Shopping Centre Management Compensation Survey 2013
Resource type and category
Resource type: Compensation survey / industry research report
Category: Shopping Centre Management, Retail Property, Salary Benchmarking, Recruitment Research and Market Insights
Intended audience
Shopping Centre Managers, Centre Directors, Operations Managers, Facilities Managers, retail property professionals, HR and Talent Acquisition teams, property owners, managing agents and employers interested in historical salary and workforce trends within UK Shopping Centre Management.
Resource-card description
Explore the Maxwell Stephens Shopping Centre Management Compensation Survey 2013, covering salaries, benefits, qualifications, working patterns, career progression and recruitment trends across the UK sector.
Full resource-page description
The Shopping Centre Management Compensation Survey Report 2013 provides a detailed snapshot of remuneration, career development and working life across the UK Shopping Centre Management profession.
Maxwell Stephens developed the research to address a lack of sector-specific compensation information and received 209 completed surveys, estimated at the time to represent approximately 25% of Shopping Centre Management professionals across the UK.
The report was designed to support two audiences.
For professionals, the data offered a way to understand where their salary, qualifications and experience sat within the wider market.
For employers, it provided information that could support benchmarking, recruitment planning and more informed hiring decisions.
Although the figures relate specifically to 2013, the report remains a useful historical record of the structure and employment characteristics of the Shopping Centre Management sector at that point in time.
Who worked in Shopping Centre Management?
The survey found that 69.6% of respondents were male and 30.4% female.
The report noted that female representation at management level within Shopping Centre Management was higher than in Maxwell Stephens’ broader Facilities Management survey from the previous year.
Employment was overwhelmingly permanent.
The report states that 98.9% of respondents were employed on a permanent basis, suggesting a highly stable employment structure within the sector at the time.
Age demographics also reveal the experience profile of the workforce.
More than two-thirds of respondents—68.5%—were aged between 35 and 54, while only 2% were aged 18–24. The report interpreted this as evidence that Shopping Centre Management tended to favour professionals who had already developed significant knowledge and experience before moving into management-level positions.
Where respondents worked
The survey included professionals from across the UK.
The largest regional representation came from the South East at 21.4%, followed by the North East at 16.1%, North West at 15.5%, Midlands at 13.7% and London at 11.3%.
Smaller proportions were recorded in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The respondents also represented a range of Shopping Centre Management positions.
Centre Managers accounted for 63.1% of responses, making them by far the largest group.
Operations Managers represented 11.3%, Centre Directors 10.7% and Assistant Centre Managers 4.2%, alongside respondents working in Facilities Management, regional management, marketing, sales, finance and administration.
Experience versus academic qualifications
One of the most interesting findings concerns the relative importance of experience and formal education.
The survey found that 45.8% of respondents identified GCSE or A Level as their highest academic qualification, while 10.1% were educated to degree level and only 3.6% held a Master’s degree.
The report therefore suggested that Shopping Centre Management placed significant value on practical experience and sector knowledge, rather than relying exclusively on general academic qualifications.
Industry-specific development appeared to carry greater weight.
Approximately 50% of respondents held the Shopping Centre Diploma, while more than half held an IOSH qualification and almost 30% reported holding NEBOSH.
The survey also highlighted strong professional-body participation, particularly membership of the then British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC).
Continuing professional development
The report provides further evidence that professionals within the sector continued developing their knowledge throughout their careers.
Around 19% of respondents had obtained a qualification within the previous 12 months, while 28.8% said it had been seven years or more since their most recent qualification.
When asked how valuable qualifications had been in securing their current position, only 16.1% described them as extremely valuable.
More than half considered qualifications either not valuable or only somewhat valuable, reinforcing the report’s view that experience often carried greater weight than general qualifications, with sector-specific and health and safety credentials being notable exceptions.
Staying informed about the sector
Professional reading and industry awareness were also explored.
The survey found that respondents regularly used specialist publications and websites to stay informed about changes within Shopping Centre Management.
Almost 90% reported reading the Shopping Centre publication, while Retail Week and British Council of Shopping Centres material were also widely used.
The wider message remains relevant today: professionals in specialised property and Facilities Management environments benefit from keeping informed about sector developments rather than relying solely on knowledge gained earlier in their careers.
Working hours
Shopping Centre Management was shown to be a demanding profession in terms of time commitment.
The survey found that 56.5% of respondents worked between 41 and 50 hours per week, while 26.8% worked between 51 and 60 hours.
