Managing a surveyor’s skill set

But it must have been twelve months ago as a group of us were discussing the rugby internationals at Twickenham. England had lost to New Zealand once again and the analysis of events at the rugby was that the best teams are defined by their ability to become more than the sum of their parts.

Although chartered surveyors and rugby players tend not to have too much in common, both are more effective when working in well-managed teams.

When I first qualified, I was still under the misapprehension that a team of surveyors would simply consist of a group of equally qualified people who kept busy surveying different buildings.

But a great rugby coach doesn’t just pick the best 15 players; he picks a group whose skills are complementary and who add value in different parts of the field. A great team of surveyors should be built in the exactly the same way. Each should offer expertise in different areas and, ideally, beyond the core competencies, there shouldn’t be too many overlaps.

As a result, many firms working in the residential sector who previously might simply have offered vanilla ‘surveying’ services, now offer expertise in a whole number of complimentary areas. These include:

Architecture: allowing surveyors to translate early stage designs into likely issues for Licences to Alter and predicting likely implications for the completed building and future maintenance programmes.

Interior Design: providing interior design expertise in connection with refurbishment of internal communal areas and ensuring that internal major works projects are budgeted correctly and managed right through to the final details.

Construction: enabling surveyors and their clients to see things from the contractor’s perspective. This is invaluable when managing tenders and it enables more effective monitoring of works.

Facilities Management: every building requires ongoing maintenance of its services, specifically mechanics and electricals including boilers, elevators and gas supplies. Offering this in-house enables the surveying team to work faster and with an ongoing appreciation of specific issues, while managing other consultants more effectively.

Property Management: Many firms of surveyors work closely with property managers. Every chartered surveyor working in the residential block sector requires a knowledge of legislation, such as Section 20 consultation, ensuring that every project is managed with the regulations in mind from the outset.

The last rugby World Cup was, of course, won by New Zealand, who were lauded for putting the team above any individual superstar. They demonstrated the benefit of getting the strategy right and building a team around it.

That’s an approach that has proved invaluable to many teams of surveyors. If we are celebrating England’s World Cup victory in a year’s time, it will be because they have learned the same lessons.

Julian Davies is Managing Director of Earl Kendrick Associates