Ottawa Real estate Recruiters
You See The Big Picture. So Should Your Team.
They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they forget to mention is that it wasn’t built alone either. It takes a special kind of vision to be able to look at a plot of land and see a thriving metropolis, a bustling port, or a steaming industrial sector.
You have that vision, and so must your team.
Perry-Martel builds executive teams around a unified vision, with long term growth and stability in mind, so you never have to take your eyes off the horizon.
some Ottawa REAL ESTATE Client Testimonials
Ottawa Real Estate Recruiters Since 1988
Perry-Martel International have been real estate recruiters in Ottawa since 1988, helping developers assemble their executive teams and mount their projects on the skyline profitably since 1988.
Starting with the Holland-Cross Project, they were quickly drafted to lead recruiting for three real estate clients building Constitution Square. Other notable Ottawa projects include the World Exchange Plaza, and the Corel Centre which became home to Canada’s newest hockey team the Ottawa Senators.
The sale of Campeau Corporation’s industrial real estate portfolio to Bramalea coincided with a large cohort of real estate executives leaving Ottawa. Perry-Martel followed that talent to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, the USA and London England. Play next
The goal in hiring isn’t to find the best talent looking for work... or at least it shouldn’t be. So what should it be? Finding the best talent period. Today that means recruiting leaders who already have jobs - good jobs.
Real Estate Recruiting: No Longer a Family Affair
For the last twenty years, demand for executive talent in Ottawa’s real estate industry has been low compared to Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Until as recently as five years ago, even the growth of new space for ‘technology’ companies in Ottawa was handled by local Ottawa real estate builders. and local real estate brokers. But as the demand for rental property grew and outpaced supply, Ottawa’s real estate companies including home builders, real estate brokers, institutional, commercial , and office real estate developers have needed to recruit new blood or risk loosing more and more business to new market entrants.
Consequently, real estate firms of all types in Ottawa have needed to start recruiting executive level talent for our city. In some cases, Ottawa real estate companies have even looked outside Canada. What began as a trickle quickly became a downpour.
That was just the start of the changes to Ottawa’s real estate industry.
A Demanding Supply Issue for Ottawa Real Estate Developers
Over the last three decades, demographics, attrition, and globalization have profoundly affected the labor supply in Ottawa. The competition for the best real estate executives is now truly global. The result: a scarcity of real estate talent in Ottawa in general, and executive talent in particular.
According to according to the Real Estate News Exchange (RENX.ca),
“Ottawa is also one of the most affordable of all North American markets (fourth-cheapest of the 50 markets), costing $44.7 million for a 500-person tech company leasing 75,000 square feet of office space.”
As Ottawa’s attractiveness has continued to grow and Invest Ottawa continues to attract more technology businesses the likes of Amazon, the demand for office and commercial space has risen and so too the need for apartment rentals, condos as well as restaurant and service space. All real estate has soared in value, starting with single family homes
As mentioned recently in the Globe & Mail,
“The booming Canadian technology industry is outpacing the country’s ability to fill in talent gaps, causing employers to look beyond the nation’s borders for high-tech hires.”
All this to say, the growth in tech will be fueling demand for new real estate for a long time to come.
Why is This Happening?
In a way, the real estate industry is a victim of its own success.
Ottawa has grown so quickly in recent years that labour hasn’t been able to keep up—and the labour shortage statistics show it. Ottawa has always taken care of its own. However, you can look to the sky in nearly any part of Ottawa and see new builds reaching for the stars which are being built by real estate developers from outside Ottawa..
Real estate Demand has outstripped supply in all areas of construction including the supporting trades. Talent at every level is being imported to Ottawa.
So too, Ottawa’s red-hot rental market. Builders are facing a double challenge: recruiting workers in the face of an increase in demand for labourers in the USA; and maneuvering in a tight market.
Real Estate Recruiters Now Face a Scarcity of Executive Talent
The Ottawa real estate industry reflects a global shortage of leaders. A shortage that is driving companies to aggressively seek the best and move more quickly than many Ottawa companies are accustomed to.
In this talent-hungry environment, the rules of recruiting have changed. It’s no longer enough to passively collect résumés or call an employment agency to hire a site superintendent. No!
The executives who have the talent you need — who can manage complex projects, bring in new clients, or lead your organization — are already employed. They can take their pick of top opportunities and will make a career move only if the opportunity is truly compelling.
Waiting around in the hopes that the ideal executive will miraculously become available precisely when needed is wishful thinking. Ottawa is on the precipice of the type of exponential growth Toronto endured from the mid-80s to the present day. Ask David and he’ll tell you that,
Not one Toronto builder was prepared to recruit in the candidate driven marketplace that hit in the late 80s and lasted nearly three decades. Ottawa doesn’t have to be unprepared. Now is the right time to address this issue.
“FIT” – Why Attracting the Right Real Estate Executive is Hard Work
If you want to ensure your company’s survival by hiring great leaders with the ability to lead today’s multi-generational workforce, you’ll need some effective way to find them, to hire them, and to ensure they stick around. Recruiting correctly is hard work and in the years to come, it will only get harder due to three key trends:
- Demographics: A lower birth rate in North America combined with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation has resulted in a contraction of available executives. In other words, when an older executive retires, few younger workers are qualified to fill his shoes.
