Wasted opportunity

It is frustrating to see the self-preservation of senior staff and short-term attitudes of the leading firms in our industry still prevailing. Where is their sense of moral responsibility to the next generation, many of whom could eventually become business leaders, if given the chance? We still see consultancies making decent profits and paying eye-watering packages to senior members of staff at the expense of the graduate. To read in the same week that EC Harris maintained its profit levels and halved graduate recruitment is disappointing. To read that consultancies such as Gleeds and Faithful + Gould are recruiting no graduates yet are still displaying corporate and social responsibility commitments on their websites suggests these policies are nothing more than window dressing.

When the construction industry eventually recovers, it will be interesting to see how these firms intend plug their staff resourcing gap when they return to growth. I guess the bigger consultancies will recruit graduates from the firms that did care enough to invest in people, rampant salary inflation will return and the circle will again be complete.

Patrick Murdock