Bridging the Gap in the Construction Industry
Green covers blanket the buildings, cranes tear up the skylines - despite the plummeting economy, and Britain still seems to be in the midst of a commercial building boom. While other sectors are cutting back, the commercial building industry is not, with the problematic result of a sharp shortage in construction workers to fill the increasing demands of the companies.
The shortage of skilled construction workers becomes increasingly evident when looking at last year’s figures. In 2007, 13,000 building projects were started, and around 87,600 workers are needed to support these projects. The skill deficiency is widespread, extending to both the trade and non-trade. In the common trades, the biggest annual requirements are in wood and electrical trade, as well as brick layers and building specialists. In non-trades, all from construction managers, business processes managers, office-based IT recruits, to architects, professional and technical staff are on high demand.
These shortages are mainly a consequence of three variables: 1) the demands of the building boom; 2) the decline in the number of East Europeans in the trade; 3) the misconceptions about construction work that recruiters have.
The first reason, which was discussed previously, is relatively obvious - the more construction projects there are, the more recruits that need to be hired to do the job.
As many of the highly-skilled workers in the British trade were often of Polish origin, the impact of the construction boom in Poland is keeping a lot of Poles at home, which is a massive loss for British construction companies.
The third reason that the UK is experiencing a worker shortage is due to recruiters’ misconceptions of what construction work actually entails. Many job hunters perceive builders as hard-hats limited to a construction site, while in reality, a lot of construction jobs are often managerial or office-based.
A variety of steps have been taken to bridge the recruitment gap in the building trade. One way this is achieved is through encouraging diversity in the work place. Instead of just hiring white males with degrees in mathematics, some companies are looking beyond traditional recruitment pools and encourage women and various ethnic groups to work in construction. The National Association of Women in Construction is one of the organisations that takes this approach and by doing so, is not only allowing for fresh ideas to be brought into the construction industry, but cultivates diversity in the workplace.
A way of increasing the number of graduates in the construction trade is by getting children interested at a young age, as the Sustainable Employment Legacy Forum and Inspire Scholarships programs have done. They not only organise trips for children to visit construction sites, but they also offer student funds, apprenticeships, and training courses to people in the poorer outskirts of London, providing younger generations with great initiatives to join the industry.
An alternative way to gather recruits is to change the way in which the industry is viewed. By making the public aware of the fact that construction work is not just about hard hats and light-reflecting mesh jackets, more people might consider construction as a career.
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