December 2019 Newsletter

Seasons Greetings and welcome to the last CGC newsletter for 2019!

Despite the festive nature of Christmas month, the job market is in full swing with plenty of jobs waiting to be snapped. December has been highlighted by strong growth across the sectors.

In this issue we will hear from Billy Versey with his insight on the industry. Also, Mikaila O’Brien will cover social events that have taken place in December, amongst which are birthdays, work promotions, new arrivals and of course, the CGC Christmas party!

2019 Industry wrap, Billy Versey

It’s been a topsy-turvy year for the construction sector, where we have seen companies flourish & hiring a huge amount of people but on the other hand unfortunately, we have seen the demise of some. Speaking to clients across several sectors it seems the industry sometimes consumes itself by being too aggressive with pricing leaving little margin for error or projects being delivered to the detriment of their staff, consultants and ultimately the client and end user!

Good initiatives have been pushed forward by companies, the best being a 5-day site week. This would be a real game changer for the industry but it’s up to the clients to embrace this and accept the true cost of delivering a project! Think about the men and women on site every Saturday, missing their kids weekend activities, family time or time for real R&R. Time will tell whether this is adopted across the industry..

Throughout 2019 we have seen some amazing projects completed including

• Northern Beaches & Westmead Hospitals
• Parramatta Stadium
• 105 Philip St, (6-star Green Start)
• Anzac Memorial
• 100 Mount St
• Arc by Crown,
• Parklea Correctional
• Williamtown RAF

Within the infrastructure sector we have seen projects like.

• NRT,
• North Connex,
• West Connex
• Airport North & South,
• Newcastle Light Rail
• Sydney Light Rail

Companies across industry that have seen an increase in workload have enjoyed a relatively good market for talent acquisition due to major projects being completed, which has increased the talent pool. This has also been compounded by projects being pushed back due to political uncertainty, financial commitment or planning issues which has seen projects stall and therefore increasing the talent pool longevity.

Here at CGC we predict that the talent pool will decrease throughout 2020 with several major projects kicking off / ramping up including.

• Metro City and South West
• Metro Stations Overland Developments (Pitt St, Martin Place, Crows nest & waterloo)
• Parramatta Light Rail
• Liverpool and Campbell Town Hospital
• The Casino, Barangaroo Central
• The Fish Markets

The list goes on!

The question is will companies find enough qualified construction professionals to deliver these projects while maintaining work/life balance, margins and a quality product? The best candidate attraction is the company’s culture, reputation and career / personal development opportunities on offer. Projects and salary do come in to play but people want to work in a collaborative environment and where hard work is recognized.

Will this change in 2020 and beyond? Only time will tell. Maybe the procurement model needs to change or perhaps clients will start to understand that “value” and “cost” are two very different things and the cost of life is a real thing to consider when accepting a bid.

CGC Social

Silly season is here! A lot of celebrations this month.

Quick shoutout though (which hasn’t been mentioned yet), to Jamie Ryde and Dan Kundi on their lifestyle changes to fatherhood! We have Chloe the beach babe and big boy Max, both beautiful bundles of joy.

The CGC Chrissy party! We began the day with a visit from Santa who distributed the Kris-Kringle gifts. We had gifts ranging from hair gel and glasses cleaner for Ollie, obligatory handkerchief and shaving cream for Jim, La La Land books for Danyelle, Grumpy old man goods for Mat, Karl’s application for a televised dating show, Bourbon for Rob which was half-finished before 10am, the face of Jade’s dog on a pillow, Peppermint Tea for Nick, a pie for Carmel.. oh wait she got tree decorations this time.

We then hit Rose Bay for beach cricket, where Steve’s team won fair and square. Good job on picking a very skilled side Steve!

From there we boarded a boat that took us around the harbour and over the beaches at Vaucluse for swimming, drinking, sunbathing and dancing.

Despite the scare of sharks in the harbour, we swam with no dangerous encounters. The day was finished off with lots of sunburn and a visit to Palmer & Co to carry on the night.

CGC also had a Client networking event at Barangaroo to thank them for their support, to mingle, and talk all things construction, engineering and design. We thank all those who came and hope to continue to work together in 2020. The day was a great success!

Promotions, desk moves, new starters and birthdays: We welcomed Grace to the back office team and Amy to join Jess on the Government desk, while Allyssar took over the RMS desk. Stewart got promoted to Principal Consultant and Carmel to Associate Director – all the hard work well deserved, congrats you two!

Also, a Happy Birthday to Director Jim, who’s heightened aggression at the gym must be due to ageing, and Happy Birthday to Fiona the Compliance Queen!