And it has to be said that building services engineers haven't always been at the front of the queue when it comes to getting their hands on the big salaries. However, recent trends in the market suggest that this is set to change. Figures, from specialist recruitment consultant Hays Montrose, show that there has been an increase in salaries across the services and related sectors. In some cases, the pay rise has been substantial.
This is of course good news for the industry, not least in terms of attracting the next generation of engineers. But the figures must be viewed against the background of the economy and with an eye to the next few years for the construction industry.
Economic analysis from Market & Business Development (MBD) shows that following a buoyant 2000, but that business has been slowing since the start of 2001. MBD forecast a slow down in growth from 3% to around 1.8% in 2003. This is the result of rising wage pressure, a growing balance of payments deficit and housing market excesses.
However, the construction industry does continue to look relatively healthy. It seems that there will be a soft landing rather than a crash, after the growth of recent years. The cyclicality of the overall economy appears to have been condensed in the past decade, and it seems that construction will follow suit, with the current upward trend extending beyond normal patterns of boom and bust.
Better than expected
Most businesses in the construction industry were expecting a financial squeeze in the early part of this decade, even before September 11. The industry spent the few months after this holding its breath, waiting for recession. However, and without wishing to tempt fate, it seems that the likelihood of recession is receding as construction work continues and orders continue to come in.
Most significant in the UK is the growth of government expenditure on public buildings such as schools and hospitals.
Consulting engineers
At the senior end of the scale, those with at least 20 years' experience, salaries look healthy, with steady rises from last year. For consulting engineers, those at partner or associate level are best off, earning an average of £42 854 and £36 916 respectively. This compares favourably with their equivalents in architectural practices. A partner member of RIBA will take home on average £40 333, and an associate £33 208 – scotching the myth that architects always earn more than engineers.
At the other end of the career ladder, however, engineers don't do as well as architects. It's hardly surprising when you look at the figures that at universities, architectural courses are doing well, in terms of number of students applying.
Although it is difficult to compare the two professions directly, a newly qualified architect, with CAD experience could expect around £21 000 (up almost 8% from 2000 to 2001). And an architectural assistant (part II) with year-out experience could expect £16 958.
By comparison, a graduate trainee in building services would be looking at an average salary package of just £16 525; and a junior engineer, with five years' experience still receives less than his architectural equivalent at £18 490.
But market forces are impacting on salaries already. As graduates become a rare commodity in the services sector, their price has risen accordingly. In BSJ's June 2000 salary survey, engineers who had just left university could expect around £14 525. This year, the figure is £16 562, a 14% rise in just under two years.
There can be little doubt that the plummeting numbers of young people joining the profession has played a major part in this rise.
Interestingly, one of the few areas of this year's survey which shows a drop in income is for partners of consulting practices. Gross pay has dropped by 2·2% – from a national average of £43 850 per annum to £42 854.
This may be a reflection of the fact that some partners are equity partners, rather than salaried.
Mechanical and electrical engineers
According to the latest figures from BSRIA, m&e contracting has maintained growth of around 6% per year. Total m&e output in the UK in 2000 was £13.2 billion, split into £6.4 billion for mechanical and £6.8 billion for electrical. However, BSRIA predicts that in areas other than the public sector, there will be declines in business, particularly industrial new build.
In spite of uncertain economic times, senior electrical and mechanical contracts managers (aged 40, HNC qualified) receive an average of £30 166 and £29 250 respectively. Interestingly, the mechanical side saw a small rise from last year's average of 3·9%, while the electrical contracts manager experienced a 16% rise on the 2000 figures – the highest rise in our survey.
This probably reflects some of the comments made in BSJ's last salary survey, relating to the increasing difficulty of employing electrical engineers at this level. Electrical engineers face a fairly tough apprentiship, and there is a high drop out rate making them an increasingly rare find for employers.
Contractors
At the upper levels of management, contractors see larger salaries than counterparts in consulting engineers' practices. In the contracting sector, a managing director (aged 45, degree, chartered) receives a national average of £52 145. This is a 9% rise on last year. In the same area, an operations director (45, HNC/degree) is salaried at a national average of £43 229; and a commercial director at £41 750. All of these are higher than the top salaries on the consulting side.
Commissioning engineers
Another group of engineers seeing a rise in salary are those involved in commissioning. A senior engineer in this field (aged 40, OND/HNC qualified) was receiving a national average of £26 575, according to our last survey. This year that has risen a substantial 11·8%, to a national average of £29 279.
