Mark Heald has been in the construction recruitment industry for over twenty years. Here, he tells Housing View how the construction sector has changed in that time, the lessons learned from the 2008 recession, and his concerns for the future of housebuilding
by Ben Wakeling
It has been over two and a half years since Mark Heald left the business where he had spent over two decades of his life and established Cognisant with a handful of his colleagues. The firm was established to exclusively focus on working with clients across the residential development and mixed-use sectors – from major PLCs, to SMEs, to developing Housing Associations.
But Heald has a challenge: the pool of talent within the housebuilding sector is relatively small, and shrinking every year, in part due to an industry reputation which conjures images of standing ankle-deep in mud, shivering in the cold – which is very misleading, with the majority of housebuilder roles being office or field-based.
It’s a reputation which Heald describes as undeserved. “If you look at average incomes in the UK across different sectors, housebuilding is very well renumerated,” he says. “Individuals can soon be earning fifty, sixty thousand pounds a year, and develop very quickly with focus, commitment and talent.
More people need to be brought in at entry and intermediate level, with different backgrounds, skills offerings and outlooks
“The construction industry doesn’t appear to possibly register or have the best reputation among school leavers, graduates and so on. Perception is a hard thing to break; I think there’s a big misconception of what working in the industry actually is. My father had a small electrical business that serviced the new build sector, working with housebuilders such as Welmar and Christian Salverson and he actively discouraged me from joining the industry, so – albeit a long time ago – I had a similar experience”.
It’s a perennial problem, says Heald, one that isn’t helped by the severely cyclical nature of the UK housebuilding sector. It can be feast or famine, and housebuilders must make money when the market is amenable to it. Dealing with structural issues such as a critical talent shortage – at every level – must sometimes be put to the side, whilst more ‘important’ matters take priority.
The sector has been too slow to widen the net and attract transferable talent from other sectors and groups, and as a result it lags far behind other industries in diversity and equality.
Heald says: “Even around ten or so years ago there was a massive reticence to employ people who didn’t have housebuilding experience, and I strongly feel the sector was cutting itself off from some really talented people who had transferrable skills.
“Over the past ten years it has improved with some encouraging initiatives, but it won’t change overnight. More people need to be brought in at entry and intermediate level, with different backgrounds, skills offerings and outlooks, giving a more balanced intake from a much deeper pool of talent.
“There’s still a long way to go, from a diversity perspective,” he adds. “And a lot of people left the sector during Covid, and with them a lot of experience walked out of the door. There is a battle for talent, even in quieter times, because there is a very shallow pool of people.”
What the housebuilding sector really needs, says Heald, is a huge public relations push. School leavers or those looking for a career change need to be able to see and understand the benefits of a position working in housebuilding, and the wide range of roles and disciplines which contribute to the final product.
But it also needs one voice. “It’s something that all the housebuilders should do together to try and get the message out there. Some of them are trying very hard with roadshows, attracting ex-service people, and so on, the HBF has the Home Building Skills Partnership, which is excellent, but we need to do more. Because when the market does pick up again, we’ll be back at the point where we’re scratching around for people once again, which is in no one’s interest.”
When the market does pick up again, we’ll be back at the point where we’re scratching around for people
At the moment the housing market wheel is towards the bottom of its cycle; but it is heartening that the industry seems to have learned from the global financial crisis of 2008. “Thankfully there hasn’t been the same blood on the floor this time,” Heald remarks. “We’re getting calls from candidates whose positions have sadly been made redundant, but it isn’t anywhere like it was in the ‘Great Recession’ back in 2008-09. Housebuilders are not particularly overstaffed and quite efficient, so there’s not a lot of fat to cut. A number of the quoted housebuilders have probably been driven to make limited cuts due to stock market expectations and to protect share price – essentially to be seen to do something”.
The thing is, Heald says, that demand for housing is always there, and will be for the foreseeable future; However, at the present time the infrastructure just isn’t there (both in the number of companies able to deliver homes and people to work for them) to meet the Government’s arbitrary target of 300,000 new homes a year.
Ideally, what the industry needs are more medium-sized, growing housebuilders, Heald adds, to fill the gap between small regional businesses and the handful of very large volume developers. This would offer a broader range of career opportunities/cultures for individuals to work within, plus a more diverse, interesting range of product being built. But, even if this were to happen, the fundamental issue of a stagnant or shrinking talent pool remains, and the people won’t be around to resource the level of construction required.
The industry is on a journey – it always is, Heald reiterates; but it needs to move faster and be more strategic in its outlook. “If companies are struggling, they unfortunately get rid of people,” he concludes, “the problem is that they then find it very difficult to gear back up again when the market turns.”
Cognisant is a mid-to-senior level recruiter operating across the UK, recruiting talent on behalf of privately owned and PLC housebuilders, across all disciplines. They offer over a hundred years of combined experience of working within the sector. To discuss your aspirations please contact Georgia Doyle on georgina@cognisantsearch.com to book in an appointment to speak with a consultant.
Housing View 