There had been rumours during 2007 that housebuilding sales were slowing up but after ten years of boom it was hard to take them seriously. But by spring the following year national housebuilders were closing regional offices and make redundancies on a mass scale. Eighteen months later most residential developers only employed between 30% and 50% of their pre recession workforce. Thousands of experienced professionals had been laid off. Many will never return to the industry but what about those who want to recommence their career in residential development? If this sounds like you, here is an action plan to make the most of the job opportunities in the market today.

First of all there is some good news. There are more jobs in the UK housing market now than there have been for three years. The slash and burn approach to staffing overhead seems to be over. There is little growth in housebuilding and sales rates are not materially higher in 2011 than they were in 2010 but, and this is the crucial point, builders are prepared to recruit in order to replace leavers. UK based new homes developers have spent the past two years restructuring their businesses to be profitable on roughly half the volumes they operated on in 2007. For most, they have arrived at that point and do not want their businesses to contract anymore so when someone leaves they recruit a replacement.

So now we have established there are jobs to pursue, how do you go about it?

First of all get your CV up to date. Don’t wait for a job to come up and then start the CV. Be in a position to react quickly. There is a lot of literature available regarding the style and science of CV writing but don’t get lost in the nuances of it. A good CV in housebuilding is no more than three pages of A4 with a clear chronology of work history and any relevant qualifications and training. Concentrate on the last ten years of your work history and highlight successes and achievements in each position and support with evidence. Be wary of simply replicating your job description as this tells the reader what you were supposed to achieve not what you actually achieved.

So now the CV is ready, you need to find job opportunities to apply to. There are four main sources of housebuilding jobs as follows:

1. Traditional media advertising: You will find housebuilding jobs advertised in Housebuilder, Showhouse, Building, Estates Gazette, and occasionally in regional newspapers. The recruitment pages of the industry journals have dwindled significantly over the years but it remains a viable source of jobs.

2. Online advertising: Building and Estates Gazette have both developed an online presence for careers as an extension of their traditional recruitment advertising. In addition two specialist housebuilding job boards have been created: careersinhousebuilding.co.uk and housebuildingcareers.co.uk.

Uniquely www.careersinhousebuilding.co.uk only features jobs directly advertised by developers rather than recruitment agencies.

You will also find housebuilding jobs on generalist job boards such as Reed and Monster. The downside of the generalist sites is that, due to their huge scope, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for in amongst the hundreds of other industries and sub sectors.  If housebuilding follows industries such as accountancy and IT expect online job advertising to expand massively over the next few years.

Social Media: In such a competitive construction job market its worth considering every possible advantage over other candidates.  Time is often a factor for recruiting builders so get your application in quickly. One way to keep up to date with the latest online jobs is through social media like Facebook, Linked In & Twitter as they are usually updated regularly.   You can follow the online housing job boards here http://twitter.com/HousingCareers http://twitter.com/#!/housebuildjobs or join the Facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Careers-in-HouseBuilding/309948313624

3. Recruitment Consultants: Before the recession, they were probably calling you about positions they were working on. Now it is up to you to be proactive and make yourself known to them. Make a phone call to find out which consultant is the most appropriate one to speak to you for your region and particular discipline. Speak to that person and email a copy of your CV. Aim to cultivate a reciprocal relationship whereby you share contacts and news from the industry with them and in return you can expect to gain knowledge on current and forthcoming job vacancies. You are much more likely to have a positive impact than simply phoning around the recruitment consultants once a month to ask if they have any jobs to put your CV forward to.

The key players include PSD Group, Thomas Gray Assoc,  www.edburydaley.com, SPR Search & Selection and Potensis.

Temporary job market:  There are some temporary and interim jobs in the housebuilding sector but not as many as you might find in other areas such as IT. However one area that has a thriving temporary recruitment market is that of site based Sales Negotiators as builders strive to maintain their sales force.

Temporary sales jobs can be anything from a day to 6 months and can offer some flexibility around how often you work.  Developers often need short term cover for holidays and sickness, or to cover whilst they recruit permanent staff.

Amongst the key players in the recruitment of sales staff are Maitland Selwyn , Fusion People, Team Sales and www.zed-sales.co.uk It’s important that you find the right agency for you because each of these businesses have there own regional strengths and weaknesses, supply different builders and pay different rates.

