Building a workforce fit
for infrastructure's future
When Claire joined Carter Jonas 17 years ago, the business was only around 400 strong. Today, it employs over 900 people, spanning a wide range of sectors and UK locations.
It is a number that continues to grow as the business expands and diversifies to embrace new property sectors and clients. And, while the roles across the business have changed vastly to meet these new challenges, so also have the career expectations of the individuals employed.
“Professionals today are more ambitious and expect more when it comes to their career development and work / life balance,” she explains. “To retain them in the business, to empower and motivate them, investment in our people is vital.”
The recently launched Carter Jonas People 2025 Strategy is central to ensuring that this investment is properly and effectively targeted; recruiting, developing and retaining the vital employees and partners that will lead the firm to further success.
The importance of team-based culture
So, for every member of Carter Jonas staff, their personal development plan is a crucial part of their employment – with responsibility for enacting it going in both directions. An established team-based culture means that support to make this happen comes from all directions, ensuring that, regardless of responsibility, experience or seniority, learning and development is prioritised.
The success of this strategy is underlined by the recent achievement of the Investors in People Gold Award for the firm’s People Management, Reward, and Training strategies, demonstrating to staff, clients and partners the focus that is placed on attracting, nurturing and retaining the 
“Carter Jonas is a people business,” says Matthews. “People are, without question, the most important part of our success. We try to ensure that people fulfil their potential, and also enjoy their time spent at work.”
The fact is that most people spend the majority of their waking lives either at work, travelling to and from work, or thinking about work, she explains, pointing out that successful businesses have to recognise this and ensure they respond appropriately.
That means providing the best places to work, it means structuring and developing careers, it means looking after health and welfare, it means reducing the gender pay gap, and it means training staff at all levels to ensure that they are not just keeping up but setting a long term agenda for the future.
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and the temporary closure of all Carter Jonas offices, it was necessary to make a conscious effort to maintain the team-based culture. Claire explains: “From very early on, we provided support and guidance to both line managers and employees about working from home and the importance of staying in touch – both on a work and social level.
“As well as ensuring that teams communicate well, we’ve also worked really hard to maintain communication between the management team and all employees, including those who were furloughed. Out of sight has definitely not meant out of mind, and we have strived to make sure that all employees know that. A recent survey sent to all staff while the whole firm was working from home reported that 93% felt positive towards Carter Jonas, which we were delighted to read.”
Recruiting the best property candidates
Of course, it all starts by ensuring that the businesses attract the right staff, both at a junior level via apprenticeships and graduate programmes, and through making the business attractive to mid-career experts and inspirational leaders.
“It’s a competitive market and a sector which, while well-established and multifaceted, is quite small in terms of the talent pool available,” she says. “Making Carter Jonas the employer of choice is crucial.”
As an area of growth for the business, the Infrastructures team continues to recruit new and developing talent to join their team at their hub offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Warrington, Cardiff and Winchester. And, when it comes to resourcing talent, Carter Jonas is very flexible around an individual’s professional experience. Whilst a surveying background remains a key area of interest, applications are also welcomed from a range of skillsets which can be transferred and utilised within the team to generate diversification.
“The business has deliberately set out to create this diversified offer and, while there are certainly specialists in the business, this diversity creates a great opportunity for staff to develop new skills and gain experience in different sectors,” explains Matthews.
Diversity underpinned by values
Three key values underpin the firm’s professional culture: approachable, effective and ambitious. Throughout the recruitment and talent development process, it is these values that ensure they seek out not just the right skills, competencies and potential, but also the right people for the business.
“We are totally focussed on recruiting from a diverse background and on opening up the talent pipeline to new people,” explains Matthews, introducing the Carter Jonas Diversity & Inclusion Network, launched in 2018 to drive forward the diversity agenda through events and meetings to raise awareness and implement new initiatives.
“Certainly, that means balancing our workforce in terms of ethnicity and gender, but it also means recruiting the talents of people that wouldn’t perhaps typically feel Carter Jonas or the property sector was for them.”
Continuous improvement
Not least to ensure that the business doesn’t lose talent, continuous improvement is vital. That means attracting new talent, and retaining existing staff, through flexible work initiatives such as compressed hours, part time, and working from home. There’s also a focus on bringing people back into the team, particularly post-maternity and paternity leave.
Most recently, the Infrastructures team has successfully recruited through the Daisy Chain platform, which connects parents to family-friendly employers who are looking to return to work, but balance family life and career goals. Associate Partner Jessica Graham was Carter Jonas’ first employee to be recruited to the Infrastructures team via the matching platform, saying “The whole recruitment process felt like a breath of fresh air,” adding “it is reassuring to talk to an employer who looks at people on their merit and recognises that there are ways in which we can support and work together to achieve success.”
Claire Matthews notes that “we have a pretty good retention record at Carter Jonas – once people join, they tend to stay”. “But it is something that we have to constantly work on, particularly as pressure on the availability of skills continues to grow across the sector.”
The temporary closure of offices has accelerated the trend towards more flexible working, with teams finding that they’ve been able to work very effectively from home. Claire adds: “We surveyed all staff to find out how they felt about working from home and returning to the office – through this we found that 68% would like to work from home more often than they had done previously. More flexible working practices may have made it easier for workers to manage caring responsibilities and to save on the cost and stress of a daily commute.
“Feedback like this is invaluable in evolving our working practices to ensure that we can effectively support, develop and retain our employees.”
Mental health at work
With approximately one in four people in the UK experiencing a mental health problem each year, Carter Jonas feels it’s never been more important to provide the right support and guidance to employees and line managers.
The Time to Change pledge is an external commitment to changing the way we all think and act about mental health in the workplace. Signing up to it has seen the firm establish a seven-point action plan to develop over the next 12 months, to establish and maintain an environment that supports the mental health and wellbeing of all Carter Jonas people.
One of the first steps is the partnership with LionHeart – the charity which supports the mental wellbeing of those in industries associated with RICS. This partnership has helped to provide Managing Mental Health training to line managers.
The business has also rolled out Mental Health Awareness training, providing an overview of what poor mental health can look like, and signposting available resources.
In 2018, Carter Jonas introduced a comprehensive health and wellbeing strategy, with the aim of improving the physical, mental and social wellbeing of all staff. Health & Wellbeing Champions have been established in every office and, in June 2019, this earned an Investors in People (IIP) Health and Wellbeing Best Practice Award.
Kieran joined Carter Jonas’ Birmingham office in June 2017 and, in a very short time, has progressed from a contract co-ordinator to an assistant operations manager. Continuous career development has been core to Kieran’s success, attending four of the firm’s internal Open Courses to boost her skills in team management, presentation skills, leadership & change management and project management. She has also been nominated to lead on a ‘People, Diversity & Health’ focus group for the Infrastructures team and, although the group is in its early stages, Kieran has already helped to produce an internal staff survey to help gauge where the firm is doing well, and in which areas it can improve. The results of this work will be revealed at the Infrastructures Away Day in 2020.
Dean joined Carter Jonas in November 2017 and, based in Birmingham, has progressed from Graduate Surveyor to Surveyor in just two years. His career and personal development have been assisted greatly by the firm’s Mentoring Network which, he says, has allowed him to learn from the experiences of those within the firm to achieve his goals. Specifically, the mentor relationship has provided feedback based on real experience, and has helped him to focus on achieving his personal career goals, rather than simply meeting businesses objectives. Meeting one such goal has involved him leading the firm’s School Ambassadors Network, helping children from all diversities and socio-economic backgrounds to be introduced to the property industry, and supporting the firm’s strategy to increase the diversity of talent across the business.
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