FM

Business Development and Bids Recruitment in FM Trends

October 28, 2020

Business Development in any industry is key to driving the success of a business and building new and existing relationships with clients. In Facilities Management, this is an instrumental role as the sector is reliant upon building strong relationships with clients, suppliers, colleagues and visitors.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly proven to be a tricky situation for the UK economy and the broader FM and Workplace sectors. Still, we see some key trends within the industry and its recruitment strategies. Below Jordan Knight discusses some of the key insights and trends for Business Development recruitment within FM.

Recruitment activity

With the pandemic and lockdown taking its toll on many industries, we are seeing more recruitment activity for Business Development roles rather than roles within Bids and Estimating.

The increase in Business Development roles would be the result of the need for new contracts and additional works with existing clients to be sought out and explored.

We have also seen some organisations using this period to employ some excellent talent who have unfortunately found themselves in the market.

Which sectors are recruiting?

As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdowns, there has been reduced Business Development activity within the private sector. We are seeing a clear focus on contracts within the Public sector as these contracts are deemed to be low risk with small margins which helps to keep FM service providers cash flows positive.

We have seen the Healthcare, Legal and Education sectors showing high resilience levels over the last six months, and it looks to be that way for the foreseeable.

Salary

In such an uncertain time, we would usually expect to see salaries across the board to take a plunge; but, we are seeing steady salary levels within the Business Development profession within the FM sector. However, some employers may be temporarily capping or removing commission/bonus payments for a short amount of time.

Sectors highly impacted by COVID-19

It’s no secret that there are sectors which have suffered severely from the pandemic. Sectors such as the Catering, Sports, Leisure and Aviation sectors have seen record-level losses over the last six months due to the restrictions they have to abide by.

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