COVID POSITIVES WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC TURNED OUR WORKING LIVES UPSIDE DOWN IN MARCH 2020, SURVEYORS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY HAD TO ADAPT TO NEW WORK PRACTICES SUCH AS WORKING FROM HOME AND REMOTE VIEWINGS/INSPECTIONS ALMOST OVERNIGHT. SIXTEEN MONTHS LATER, MANY OF THE INNOVATIONS THEY ADOPTED HAVE BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL THAT THEY ARE LIKELY TO BE RETAINED AS WE MOVE TOWARDS A FULL REOPENING OF SOCIETY. WE SPOKE TO SURVEYORS FROM A RANGE OF SECTORS ABOUT HOW THEY’VE ADAPTED, AND HOW COVID-19 HAS CHANGED THE FUTURE OF THEIR SECTOR.
Building surveying – Sabrina Mackin “Building surveyors were using digital tools/platforms before the pandemic, although the construction and property industry have been ‘late adopters’ generally. Surveyors quickly pivoted and innovated during Covid-19 to ensure that we continued to deliver to clients. Innovations have included virtual surveys and virtually assisted client walk rounds, virtual contractor claim reviews and certifications. We adhered to Government and Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) guidance. Where we could conduct physical inspection, we did so with the greatest attention to health and safety, including ensuring that the building was vacant, wearing masks, sanitising surfaces, etc. One of the practices that is likely to be retained is video conferencing. At this point everyone has Zoom/Teams fatigue, but these platforms certainly did keep business moving in the last year. I believe that we will still use these, especially for meetings where there are several people in different locations. In the long term we will be more digitally adept. I also believe that we will be more fluid in our approach to being ‘in the office’. As surveyors, it is very important to learn by example, and that is done best by shadowing a more experienced surveyor, both during inspections and in the office on calls and writing reports. The need to collaborate face to face certainly will not go away, but we’ll be more agile in our approach. Client instructions didn’t stop because of the pandemic, so we learned that to be able to keep an instruction or a client, you have to pivot and adapt, within the statutory and professional guidelines of course. We’ve learned that we work better with strong links with other surveyors, and the support network and resources of the SCSI. I feel very positive about the future for building surveyors. In the pandemic, building surveyors supported each other, and we took time to look beyond our own businesses to the next generation. We strengthened links with our university building surveying programme, and we arranged as many CPDs as possible.”
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SURVEYORS JOURNAL Volume 11, Issue 2, Summer 2021
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AT THIS POINT EVERYONE HAS ZOOM/TEAMS FATIGUE, BUT THESE PLATFORMS CERTAINLY DID KEEP BUSINESS MOVING IN THE LAST YEAR.
