Should I employ a quantity surveyor or use 4G consultancy?

Should I employ  a quantity surveyor or use 4G consultancy?

Which is more cost effective employing a quantity surveyor or 4G consultancy?

There are additional costs to consider when you employ a quantity surveyor or estimator, remember these are costs that require paying throughout their employment.

Basic salary

The basic salary required to employ a quantity surveyor or estimator is banded between £50,000 and £80,000.

Demand is likely to increase the lower end of the salary banding over the coming years.

Bonus

Yes bonus!, quantity surveyors and estimators are in the majority of cases incentivised by substantial bonuses linked to the commercial performance they achieve for the company

These can start at 10% of their salary without an upper ceiling, so based on the above salaries this could be between £5,000 and £8,000.

Employers national insurance contributions

If you employ a quantity surveyor or estimator on the lower end salary, £50,000, the national insurance contributions will be around £6,500 per year

Pension

Compulsory pension contributions are likely to be in the region of 3% of their salary, adding even more to the final cost of a quantity surveyor or estimator for your company.

Private medical cover

An employee will expect a good level of private medical cover as part of their employment package, expect this to cost you around £2,500 per year.

Company car

Traditionally a car allowance is calculated as 10% of the quantity surveyor or estimators salary, allow £5,000 in line with the lower end of the salary and up to £8,000 + for the higher end.

Don’t forget the running costs of insurance and fuel

Recruitment agency fees

By using a recruitment agency you could get a greater number of candidates to interview, offering a greater choice.

If one of these candidates is then employed, expect to pay between 12 and 18% of final salary, at 15% of the lower end of the salary this would equate to £9,075.

Human resources and legal costs

When you have found some suitable candidates, costs will be incurred with background checks, interviews, preparing contracts. This could amount to £2,000 per employee.

I.T equipment and  phones

If you are adding new IT equipment for your new quantity surveyor or estimator, expect the cost of a new computer, software licenses, mobile phone, landline phone and some I.T support to cost in the region of £5,000

Training and line manager

All companies are expected to develop and support their employees, a conservative budget of £1,000 for essential training.

A portion of management time and integration time will amount to £2,750

So, what’s does this all add up to?

With a basic salary of £50,000 the total first year cost of a newly employed quantity surveyor or estimator is over £90,000

Holidays, sickness and non productive time

Don’t expect to get 100% productivity out of a full time employee, there are several times throughout the year that they will be paid when you are not getting any work produced

  • Holiday entitlement
  • Bank holidays
  • Sickness
  • Breaks and general time not working

The actual time where the employee is fully productive is in the region of 80%

How can 4G Consultancy save me money?

You will see from the information above there are lots of costs to consider, this can put a lot of financial pressure on a company especially if you are a relatively small team or new startup.

  • Our services don’t require you to commit to us full time, we are here when you need us.

  • When you don’t need any quantity surveyor or estimating support you are not paying a penny.

  • We don’t charge you for a company car or private medical cover.

  • You don’t suffer from non productive time or sickness as we are not employed by you.

contact 4G consultancy before you employ a quantity surveyor
Book a free consultation to find out more