4. Networking: This has always been a helpful strategy in any industry but is particularly effective in the tight knit community of residential development. If you think networking means trying to make new contacts at industry functions, think again. You can start from the comfort of your PC by creating a profile on UK House building job updates from Linked in

It is free to use and is gaining real traction in the housing construction community. You can link to people you already know and then see who they know and develop your network that way. You can also get the latest updates on jobs by joining the Careers in housebuilding networking group.

However, don’t forget personal contact either by phone or face to face. You need to make the effort to stay in touch with former colleagues because they are your route to the industry grapevine and plenty of vacancies are filled without ever reaching the open job market.

So your have efforts have been rewarded with an interview? To make the most of it simply get the basics right. Is your personal presentation impeccable? Have you been on the company website to get some company information? Have you visited a site to see the product for yourself? Is there any background information online about the person you will be meeting? You need to score four out of four here or you will be at a disadvantage to the other candidates and in the current climate the other candidates will be strong and numerous.

So, to conclude, here are some general tips on your overall approach. Be positive and proactive. The more avenues you pursue the greater the chance of you finding employment. Having a clear plan of action encompassing all or some of the points above will give your job search organisation and impetus. Be pragmatic by taking part time or temporary work. Apart from providing some income it will get you closer to the grapevine and increases your chance of finding a more desirable position. It also demonstrates to any future employers that you were prepared to make the most of opportunities available at the time.

Simon Edbury is a specialist in new homes jobs

He and Andrew Daley regularly produce information relating to the UK house building job market

The new homes industry was hit harder than most in the recession as many leading builders suffered large financial losses and were forced to drastically cut both staff and production.

Having restructured in order to create much leaner operations in the last 2-3 yrs the major builders are now able to be profitable on smaller production volumes. Furthermore when key staff leave, builders now want to replace them rather than seeing it as another reduction in overhead and these factors appear to have stimulated the new homes job market.

www.careersinhousebuilding.co.uk only features jobs with builders in the new homes sector and advertisers in the past 12 months have included Taylor Wimpey , Persimmon Homes, Barratt Developments, David Wilson Homes, Redrow Homes, Miller Homes and McCarthy & Stone.

Their figures make for encouraging reading:

Site traffic increased by 106% in the 3 months leading up to Feb 2011

47% of all traffic were new visitors to the site

65% of roles advertised were site based e.g. Site Managers

45% of all vacancies advertised are for new homes sales roles

Specialist housebuilding recruiters www.edburydaley.com are the people behind www.careersinhousebuilding.co.uk

With many years of experience in the housing job market, they understood that the new homes builders were reluctant to pay recruitment fees and therefore needed a low cost advertising option.  They noted the lack of a reliable online job board specifically dedicated to the needs of the housebuilders where employers could target candidates with experience in the new homes industry.

Director Andrew Daley commented “It will take some time before the market is really strong again but we are seeing evidence of the recovery through our advertising patterns. As more and more builders discover the value the site delivers we are confident that we can play a major part in helping the industry grow to be a major employer again without stretching their recruitment budgets.”

In fact we were very surprised by the figures announced earlier this week indicating that Q4 saw a 0.5% contraction in the economy.  During this period, the demand for procurement staff was as strong as at any time since mid 2008 levels.

Here’s a summary of our observations on the current market trends:

Recruitment activity for procurement staff across almost all areas of private sector is up significantly on the same period last year, particularly in the Electronics, IT, FMCG, Business services and Consultancy markets.

Using our own data, we have observed the resurgence of the permanent recruitment market with a 127% increase in activity between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010.   This is in part due to an increase in business confidence and less pressure on head count.

Demand for accomplished category specialists in key areas of indirect spend like Marketing, Professional Services, IT, Telco, Facilities and Travel is strong, particularly for those who offer the vital combination of stakeholder engagement and change management expertise.

Many Procurement & Supply Chain Consultancies are actively recruiting into their consulting force.  In recruitment terms this is generally viewed as a good sign of an increase in activity and spending within target client organisations, also stimulating demand for the very best candidates.

Fortunately the market is characterised by a large number of excellent people looking for new roles, particularly those who have stayed in the same role during the recession but are now looking for their next career move.

