At Cambridge Finance we strive for professionalism both in our company and through our teaching but how healthy is our professional institution which is at the heart of the industry?
From RICS viewpoint
The RICS annual review ( August ’19 to July ’20) shows some impressive figures for the institution (2018-2019 figures in brackets where available for comparison):
- 75% (80%)Agree TICS is trusted by stakeholders & society
- 82% (82%)believe that RICS effectively regulates to protect public & profession
- 72% (67%)think RICS is providing leading edge thinking on issues of global significance
- 70% (80%)agree RICS maintains professional qualifications and standards
- 46% (40%)of newly qualified professionals are based outside the UK
- 134888 professionals and candidates globally
- 110201 qualified professionals
We rely on this institution to deliver information and to provide guidance but need to take such statistics with a healthy dose of scepticism.
It is vitally important that common professional standards apply across the world to create and sustain a foundation for confident markets, for the benefit of everyone
Dame Janet Paraskeva – head of Standards and Regulations Board
External reporting
Just one week after the annual review 140 jobs were axed at RICS, prompting criticism about the announcements timing, just after the remuneration report for 2019-2020 showed the CEO of RICS taking a salary of £510,000 including bonuses. This does show a 15% voluntary pay cut by board members but does little to comfort those who have lost their jobs. Taken from an article on ‘TheNegotiator’.
The Future
RICS’ business plan for 2020-2021 shows a drive towards the digital, giving greater resilience, more adaptability and maintain a global reach.
As with all businesses RICS has seen it’s share of financial and administrative pressures, initiated by the pandemic. This has led to a reduction in operating costs and plans to improve operating effectiveness. 2020-2021 has become a year for recovery and the aim is to deliver a more resilient RICS, ensuring the profession is equipped to such challenges as presented by Covid.
Conclusion
Covid 19 has impacted on every profession and the RICS has not escaped unscathed, facing its own economic and administrative issues as a result. They are however rising to the challenge but have had to make some tough decisions such as redundancies. The push to digitalisation and the need to cut costs have necessitated reducing the payroll, although further cuts higher up the RICS chain would have shown greater sympathy.
RICS annual review 2019-2020 – https://www.rics.org/uk/news-insight/latest-news/rics-annual-review-2019-2020/
The Negotiator – https://thenegotiator.co.uk/agent-unhappiness-over-rics-cost-cutting-and-140-redundancies/
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