Be careful before taking on an opportunity at AY - Recensione dipendente - Senior Surveyor presso Avison Young

I do not want this to come across as an attack but in my experience there are several issues within the Place team, particularly the London development advisory team that need to be addressed if staff are going to be retained. The firm has a strong brand and that is likely a major reason why many people stay. However my experience was that the reputation often exceeded the reality of how the team operated internally. Having worked at other consultancies, I found this to be one of the less effective environments I have experienced. Following recent internal restructures, there seemed to be limited clarity around how the wider Place team operated. In particular the London development advisory team appeared to be working across commissions coming from Bristol and Leeds which made it difficult to understand how individuals were also expected to focus on business development and win new instructions. There also appeared to be a lack of leadership stability after Covid. Senior changes, restructures and turnover created uncertainty and in my view this had a negative effect on morale and confidence in the direction of the business. Within the London Place team I found the management culture difficult. My experience was that some senior members of the team had a very fixed way of working/attentive calendar stalking and if you were not aligned with that approach it could make day-to-day life challenging. At times this created a clique-like environment, where alternative views and working styles were not welcomed. In terms of business development, some of what was presented internally as momentum or new work seemed to rely heavily on pre-existing relationships from previous workplaces and existing networks rather than clearly demonstrable new business generation. That raised concerns for me about how sustainable that approach would be over time. To be fair, there were a number of very good people across the wider Place team. At the same time after repeated restructures others seemed to have been left without enough direction and were effectively drifting, which was something colleagues themselves acknowledged. More broadly one of the main reasons I felt the role was not right for me was the lack of professionalism and strong leadership at a time when the business needed exactly that. For an organisation going through significant change I did not feel the leadership culture gave people the clarity, confidence or example they needed. Also pay and compensation should be tread with caution. AY typically offered much less than their counterparts in industry for the same role.