Only 14% reported working fewer than 40 hours per week.
Interestingly, the report did not identify unsociable hours as equally common.
Around 64% said they were only rarely required to work unsociable hours, while a small proportion said they were never required to do so.
The report therefore characterised long working weeks as relatively normal within the sector, while more irregular or unsociable scheduling was less widespread.
Why professionals chose Shopping Centre Management
The survey also asked why respondents had entered the profession.
The most frequently selected motivation was variety of work, chosen by 63.1%, followed by opportunities for career progression at almost 50%.
Salary was selected by 23.8%, while work-life balance was chosen by only 18.5%.
This suggests that Shopping Centre Management was valued particularly for the breadth of responsibility and opportunity for progression.
When asked why they had moved into their current position, 33.3% identified a fresh challenge and 32.7% selected career advancement or a more senior role.
Progression and professional challenge therefore feature strongly throughout the report.
Length of career in the sector
Shopping Centre Management also appeared to encourage long-term careers.
Almost 30% of participants had worked in the sector for 11–15 years, 27.4% for 6–10 years and 11.9% for 20 years or more.
Only 11.3% had worked within Shopping Centre Management for fewer than three years.
Movement between individual employers and positions was somewhat more fluid.
Around 28% had been in their current role for between one and three years, while 23.8% had remained in the same role for between five and ten years.
Salary distribution in 2013
The salary section gives a detailed historical picture of remuneration within the sector.
The largest group of respondents—33%—earned a basic salary between £46,000 and £60,000.
A further 22.6% earned between £36,000 and £45,000, while 17.5% were in the £26,000–£35,000 range.
Salary was clearly important to respondents, with 74.4% identifying pay as something they valued most in their career, while almost 40% considered benefits important when evaluating their overall compensation package.
These figures should be interpreted strictly as 2013 market data, not as current salary benchmarks.
Salary benchmarks by role
The appendix on page 14 provides one of the most valuable elements of the report: salary ranges and averages by job title.
The reported 2013 averages were:
- Centre Director: £84,500
- Regional Manager: £61,000
- Centre Manager: £46,512
- Facilities Manager: £43,909
- Operations Manager: £39,700
- Assistant Centre Manager: £29,234
- Marketing: £24,600
- Administration: £22,300
The salary ranges were also wide.
For example, Centre Manager salaries ranged from £25,000 to £99,000, demonstrating how significantly centre size, location, responsibility and organisational structure could affect remuneration.
Salary increases
The report found that 60.8% of respondents had received a salary increase during 2012 or 2013.
Most increases were up to 5%, while a smaller group—8.3%—reported increases of more than 5%.
Almost half expected their salary to increase over the following 12 months, typically by around 5%, while a similar proportion expected no change.
Again, these figures are best treated as historical evidence of the employment market during the economic conditions of the early 2010s.
Benefits and total reward
The survey also provides detailed insight into employee benefits.
Almost 70% of respondents received a pension, around 60% received health or dental insurance and more than half received a company car or car allowance.
Around 36.3% received some form of profit-sharing, bonus or commission.
When respondents were asked which benefits they valued most, pension ranked highest at 60%.
Car or car allowance followed at 37.5%, while annual leave was selected by around 29%.
Flexible working ranked much lower at just 6.5%—a particularly interesting historical contrast with the much greater emphasis placed on flexibility in the modern employment market.
Career progression and future moves
Recruitment behaviour also formed an important part of the survey.
Around 25% of respondents expected their next role to come through a recruitment agency, while almost 15% expected to be headhunted.
Nearly 30% anticipated securing their next role through a direct application to an organisation, while 20.8% expected to progress internally.
The report interpreted this as evidence that specialist recruitment agencies were particularly important for senior Shopping Centre Management appointments.
Career motivations extended beyond salary.
More than half of respondents valued recognition in the workplace, while more than 40% highlighted future career prospects.
That gave employers a clear message: pay mattered, but appreciation, development and advancement also influenced retention and career decisions.
Specialist Shopping Centre Management recruitment
The report concludes with a section on recruiting within Shopping Centre Management.
It argues that specialist hiring in retail property requires more than simply advertising vacancies.
Understanding the market, recognising candidate motivations, assessing cultural fit and knowing how to approach high-quality professionals are presented as important parts of successfully recruiting senior Shopping Centre Management talent.
Although the recruitment-market commentary reflects conditions in 2013, the broader principle remains relevant: specialist roles benefit from recruiters who understand the sector, role structure, candidate market and compensation expectations.
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