At the start of March, Lea Hough partner Paul Dignan met up with representatives from four other Chartered Surveying firms from across Northern England in what’s become an annual best practice meet up.
Taking place at the Devonshire Arms on the Bolton Abbey Estate, Skipton, representatives from Chartered Surveying firms LHL Group in Yorkshire, Hyde Harrington in Cumbria, Bradbury Consulting in Cheshire and Gray Scanlan Hill in Manchester attended for a full day’s worth of knowledge sharing.
The idea originated in 2018, with Paul proposing a meet up with a number of Chartered Surveyors who he had encountered over the years, all of whom were directors in similar practices to Lea Hough – i.e. regional, medium sized, privately owned, multi-discipline practices carrying out across a mix of commercial building surveying and residential survey / valuation work.
The proposal was an informal get together to discuss best practices, business and industry challenges, and to see if, through discussion, there might be things to learn from each other’s firms and ideas to take back and put into place with the aim of improving business practices.
The first meeting took place in 2018, and was a big success – with a wide range of topics discussed, from technology to human resources, training to RICS compliance.
Topics covered this year included Coronavius, flexible working, mental health, insurances and new technologies. Plenty of stories were exchanged, and tips and ideas shared in what was an extremely productive and useful meeting.
Paul Dignan, Partner, commented:
“It’s all too common for professional practices to be so busy competing that they miss the opportunities to learn from each other!
“Our industry, just like others, has universal issues that every firm has to face and by sharing ideas with other practices, it’s possible to find better ways of dealing with them.
“From the initial idea to arrange a short meeting with other regional Chartered Surveying practices, it’s developed into something that has become an annual day of learning and development. I would highly recommend the approach for other Surveying firms, and professional practices in other disciplines alike.”
