Career Profile
Joe Madden BSc Hons MRICS
Senior Building Surveyor
Glasgow
The Academy
In future, a key challenge for our business will be to employ and retain high-quality staff. The Academy is our response to the testing recruitment conditions that we continue to face in the construction and property industries. The widening skills gap is producing a lack of good quality graduates and candidates at every level. At Watts, we are fully aware of the challenge this poses to our business: it is vital that we demonstrate our commitment to training and personal development in order to attract, and keep, the best professional staff.
Since the Academy was launched in October 2006, we have successfully upgraded our graduate programme. We are now developing a carefully structured professional development scheme for aspiring managers within our organisation, with management training bespoke to individual requirements as identified by Lead Directors.
We are now implementing year one of the Academy five-year plan. Key objectives to-date have been for each office to put in place:
- a graduate training programme that is in accordance with the requirements of the relevant professional bodies and appropriate to business needs.
- a technical CPD programme, which will be continuously reviewed and amended according to business need. The related learning resources will be made available to the rest of the business.
We are strongly focussed on developing flexible, dynamic members of staff, who are capable of identifying and responding rapidly and effectively to future opportunities and threats within our markets.
The Academy sets our business apart from our competitors. It gives a strong message to prospective employees that we are confident of our skills and specialist expertise and are prepared to support their career development through a broad range of learning strategies. Our clients are left in no doubt that we invest heavily in our staff in order to maintain the high standards that they expect when they commission our advice and expertise.