Construction Disputes - New Challenges

Brief History

October this year will mark my 11^th anniversary with Maxim Recruitment. It’s been some journey! During such time I’ve predominantly recruited for Quantity Surveyors and construction disputes staff. Working for Maxim Recruitment has allowed me to do this both domestically in the UK, but also extensively within the Overseas market.

When I started with the business back in 2007, we were in the height of the Dubai and Middle East construction boom and I played a big part in finding a large numbers of Quantity Surveyor’s their first job in the Middle East region.

Middle East & Overseas Recruitment

The Middle East recruitment was great fun. Not only could I provide assistance in introducing candidates to premium construction companies in the region, I very quickly built up a good knowledge of the cost of living, the visa process and general aspects of life such as schooling issues, where the best places to live were and exciting things to do in the region. It was great to be such a useful source of information for candidates looking to relocate to the region.

The clients I was working with in the Middle East were some of the largest and most reputable construction companies in the World, often involved on mega projects. Working with such a reputable client base meant that I had to find the best talent available in the market and this was probably the most pleasing aspect of working the Middle East market. We were constantly dealing with premium candidates. Candidates with great experience in the industry and just as importantly, candidates with a professional approach to work and the recruitment process.

All in all, it was a great experience. I was working with experienced and knowledgeable colleagues, exciting clients, promising candidates and the regular trips to the likes of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha weren’t to be sniffed at either.

Whilst I have always kept up the Middle East recruitment, there is no doubt that over the years the market has become harder and harder to recruit for. I continue to keep in contact with our historic clients and recruit for them, however the volume and frequency is nowhere near what it was 10 years ago unfortunately.

Re-establishing UK Roots

However, over the last 5 years Maxim Recruitment has really looked to re-establish its domestic operations, and that is where the majority of my time has been spent in recent years. Bringing in fellow Consultants to work with me in our new Head Office in Leicestershire where we have been rapidly growing our domestic presence in the UK market.

This has been a great success. We’ve stayed true to being a niche recruitment consultancy specialising in Quantity Surveying and Disputes roles, but we’ve been putting all of our effort into the UK market. We feel strongly that we are a market leader in recruiting QS and Construction Disputes staff and we can provide a better service to our clients specialising in this niche area of the market where our Consultants have the expertise.

Market Leaders in Construction Disputes

What we have seen is particularly strong growth in our Disputes desk. Largely spurred on by my now ex-colleague Adam Cadwaldar who had been charged with developing that side of the business.

Unfortunately Adam decided to leave Maxim last month. After 4 successful years in recruitment, he decided his long term future lie away from the Recruitment industry. As his direct line manager for over 4 years I wish him all the best in his future endeavours and thank him for his dedicated service with Maxim Recruitment.

New Personal Challenge

For me, this means that I will be performing a more hands on role in the claims and disputes sector going forward. This isn’t a particularly new sector for me as a large amount of the recruitment I did overseas was in the disputes sector. Largely finding Quantum Consultants at varying levels for reputable and specialist disputes consultancies.

Maxim has really become a market leading claims and disputes specialist recruiter in the last 6 or 7 years. We actively work with many of the market leading companies in this sector, as well as the many highly reputable small and medium sized specialists operating in the disputes market.

I’m hoping to add my own personal touch to the great work that Adam has done before me and as well as continuing to provide a great service to our UK clients in this sector, I’m really aiming to use my international recruitment experience to take this desk globally in 2019. We’re already doing a reasonable amount of disputes recruitment on a global basis via our historic overseas clients as well as our domestic clients with overseas offices. However there’s certainly room for growth in order to provide our network of candidates in this sector with the best global opportunities.

I’ll largely be working with Quantum and Delay specialists in the disputes sector. This will include general claims professionals as well as Expert staff who can work for specialist Expert Witness Consultancies.

I’ve made a real effort to get in touch with as many people within our network as possible over the last month. However I’ve still got some way to go.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you’re a professional in the disputes sector, or someone with relevant experience that is looking to make a move into this sector in the near future.

You can contact me via the UK Head Office or reach out to me initially on Linked In where I have a strong presence.

I’m looking forward to the challenges and rewards that lie ahead working as a specialist in the construction disputes sector.

About the author

Stuart Hackett

Senior Recruitment Consultant, UK

I am based from the Maxim Recruitment head office in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.  With over 10 years’ experience at Maxim, I have experience of recruiting quantity surveyors, commercial managers, project managers and a variety of other professional and technical engineering and construction roles across the UK, Middle East and in other international locations.

Latest UK Quantity Surveying Jobs: https://www.maximrecruitment.com/quantity-surveyor-jobs-uk 
Email: stuart@maximrecruitment.com