UK consultancy and engineering firms are predicting mixed workload performances, according to a report by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering. In its State of Business survey, almost one third of firms said their UK workloads for the first quarter of 2005 had increased by more than 5% on the same period last year, with similar numbers expecting work levels to continue to grow over the next three years.

However, while fees have risen as a result of increasing workloads, they haven’t increased to the extent that would be expected. One in four firms increased their fees by more than 5% in the first quarter of 2005, compared to the same quarter a year earlier. However, it is worth noting that a tenth of all firms questioned reduced their first quarter fee levels by more than 5%. “In an industry suffering from recruitment and retention difficulties, this is not a sustainable form of working,” says the report.

In terms of revenue generated, the biggest sector for consultants and engineers is private housing, with half of firms expecting this sector to grow in 2005. The weakest performer was the industrial sector, with less than a third of those companies questioned expecting any growth.

There is a trend for many companies to move away from offering pure engineering services by broadening out into other areas, such as environmental consulting, project management and transport planning.

The report is based on the responses of 92 firms with a combined employment of 14,000 staff.

Key findings

  • 20% of work won by consultants is gained through competitive tendering
  • More than half of work is won by repeat business
  • Private housing is the biggest revenue generator for consultancy firms
  • The industrial sector in the UK is still relatively weak
  • One in ten jobs are won through framework agreements
  • The international regions offering the largest workloads for UK firms are western Europe, North America and the Middle East
  • 60% of firms said their top five greatest concerns were PI insurance premiums, poor profit margins, internal resourcing and recruitment.

Source

Building Sustainable Design