Lower down the career ladder, a commissioning engineer (aged 32, ONC qualified) would receive around £26 312 – a rise of 17·2% from last year's survey.
Geography
Geographically salaries are heavily weighted towards the south east. Across the board, engineers in the north west of England, and in Wales see the lowest salaries.
For example, a principle design engineer (35, degree and chartered) can expect around £36 000, while counterparts in Wales would be taking home around £30 500 pa, and in the north west they could expect nearer £28 000. This difference reaches all the way to partner level: typical salary in London is £45 000, in Wales £40 000, and in the north west £38 000.
Within the south east region there are also slight fluctuations in pay levels. This is most noticeable at the middle and lower ends of the salary scale. A principal design engineer (35, degree, chartered) in central London typically earns £36 000 pa, while in the north home counties this drops to £35 000 and down to £34 500 in the south home counties.
Roundup
The general trend for salaries has been upwards, anything between around 4% to 17%. This is of course positive for the industry as a whole. It is however a reflection of problems which all areas of engineering have faced – a shortage of good staff. Market forces are pushing up the price of what is now a rarer commodity.
The question is whether the pay increases are in time to encourage more people into the industry before companies are reduced to poaching staff from each other. This may benefit employees for a time – with bidding wars for good staff pushing up salaries even more. But that kind of environment can discourage firms from investing in employees long term – why pay to train someone if they are going to go to work for a rival next year?
Looking to the future
In spite of pay rises, finding graduate building services engineers continues to be a problem. Keith Edgell, director of building services capital projects at Amec says: "The new SARTOR regulations are the principle cause of universities shutting down their building services courses. Although this doesn't mean the regulations are a bad thing for the industry."
Edgell says that Amec began preparing for a shortage of engineers once it recognised that SARTOR might result in a drop off in the number of building services graduates. The company now takes school leavers on HND/ONC courses and then sponsors them through degree courses. It is a long-term approach which has paid off: "We have found that we have got some very good engineers by doing that," says Edgell.
They have also found that graduates from science-based courses or pure engineering respond well to training.
Amec has sponsored a number through MSc courses in building services and it epitomises a company which takes investment in training very seriously. Edgell comments: "As a business, we recognise that if you are going to move forward, we have to arm our people with the skills to move us forward."
Interesting times
Services engineers face an interesting future. The importance of creating buildings which are friendlier to our environment is making their skills more valuable than ever to construction, and society as a whole. But the growing significance of areas such as carbon management, energy efficiency, sustainable energy sources, and airtight buildings means that they will be seen as potential business areas by other professions.
It is no exaggeration to say that the business of calculating energy use and carbon emissions by large corporations will be worth billions. Global business will have strong financial incentives to ensure that buildings run efficiently and that they can calculate and control energy use to the last kW.
Well served
Services engineers are well placed to benefit from this new area of business. But they will be competing with other players more used to the global corporate playing field – management consultants and IT specialists. For example, accountancy consultant KPMG already offers 'sustainability advisory services', including helping clients develop a robust method for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions that could be assessed by independent auditors.
Information technology and the internet are also impacting heavily on the way buildings work. Networked control systems allow building managers to control sites around the world from a single location.
At this point in time, such functionality may seem like an interesting add-on to building services. However, the drive for greater efficiency and the ever-present need to control costs are creating a demand for services which operate from a single control system.
Again, engineers face the threat of being pushed aside, at least in the clients' eyes, this time by IT consultants, who are able to offer clients an one-stop solution to their building control platform requirements. More control consultants are working closely with networking experts, and the line between them may blur in the next decade.
The range of skills required by services engineers is on the up. They are increasingly required to present to clients, so communication skills – written and verbal – are more important than ever. They will become more so, when faced with competition for the client's attention comes from other sources.
Research from CIBSE in Hong Kong (page 43) shows that employees over there place a great deal of emphasis on what are known as the 'soft skills'.
The ability to write reports, get ideas across to clients, to sell the company you work for and represent it effectively are all key to individual careers – all this, as well as ensuring that their engineers stay ahead of the competition.
Survey methodology
The figures for the salary survey have been compiled by specialist recruitment consultant to the built environment, Hays Montrose.
Salary figures are compiled using the database of salaries from 48 regional Hays Montrose offices.
Source
Building Sustainable Design
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