- Brain-drain: In the 1980s and 1990s, companies may have saved money by trimming senior management ranks. But that brain drain coupled with attrition robbed them of their ability to grow the next generation of leadership and in Ottawa’s case people have been leaving the city in droves for decades to find work. Recruiting those people back is tricky because wherever they live now – the same problem also exists.
- Globalization: Companies in first-world countries have expanded their market around the globe. At the same time, countries that were once considered third-world nations have become economic powerhouses. As a result, the global need for construction executives who can build to North American standards has been pushed beyond our capacity to produce it.
All this is to say that,
You need to look at executive recruiting a little differently than the average recruiter does.
Recruiting New Real Estate Development Leadership is Critical
Strong leadership is more important than ever. Companies with great leaders significantly outperform their peers. At the same time, globalization, attrition, and changing demographics have led to a scarcity of executives. As a result, the competition for top leadership talent is fierce.
In spite of this, most real estate recruiters only attempt to recruit those people who are currently looking for work — the ones posting on job boards or responding to help wanted ads.
However, your goal in hiring an executive isn’t to find the best talent currently looking for work; it’s to find the best talent, period. And trust us: The best talent isn’t looking for work. They already have a good job.
The key to recruiting successfully now, means going after real estate executives who aren’t looking for work and may not be living in Ottawa.
Hiring the BEST? It’s Not About Money…
It Never Was. Shocking but true, the BEST executives will come to an organization not to make more money, but because of what the organization stands for and what it’s going to achieve.
Work is personal. To attract the construction industry’s top executives, you need a systematic approach to finding them, engaging their interest, and assessing their alignment with your goals.
Your requirement for people with tenacity, real talent, and dogged determination can only be satisfied by using a recruiter who can match those qualities for your recruitment drive with a system and a process so refined it’s all but invisible.
Your executive recruiters need to be your “success partners” – people who already know who to talk to, can cold-call executives where they work, get their attention, raise your proposition above the background noise of the marketplace, keep at it tenaciously for however long it takes – be it weeks or months – and be intelligent enough to present the same opportunity in creative new lights until the persuasion works.
In a word, your success partner has to know your organizational structure creates your business opportunities, and then work with you until you are successful. Knowing what’s important to a construction company means looking beyond job titles and compensation tables, especially in a post COVID world where sudden changes and uncertainty are the norm.
Knowing how to evaluate the worth of someone’s contribution is the important element. Being able to assess a candidate’s star performance capabilities defines the difference between average and extraordinary.
Perry-Martel: Experienced Ottawa Real Estate Recruiters
Perry-Martel has developed a unique insight in the real estate industry because of our history with the people and companies that make the news, and because we have always concentrated on the special relationships that clients and candidates form with each other.
As real estate recruiters, we understand the value of relationships. we Know you’re not looking to just fill in a box on your organization chart. Perry-Martel create ‘value chains’ between you and your senior staff with a vested interest in your company’s success.
Knowing the nuts and bolts of the real estate industry is not enough. As seasoned real estate recruiters, we take the time to get to know the inner workings of your company: its offerings, people, and culture. This goes beyond skill sets and resumes.
You want professionals who match their values to your value requirements. You should share a similar vision. Only then will there be a successful fit for you and your candidate — and your future growth prospects.
By conducting a detailed SWOT Analysis, providing the latest innovations in executive recruiting, and creating exclusive business models and processes, Perry-Martel clients benefit from a faster, smoother, and more reliable search process which brings them exactly what’s desired … exceptional leadership.
We fuse strategy, values, and behavioral science with ‘guerrilla marketing tactics‘ to deliver what others say cannot be done, through a uniquely open, honest, and transparent process. Our Inside-Out Methodology which has been written about in the books, Executive Recruiting for Dummies and Hiring Greatness, highlights how you have a strategic partner in using Perry-Martel A partner that understand real estate recruiting and in invested in the successful and timely completion of your search.
If you’re ready to build a winning executive real estate team, stocked with the best talent money alone can’t buy, then call us at 613.236.6995.
At Perry-Martel, we guarantee Extraordinary Executive Search and insure your project with a 1-year Warranty.
Real Estate Recruitment
Case Studies
Real Estate Recruiters:
- Office & Mixed Use
- Residential High Rise
- New Home Building
- ICI: Industrial - Commercial - Institutional
Real Estate recruitng - roles filled
- Chief Executive Officer
- Rainmaker
- President
- Managing Director
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief Estimator
- Chief Architect
- Chief Marketing Officer
- Chief Human Resources Officer
- Vice President Client Care
- Vice President Engineering
- Vice President Finance
- Business Development
- Vice President Marketing
- Vice President Sales
- Vice President Architecture
- Vice President Planning
- Vice President Operations
- Vice President Human Resources
- Construction Manager
- Director of Engineering
- Senior Construction Manager
- Sie Superintendent
- Project Manager
- Architect
- Supervisor of Accounting