Joey Hidalgo

Estimating is not only the process of calculating what a project may cost.

It is the process of identifying uncertainty and deciding how the business should respond.

Scope gaps, market movement, programme pressure, design development, access constraints and subcontractor availability all carry commercial consequences.

A strong estimator makes those risks visible, qualifies them and reflects them in the price or tender conditions.

This is why estimating is a form of risk management.
The output is not simply a number.
It is a commercial position.

Does your estimate show where the project is exposed and how that exposure has been managed?

Hiring alone will not solve the workforce problem.

Capability must be trained, assessed and retained.

Thoughts?

People leave when decisions are slow, responsibilities are unclear and there is no visible path for growth.

Salary matters, but so do leadership, trust, workload, recognition and development.

A higher offer may attract someone initially.

A stronger working environment is what gives them a reason to stay.

Retention should be treated as a management responsibility, not just a compensation issue.

What gives your best people a reason to remain?

Risk should not be represented by one arbitrary percentage added at the end of an estimate.

Estimators should identify specific risks, assess their likelihood and potential cost, determine who carries them and decide how each one should be treated.

Some risks require pricing. Others need clarification, qualification, transfer or management.

A contingency without analysis is only a guess.

How does your team currently turn project uncertainty into a pricing decision?

Drawing revisions can destroy margin when they are not identified, measured and incorporated properly.

A small change in layout, specification or quantity can affect multiple trades, yet it is easy to miss when document control is weak.

Strong estimators maintain a clear drawing register, compare revisions and record the commercial impact of every meaningful change.

They do not assume the latest file has been reviewed simply because it is in the folder.
Revision control is part of cost control.

How does your team confirm that every tender is based on the latest complete document set?

One opportunity can change a career and strengthen an entire business.

What success story has inspired you recently?

Estimator salaries move when demand increases, candidate supply tightens and businesses compete for the same capable professionals.

But salary alone does not determine whether a role is attractive.

Candidates also consider leadership, workload, systems, flexibility, progression and the quality of the opportunity.

Businesses need to understand both market value and employee expectations.

Is your offer competitive beyond the salary figure?

Builders often lose money on variations because the work begins before the cost and entitlement are properly documented.

Labour is underestimated. Supervision, disruption, procurement, preliminaries and programme effects are overlooked. Records are gathered too late.

Variation pricing should reflect the full commercial impact of the change—not only the additional materials.

Does your variation process recover the true cost of changed work?

Tender reviews should never be reduced to a quick check of the final total.

A proper review tests the scope, quantities, rates, subcontractor coverage, assumptions, exclusions, programme and major commercial risks.

Rushing this stage increases the chance that a preventable mistake becomes a contractual obligation.

Strong review meetings create challenge, not just approval.
They ask what has changed, what remains unclear and where the business could lose money.

The objective is not to slow the submission. It is to make the price defensible.

Does your review process examine the estimate deeply enough before sign-off?

Education must create practical outcomes.

Otherwise, it is only information.

Agree?