This is also boosted by the availability of many people in the public sector who are concerned about their futures. However there is very little evidence of private sector companies recruiting public sector Buyers in any significant numbers so far.

After a lengthy period of relative stagnation, moves at the senior end of the market are starting to become more regular now. It will be very interesting to see when the CPO market really takes off but we anticipate it being at some stage later this year.  We’ll keep you updated on this next quarter.

The availability of interim candidates is markedly down since the middle of 2009.   In our opinion that particular niche market has now genuinely recovered, and we have already seen evidence of day rates starting to creep back up this year.

There is a noticeable increase in competition for “up & coming” procurement professionals. Such people are often graduates with 3-6 years professional experience and are perceived as being relatively inexpensive by CPO’s given the range of modern procurement skills they can offer.

At Edbury Daley we are specifically working to identify the best emerging talent in the profession. If you are a looking for that next step in your career please talk to Chris McGowan (chris@edburydaley.com 0161 776 4605) about the roles we are working on at present.

Good news for all involved in the FMCG market, Hannah Jackson will be returning from maternity leave on 1^st March. If you are seeking a new role in the sector or need to add new talent to your team, particularly in core categories like Packaging, Ingredients or Raw Materials then you can contact Hannah now via hannah@edburydaley.com

Procurement Systems & Skills Survey – are we in balance? Our latest research topic is still available online.  We’ve already had some very interesting contributions and would really welcome your input before we start our analysis. You contribute to our research here http://www.edburydaley.com/wp/category/surveys/ and also access our research archive which is increasingly popular.

Having difficultly finding the talent you need for your procurement team? Are you facing some of the challenges we have touched on in this market report? If so please call Andrew Daley on 0161 776 4603 to discuss how we can help, or contact him via andrew@edburydaley.com

A much improved market for permanent roles

A more stable interim market than 2009

The return of the “battle for procurement talent”

Restraint on salary increases

The apparent recovery in certain key sectors e.g. banking & FMCG

The growing demand for leading edge SRM experience

 Now three months later with the election behind us and fresh concerns expressed in the media about the economic recovery, we look at how the market conditions are affecting procurement professionals and their careers:

The improved market conditions for permanent procurement roles that we observed in March have continued and strengthened to a degree during this period.  Demand remains strongest in the middle market (£40-£80k) although there is little evidence of much movement at the most senior end of the scale. It remains to be seen when there will be real movement in the Director of Procurement / CPO market, but with so little activity at that level over the last two years we expect the big roles to be fiercely contested when they do become available, possibly later this year.

 The overall picture across all professions is stronger, with a leading research organisation reporting in May that demand for staff increased for the eighth month in succession, whilst the availability of candidates for permanent roles is down for the first time in two years.

Last quarter we observed some restraint on remuneration increases including bonuses, pay reviews and the increases in salary people seek to negotiate when moving companies.  This remains the case and in the current economic climate we would expect that to continue but there are organisations that are already having difficulty attracting the talent they need because of an inability to pay “market rate” and it will be interesting to see how this situation develops later this year.   

The interim market is currently in a relatively stable condition compared to 2009, but as we publish this report the real effects of the public sector cuts proposed by the new government are yet to be truly felt. There is a very strong suspicion with some early evidence to support it that spending on interim staff will be reduced, and this will be terrible news for the interim market as so many experienced procurement professionals have enjoyed some very lucrative contracts in the recent past on a variety of public sector projects.

Our fear is that the market will be flooded with contractors from the public sector over the next quarter, many of whom will be coming into a private sector interim market that has seen a substantial correction in day rates and margins over the last 18 months. This will lead to excess supply, causing further pressure on day rates and may prompt many career interim managers to consider going back into permanent roles. The early signs are there, and we have had many enquiries already from people concerned about whether their contracts will be extended or even terminated early so we will be watching this part of the market closely.

Most public sector senior managers that we asked for their thoughts on the subject were understandably reluctant to make any comment on the impact of the cuts at this stage, but one said “all recruitment, including approved vacancies, is frozen, and now has to be approved at a level which will inhibit us from even making the request!” We will be monitoring this situation closely and will comment on the impact this is having on procurement in our Q3 update.

