial support, both in the form of huge EU finance and from large-scale infrastructure construction programmes, while an additional factor will be the Euro 2012 football championships.”

The time has come for infrastructure

The largest ever boom in residential, office and shopping centre development is now a thing of the past. As a result, the demand for general purpose specialists is not as great as it once was, with experienced Polish workers frequently leaving for neighbouring countries where no such skilled people can be found. There are still too few specialists in leasing the various kinds of properties, although it is somewhat easier since access to the profession has been made simpler, but it remains still relatively difficult to find good property managers. Paula Stojanow, senior manager of Hays’ real estate department, adds that: “First and foremost, the lack of real talent – those who want to and will develop – is all too evident, as is a surplus of average employees lacking any real skills. Outstanding people are required everywhere, regardless of the economic health of the industry.” 

At least 6,000 construction and development companies have been set up in Romania and Bulgaria in the last five years, for shopping centre, office and residential projects. This is why specialists such as project managers and those working in narrow fields such as sanitary and electrical engineering have been effectively swallowed up.

In Romania, an estimated 300,000 vacancies exist in the industry. Supervision inspectors, specialists for the preparation of projects, and people responsible for leasing shopping centres are in short supply.

In Hungary, the daily press publishes between 
10 and 20 advertisements for positions in real estate and construction. The infrastructure in the country is in a good state of health, with more going on instead in the real estate market. Anna Sosnowska from the department of real estate and construction at the Antal International personal consultancy agency, stresses that: “Practically speaking, unemployment is nonexistent in the industry. Skilled workers are so busy that they often have no time to reply to the offers they receive from us.”

Specialists with narrower skills

Narrower professional skills are now becoming more prevalent. Some have been transferred straight from the West and often bring with them 
an as yet untranslatable language of their own, for example for positions such as claim manager, asset manager and development manager. The result is that specialists who have worked in more general capacities in the construction and property industry are being forced to narrow their interests and competences to very restricted fields, such as office leasing and shopping centre management. The industry is growing, greater profits are being generated, which means salaries are rising too 
– and much more rapidly than in other sectors of the economy. But Agnieszka Jurkowska and Paula Stojanow are in agreement that Polish, Czech and Slovak workers are reluctant to change their work places even if they receive interesting offers of work and much higher wages.

Unsaturated East

Russia too, especially its largest cities, is also one huge building site. Russia needs staff in almost every category: project managers, construction site managers, architects, and manager-architects, engineers, and also such professionals as foremen and specialists in installing various systems. Liana Gazaryan of Antal International’s Russian real estate division, is of the opinion that: “Since there are very few new areas for development 
in the cities, many projects involve the renovation, revitalization and modernization of old buildings. The difficulty here is to find architects willing to perform such work. They usually prefer to create new buildings.”

Eastern markets welcome with open arms good specialists with western experience, although Russia and Ukraine are already producing their own experts. The trouble in these countries is the huge scale of the work which must be done and the requirements needed. However, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia are also destinations for skilled workers; although the condition of fluency in at least English in these Balkan countries is often difficult to fulfil. Paula Stojanow adds that: “Polish professionals in less developed eastern markets are teaching local engineers the trade. But it was only a few years ago that we were being taught by the British, French and Germans.”

Corporation flow

Consultancy companies and estate agencies cannot complain of a lack of interest from candidates. Well-known international corporations have always attracted a lot of applications for employment, allowing them to pick and choose. Dorota Skowrońska-Kuśnierkiewicz, human resources manager at Cushman & Wakefield Polska explains that: “To say that we are living in an employee’s market today is untrue – a great oversimplification. If that were the case, every candidate on the labour market would receive offers immediately after posting their CVs, which is just not happening. Whenever I start recruiting, many candidates reply to the advertisements, especially graduates looking for their first job and those willing to work as trainees or for experience.”

There is a much greater problem in finding personnel for higher specialist posts with substantial experience in the industry in the region. The reason here is that the education system and the ability to adapt to western models are falling behind the demands for quality staff, created by the rapid development in the sector. On the other hand, the recruitment of young people who are just setting out on a career brings with it no significant problems. However, courses related to real estate are enjoying greater academic popularity. Anna Sosnowska reveals that: “Construction and real estate companies are starting to look for future workers while they are still at school. After three years, the best students are invited to take part in trainee courses.”

Development companies are complaining of 
a lack of workers, but there has been no known case in which the absence of specialists has led to a company pulling out of a project. The more likely scenario is that the recruitment process is prolonged and the financial expectations of the candidates grow in value. Anna Szmeja-Kroplewska, head of Caelum Development’s marketing department, discloses that her company has problems in finding such specialists as leasing agents, property managers, shopping centre architects and technical directors, as well as financiers and bookkeepers, although the latter are not industry specialists in the strict sense. Anna Szmeja-Kroplewska remarks that: “The real estate industry in our part of Europe is only a dozen or so years old, which is why we still do not have
 a sufficient number of skilled, experienced specialists. The labour market is gradually maturing so it would be impossible to say just when it will stop being an employee’s market.” Gradual globalization is making workers become more mobile and encouraging them to look for employment outside their country. In consultancy companies however, the transfer of staff between regional offices in Central and Eastern Europe are rather few and far between. This may be because no real reason exists for an employee to move from Prague to Warsaw or vice versa, as the two markets are relatively similar, while projects and transactions are carried out on a regional level. Dorota Skoworońska-Kuśnierkiewicz tells us that: “I have recently noted another trend: increasing numbers of Americans and British, especially of Polish origin, are interested in taking up employment or working as trainees in Poland and our region. The reason is obvious: an economic crisis exists on those markets while in Poland or Central and Eastern Europe a real opportunity exists to work in a rapidly growing industry.”

It is no secret, however, that professionals working in the construction and real estate industries have been the most successful at securing wage increases. It should also be noted that the greatest rises were obtained by workers at the lower end of the work hierarchy who are – usually – the least loyal to their employers. ν