This topic seems to come up constantly on LinkedIn and at conferences I attend. The surveying industry in Australia & I dare say most of the world is in a Skills Shortage. The amount of Infrastructure, residential & construction is booming… The problem, we don’t have enough surveyors, technical or registered/licensed to complete the work. On top of that, we have companies under paying staff, undercutting on quotes, cutting corners, making mistakes and working on variations to make their money. This is just the tip of the iceberg….
The question always arises, how can we change this?
From where I sit, I see a lot of whining, blaming, & lack of participation.
I am the queen of controversy. I speak out, make comment, call out the ones, where possible to get them thinking about the conversations that need to be had.
This is not about a select few! The industry as a whole needs to come together. We are a small industry, with a lot of responsibility to our industry & community. We are a profession that is lacking the understanding of how we can band together to make things better.
People are relying on the select few who take the time & fight the fight, be it small or large, while the majority sit back and do nothing.
There are multiple topics in this statement that I will separate moving forward in no particular order than what I feel like discussing on any given day.
- Skills Shortages
- The Race to the Bottom
- Pricing & Quoting
- Undercutting Issues
- Pay Discrepancies
- Education
- Vocational
- University
- Industry Engagement
- Leadership – Mentoring
- Business Management
I’m sure over time I will have plenty of other topics to talk about.
If these things interest you, I suggest you have a listen to my podcast at some of the thoughts of our surveyors across Australia & the world…
Peta Cox 
Hi Peta,
All important issues that have been around for +10 yrs. In Vic (Melb metro in particular) many surveyors don’t charge enough & seem to be bowing to the pressures of their client base for fee setting. Many building designers, civil engineers & builders apply huge amounts of pressure for fixed prices & very low rates. If surveyors don’t charge enough, there is pressure to never return to site no matter how the end solution panned out. – they make the best of a sometimes average solution based on the measurements of the day. Without sufficient profit buffer in there, the staff being mentored feel bad about asking questions & don’t get the support required & their licence/ registration drags on forever.. low profit margins equals wage stagnation & people begin to feel undervalued & question their loyalty to the company & start moving around. This in turn sucks up huge amount of retraining time & creates inefficient workers for their first x months of tenure in the new role.
Next problem is that the general community have very little understanding of the complexity & risk involved with the job & so devalue & often question surveyors on their real add-value. There needs to be a broad advertising campaign created that goes beyond the Surveying taskforce & further Into the mass print/digital/TV media so that people associate registered surveyors as just as important as a lawyer or certified accountant ( for example, everyone knows that they have a set fee schedule and billable hour schedules).
There are more things not covered here but you get the drift. Keep up the good fight! đź‘Ť
Matt
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Hi Matt,
I couldn’t agree more.. Everyone knows the issues, but it never seems to change.
I agree that there should be campaigns for media.. You see things for building, engineers etc.. yet nothing about what a surveyors is or does & how critical it is to every day life in so many different areas.
PC
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