Innovative Ways To Battle The Workforce Shortage

The construction industry is notorious for labor turnover rates and high-risk working conditions and COVID-19 has only exacerbated this trend. Since 2019, when the coronavirus first made its presence felt, the workforce shortages have increased with each passing year. This trend shows no signs of abating.

But the challenge of being able to find and retain skilled workers is nothing new to the construction industry. In fact, skilled laborers have been in short supply for years. This is partially due to an aging workforce that is not being replaced by younger workers in the rear. The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) states that currently, twenty percent of construction workers – or one in five – are over the age of 55, with most retiring around age 61, and the field is lacking the numbers needed of a younger base at the ready to take up the slack.

However, the construction industry is attempting to combat this gap by tempting workers in other fields, such as retail, to take a second look at the building industry via higher wage offers and technology advances that are appealing to a younger workforce. In addition, while construction is a white male dominated field, promoting it as a career choice to women and minorities is also being exercised. Whether the industry can convince enough potential employees to work in construction in time to meet the demands of potential building projects remains to be seen.

COVID has only added to this declining workforce. As a result, the lack of skilled construction workers coupled with supply chain shortages due to the pandemic have left many builders and potential clients and buyers desperate. This in turn has led to increased salary demands from employees and potential employees, resulting in higher costs in building projects. In some cases, project owners are delaying or canceling building projects altogether.

Ironically, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as other COVID relief stimuli programs, designed to build America back better and address the country’s aging infrastructure issues and need for new job opportunities, is in many ways exacerbating the industry’s labor and skills shortages. As construction spending increases and more projects are slated to be built, the glare of workforce shortages becomes blinding.

EMPLOYMENT NEEDS VERSUS AVAILABILITY
ABC paints a bleak picture of construction labor market conditions for the remainder of 2022 and 2023. The organization estimates that the industry will need to hire 650,000 more workers – in addition to its normal hiring levels. Unfortunately, those numbers of employees needed are just not there, nor are there enough skilled workers in the mix to ensure the safety of employees and the buildings they construct. This means that those low skilled employees who do enter the industry in the year ahead will have to acquire specialized skills at a record pace without jeopardizing the well-being of all concerned.

Another challenge facing the construction industry is a generational gap. The younger generations that would normally be slated to fill positions left by those retiring – Millennials and Gen Z – have grown up in the age of the Internet and their methods of communicating are different from their predecessors – Baby Boomers and Gen X – the very people who are doing the hiring. They are also more ethnically diverse. Tried and true recruitment efforts of the past do not work for today’s young people. Selling a career in construction has to speak to the demands and interests of these younger generations, and construction companies will need to be more welcoming and culturally adaptive.

FINDING ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO FILL THE GAP
The new federal infrastructure funding of $550 billion being threatened by construction labor shortages means that this program may fall short of the benefits it is intended to produce. The construction industry will need to be creative in its hiring practices if it is to keep up with the demand of both infrastructure projects and other building developments and deal with cost increases due to labor issues. Here are some ways this can be done:

Lobbying for Immigrant Workers
One immediate way to combat labor shortages is by promoting more immigration. Foreign workers are often attracted to the better wages found in the U.S. and many would gladly train for construction jobs. But current immigration policies ignore what could be a deep well of talent trained and at the ready to fill construction jobs.

Revamping Hiring and Retaining Policies
Construction companies need to focus on their policies of hiring and then retaining workers. Competition is great for good employees, so firms need to make sure they attract the best and then keep them happy by providing better pay, continuous training, great benefits, on-going career opportunities, and a welcoming work environment.

Appealing to a More Diverse Workforce
The labor pool in the U.S. is diverse today, so construction firms must build a culture that is healthy and welcoming, and that goes beyond the goal of just filling positions. This will involve team training so that the values of the company start at the top on down, with management and field leaders who are trained in people skills geared towards employees of different demographics.

Promote a Construction Trade Career to Students
Construction managers and CEOs need to build relationships with secondary and post-secondary schools to promote the idea that learning a trade, such as construction, is equally as valuable as going to college. This can involve holding in-person seminars on campuses where students are made aware of the fact that the construction field has unlimited potential when it comes to growth, pay and career opportunities. Pointing out to students that construction workers can make an average annual wage of

$50,000, with more experienced employees taking home $76,000 or more per year, and then contrasting that with the U.S. average wage of $46,000 to $69,000 annually, even among college graduates, could be very appealing to many high school and college students. Offering students internship and mentorship opportunities is another way to snag future employees.

Pro-Active Hiring Practices
Construction companies can’t complain about shortages in the workforce if they aren’t pro-active in their hiring practices. This means accepting the fact that workers aren’t going to just show up on the doorstep, begging for jobs. Instead, the companies themselves need to go out and find them – and then create an environment that retains them.

This starts with creating a new position that is in charge of hiring. But don’t hamstring this person in the process. The “hiring director,” if you will, must be provided with a an adequate budget in order to place want ads, create web pages, and accept a continuous stream of applications.

Next, give employees bonuses if they tip off their friends, relatives and former co-workers about job opportunities that result in jobs filled. If a company works with sub-contractors, those contractors can also receive a reward for each job applicant they tell that results in a hire.

Also, be competitive in pay packages. Offer great wages, benefits, health insurance and other extras that will attract potential workers. And finally, make it easy for people to know about job opportunities – via signage on trucks, in windows and on job sites, and by manning a table at job fairs and conducting seminars at high schools and colleges that advertise the opportunities and job openings in construction.

LET TECHNOLOGY CAN PICK UP THE SLACK
While labor shortages can encumber construction companies from completing current projects and taking on new ones, technology – already in the pipeline before the pandemic – can offer a helping hand in filling jobs. For example, technology can tackle less time-intensive work and rework via virtual and augmented reality that allows workers to view 3D modules, apply ground markings, and check build progress against specifications. Technology enables workers to accomplish more in less time which helps companies complete jobs on time and on budget.

Another benefit of technology is that it provides contractors with a way to integrate and manage new employees by familiarizing them with the tasks at hand. Plus, younger workers often bring diverse skills and the ability to adopt technology quickly and easily. And Millennials and Gen Z tend to love anything to do with technology but may not realize that construction is an industry that can provide them with the chance to be a part of the latest in technological advances.

It is the physical world meets the digital one, and promoting that fact can make construction a more attractive career choice to a whole new generation.