Thoughts from a ‘seasoned‘ BIM recruiter….

I enjoyed listening to the panel’s comments. Overall, it is clear that the shortage of experienced BIM talent is already worrying. All 7 panellists reporting challenges finding good people – and while the industry is still in recovery!

It is good to hear everyone talking about the need to mitigate the threat of rapidly rising salaries with more BIM trainees and specifically, the need to retain trained talent with real career progression – not just the promise of it.

One conversation did niggle me though – and I am sure this will ruffle some feathers out there – but does it really make sense, in a market where experienced, technical, talent is so scarce, to focus your recruitment search on ‘soft skills’? I’ve only been recruiting for 33 years but in that time, I can safely say, every one of the thousands of opportunities I have been asked to fill has first and foremost been dependant on technical ability – knowing how to do the task in hand. If, and only if, there is a good, long, list of candidates with the ability to author a model, audit it, write a digital vision etc. do we then look at soft skills.

How would you feel if I called you to announce our success at finding 5 candidates with fantastic communication skills, a hunger to learn but sod all knowledge of the construction industry? So why, when long lists are a thing of the past, and only 1 or 2 candidates are technically capable of doing the job would you waste time starting your search by focussing on soft skills?

I get it if the primary ‘must-have’ is soft or the availability of good technical talent is vast but neither are true in our BIM world.

Meanwhile, we need to remember, recruitment is cyclical. We have been in this ‘demand-greater-than-supply / salaries-rising-too-quickly’ position before, we will be again. Historically, employers have solved the problem by:

• Training up graduates;
• Outsourcing work;
• In exceptional circumstances, offering “golden” hellos.

What they have not done well, in the main, is:

• Focus on retaining talent;
• Advertise better to the passive audience.

See links for more information on both.