Q&A with our expert Matt Wainwright

08/03/21

Following the Q&A with our Construction Recruitment expert Matt Wainwright, you can find his answers below:

Q. Please introduce yourself

“My names Matt Wainwright, I am the Head of Nicholas Associates Construction. I have 26 years of experience in built environment recruitment. I set up Nicholas Associates Construction in 2005, 16 years ago.”

Q. Can you give an overview of Nicholas Associates Construction?

“Our core business is building, civil engineering and the residential sector. We typically work with SME’s with a £25 – £125 million turnover. Our core candidates would be middle management with salaries between £40,000-£80,000. We provide a temporary or contingent recruitment solution. The built environment is very much open for business and we haven’t really been affected by what has happened over the last 12 months. There is a political will to build and we’re hoping to see significant investment in the public sector, highways, infrastructures, schools, hospitals, colleges and affordable housing. The feedback from all our clients is that there is still a skill shortage in design, project management, quantity surveying and estimating.”

Q. Regarding skill shortage, which skill sets are under the most stress?

“The skill sets we find are the most under stress are design, project management, site management, quantity surveying and estimating. The best measure we have is 1 in 5 applications are women for design roles, draftsman or designers. 1 in 5 applications are from women for quantity surveying roles but applicants for project management, site management and estimating are predominantly male and we have no measure on how many women are applying for these positions.”

Q. What is your experience of women in construction?

“When I started my recruitment career in the built environment in 1995, there were some women in the day to day transactional roles but very few women in leadership roles. All the women I have come into contact with have in my opinion, been highly competent. Whilst there are more women working in construction today a reliable stat is that 13% of the built environment workforce are women, so clearly more needs to be done.”

Q. What are your thoughts on Gender Equality in the built environment sector?

“There should be no barriers to equality. If there is a perceived inequality or boys club mentality it shouldn’t be dismissed or overlooked it should be discussed openly. I don’t think there is inequality in the built environment sector. The feedback I’m getting from my customers is that experience, competency and reliability are important. Not gender. The construction sector employs over 2 million and contributes 90 billion to the UK economy so women have a big part to play and are key to addressing the skill shortage. There are clear educational and vocational pathways into the built environment for women that need promoting in schools, colleges, universities and the community. There has to be a commitment to ongoing education, training, mentoring and continued professional development by employers to encourage women into leadership roles.”