81% of financial services SMEs predict bumper three-year rise in projects but…
8 in 10 project professionals working for SMEs in the UK financial services sector are expecting a rise in the number of appointed projects over the next three years, according to a survey by the Association for Project Management (APM), the chartered membership organisation for the project profession.
In a positive sign for the UK economy, APM polled over 500 project professionals working for SMEs and 81% in the financial services sector said they are anticipating an increase in the total number of projects that they are working on between 2024 and 2027. In addition, 81% also anticipate an increase in project budget size in the same period.
Currently over 18% of those financial service-based SME projects professionals polled said the average size project they are working on is between £100 – £299.99k, 37% are working on projects of over £300k, and 23% are working on projects over £1m.
Financial services is predicting the second largest growth (81%) out of all 17 sectors polled behind only engineering (87%) and ahead of construction (70%).
Professor Adam Boddison OBE, Chief Executive of APM, said: “It’s very encouraging to see project professionals working across the UK’s financial services SME sector predict such a bumper rise in project growth over the coming years, despite the current challenging economic landscape.
“Project professionals play an important role in driving economic growth and our latest survey shows that the project management profession has a great deal of optimism within the built environment for the next few years. However, there are challenges that stand in the way of this expected growth becoming a reality.
“Smaller companies are less likely to employ dedicated project managers, so in many SMEs, projects will often be managed by people for whom project management is not their main skill. It is therefore important that they are provided with project management approaches that are quick to learn and simple to use but provide effective management of projects.
“To ensure the growth and development of the project pipeline, employers must first ensure that they are investing in their workforce. The successful future of projects rests heavily on those delivering them.”
The survey further revealed that 82% of the same SME financial services respondents identified skills shortages in project management at their employer with soft skills and technical skills such as personal time management, team management and solutions development ranked as the most important attributes for project delivery.
The skills gap featured prominently when the survey asked about the biggest challenges facing future project growth. The top-ranked answer was ‘technology infrastructure inadequate to meet end user needs’ (selected by 42% of respondents, followed by ‘lack of investment in training/professional development within my organisation’ and ‘economic and political uncertainty’ (both selected by 36% of respondents).
A large majority (85%) said their employer has enough time and resources to dedicate to training and development for project professionals.
While 89% said their SME places value on training and developing or upskilling project professionals.
The survey follows APM’s Golden Thread Report 2024, conducted by PwC Research, which found project management contributes to the UK economy £186.8bn of annual gross value added (GVA) – a key measure of productivity – across all sectors. This is a growth of over £30bn in five years. The financial services GVA in project management was £13.12bn.
APM is committed to developing and promoting the value of project management to deliver improved project outcomes for the benefit of society. It supports SME project professionals with memberships, qualifications, chartered status, events and its online community hub. To learn more, visit www.apm.org.uk.