In some of the key private sector industries the story is more positive with evidence that banking, retail, FMCG and leisure have continued the encouraging trends we observed last quarter. Furthermore both the technology and consulting sectors which we expressed concern about in our last report are now recruiting more in procurement and we believe this is a very encouraging sign.

Our focus on the SRM world as a result of our research and the growing evidence of a clear trend towards greater emphasis in vendor relations is proving to be very interesting.  As our reputation grows as a specialist recruiter for the discipline, we are engaging with more organisations and leading professionals than ever before and we expect to see more evidence of greater emphasis in this area in the second half of the year.  We remain particularly keen to speak to as many professionals with involvement in the area as possible. For more information please visit: http://www.edburydaley.com/supplier-relationship-management/ or join our network at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/edburydaleyandrew

There has been some further analysis of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) trends undertaken by our research partners 105 Consulting which is available below.  The findings highlight that whilst SRM is now considered critical to many businesses, it seems value is being ‘left on the table’ through insufficient focus, installation and application of SRM capabilities and practice. To access the report click here: http://www.105consulting.com/main/images/stories/pdfs/srm-practitioner-survey.pdf

Future research projects:

We intend to announce the subject for our next online survey and research report at the end of July and will be inviting you all to contribute later in the summer and autumn.  Our previous reports are available here:

The growing importance of SRM: http://www.edburydaley.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/EdburyDaley-SRM-jan-2010.pdf

The impact of the recession on procurement: http://edburydaley.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/edbury-daley-the-impact-of-the-current-economic-climate.pdf

The contract market has been slow for much of the year with downward pressure on day rates. There are still a number of good contractors without work at the moment so employing good procurement people on an interim basis shouldn’t present any problems, but these people typically are not looking to go permanent at £50k.

The permanent market has been ok but slow this year but we are seeing signs that things are picking up a little and companies are more willing to make decisions about hiring. I think this could be down to improved confidence, and the desire to spend budgets before they are lost at year end.

There remains a great deal of competition for the best procurement people in the £40-£60k bracket for the simple reason that there just aren’t enough good ones at that level.  Pre recession there was such competition for these people that in my opinion salaries got a little out of hand and there were examples of relatively junior (i.e. less than 5 yrs experience) but talented people already earning £50k+ in London.

The “temp to perm” market in procurement is limited because the pure interim market has grown significantly in the last 5 years. Current economic conditions dictate that some very good people are being made redundant through no real fault of their own.  Many of these want another “permanent” role so will consider a temp to perm arrangement and these are our obvious target people.

Demand remains strong although the market has been characterised by delays caused by issues such as seeking approval to go outside of a company recruitment freeze, corporate politics, budget restrictions and the understandable desire to ensure that the right decision is being made before committing to an appointment.

Whilst there are many procurement professionals who are currently looking for new roles, both as interim and permanent members of staff, the strongest candidates remain in short supply, particularly in key areas of indirect spend.  

Due to the work we have recently undertaken with blue chip clients in consulting, banking, FMCG and retail sectors, we have engaged with a number of procurement professionals who belong firmly in the upper quartile of the profession. 

In particular we have several outstanding candidates with the following expertise:

• Procurement Consulting with emphasis on transferable skills, change & programme management etc

• Vendor Management specialists

• Category specialists in Professional Services, Telecom’s & IT, Facilities/Property, HR, Marketing, Travel

If you would like to discuss any of the skills mentioned or candidate availability, please contact Andrew Daley (0161 776 4603) Charlie Bolam (0161 776 4605) or Hannah Jackson (0161 776 4608) or e mail us info@edburydaley.com

Vendor Management & Supplier Relationship Management – A Recruiter’s perspective

There’s no doubt we’ve seen a noticeable increase in the number of specialist roles in this area that we have been asked to recruit for.  This has been a trend for the last three years particularly, and we have experienced this most in services sectors like banking, consultancy and particularly IT services. 

Recruiting managers usually want a specialist in supplier management to fill their jobs rather than someone who has done some work in this area as part of a broader procurement or sourcing remit, whilst job seekers who enjoy the vendor management element of purchasing will seek specialist roles in this area.   

There is of course only a finite pool of vendor management specialists, so if demand grows further, we will have some very interesting market conditions.   This could possibly be reminiscent of the strong demand for high calibre indirect spend specialists in the City which drove up salaries, particularly between 2003 and 2007.