In this blog series, you will find out that the skills gap is very real, in the construction industry, challenging companies to increase their agility and innovation in hiring and training workers.

Employee turnover rate in the construction industry hovers around 20% worldwide, unfortunately, employee turnover for the 24 or younger bracket can get as high as 65%. Employee turnover refers to the proportion of employees who leave an organization over a set period (often on a year-on-year basis), expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers.

Turnover costs a lot of money, it varies largely according to the performance level of the individual doing the job. Turnover is not always bad though, if a poor performer is leaving the company, it could be considered as a benefit as the cost of replacing him or her would be lower than if she or he was staying. Your employee’s retention policies should be designed to retain talents and encourage poor performers to leave.

The reasons for staying or leaving organizations deal with emotions and human issues so designing the right retention policies cannot be done scientifically. Each organization needs to decide what their acceptable voluntary turnover targets are and what categories of people they need to retain in order to optimize their efficiency and profitability.

Replacing employees will cost you:

• For a low hourly wage 16% of their annual base pay
• 20% of a mid-level employee’s annual salary
• Executives with specialized skills and education costs may go up to 213% of annual salary. For construction companies, losing a highly-skilled worker or a top engineer in the middle of a project can be devastating. It can derail months of work and cause interminable headaches.

The pandemic created a situation where the construction industry has a large number of available positions and a limited labor pool to fill those positions. Firms have to think innovatively to prevent their valuable personnel to find greener pastures in a different company.

Here are some tips to avoid this to happen.

5 Effective Ways to Retain Workers in the Construction Industry

BAITS is an acronym that can help you design your retention policies taking into account:

• Benefits
• Applications
• Instruction
• Technology
• Safety

Benefits should be presented to and approved by your people

In the current situation where employees can easily switch companies, it is important to make your employees be dependable and be loyal to you. To make sure that you can differentiate yourself from other employers you should offer to your employees benefits that make positive contributions to their personal lives, on top of decent salaries. If you care about your employees, they will hesitate to look somewhere else. They are working for you, not because they like the job, but because they need to provide for their families. If you help them achieve that, you will engender trust.

Here are some examples of what you could offer:

• employer pension investment contribution
• health insurance options that allow them to save money and beat the waiting list
• bonus schemes that are attractive and achievable
• flexible time off.

Everyone offers basic benefits! Offer more and your employees will remain dutiful to you.

Applications and Software should be relevant and up to date

Automating your processes will make your employees feel that their workday is struggle-free, a great way to retain them.

People are leaving their job because they are frustrated. If you make available the right applications and management software to your team, irritation will alleviate. Management applications and software are collaborative tools that can help intensify productivity and efficiency. Projects get completed quicker with fewer and happier people.

Using management construction software makes it easier for employees to share plans, scopes, contracts, tasks, schedules, and verify requirements during the design phase with Plannerly. During the construction phase using Procore they will be able to discuss and share models and schedules, review blueprints, budget, profiles of subcontractors, send images, documents, and communicate with each other.

Your employees will have access from anywhere, at any time, to all critical information to accomplish their tasks easily, collaboratively, in a secure way. You will kill two birds with one stone, reducing the nuisance of the day to day miscommunication and increasing productivity. It’s a win-win as your profitability will go up and your employees will remain loyal to you.

Instruction and training opportunities are encouraged

To keep your employees for the long term, your place of work must provide them with career plans and development opportunities. In other words, not only offering them a job but also a career. To achieve that you will have to create a system of progression through continuous learning and encourage your employees to make the most of it.

In order to increase productivity while also retaining employees, provide them with training and learning opportunities. Automate and systemize your processes so that your employees will have to use new technologies as an opportunity for them to pick up new skills, even if it means just learning to use an easy application to track their time and expenses. They will feel that they take part in the modernization of your procedures which will substantially uplift their morale.

If you provide your staff with the opportunity to upskill, by giving them access to knowledge, they will become more confident and productive and will be happier to work for your company. In fact, by providing them with a variety of skills they can use in their work, you also give them the opportunity to become effective and be able to progress laterally or vertically alongside a track that will give them the momentum to stay around.

Make sure that they understand that your company is providing them a future by learning, so they will not be tempted to see if the grass is greener at another employer. Having them stay and grow, helps them to keep their knowledge, their experience, and their loyalty. It also helps you to satisfy your customers and make more money.

Technology usages are continuously renewed

Technology is evolving rapidly at aggressive rates. New products are introduced on the market almost daily, that were not even considered to possibly be used in the construction industry a few years ago.

The signs of progress made thanks to Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Augmented Reality to name a few, have simplified and made boring tasks interesting, boosting the morale of the troops.

For example:

• robotics lets construction machinery such as diggers and dozers operate autonomously. A multitude of robotic equipment can replace specialized construction tasks including welding, drilling, and bricklaying. Operating a robot helps enhance safety in the work environment and requires a new set of skills that your staff can learn and evolve with.
• Augmented reality (AR) will transform the ways people work, learn, play, shop, and connect with their environment. In architecture, engineering, and construction, AR is the integration of digital 3D models with real-world building sites. It is:
  • a communication tool that allow efficient collaboration blending design and construction teams in a combined virtual and real environment, creating a shared experience.
  • a useful process, from design conceptualization to ongoing operations and maintenance boosting employee productivity and loyalty, as well as improving the company profitability. It is a win-win solution.

Introducing technology in your services and processes becomes a strategy to enhance and grow your company.

• work out with your employees how to embrace the new possibilities it opens.
• think out of the box, the world is moving forward, and there is no reason to stay stuck in the past.

Safety in physical work must be paramount

In the construction industry, there is more physical labor and more possibility for injuries than in other industries. Accidental injuries can happen if you are working in an office but there is no comparison to falling off a roof, getting run over by a concrete truck, or getting electrocuted.

Providing your employees with better than average health care benefits can make a huge difference in your staff loyalty. But to ensure the safety of your workforce you should develop and enforce a strong employee safety program. The program's adherence to Health and Safety rules will reduce your risk and liability, it will also establish, that you have their welfare at heart. Everyone in the industry understands that Health and Safety rules are arduous and may be disproportionate, but they are effective and will enhance your reputation when it comes to employee safety. That reputation is priceless, especially in an industry where accidents happen. Your employees will feel respected.

A small improvement in your work environment may significantly increase your staff loyalty, having a place or area where they can take breaks, providing food and water to ensure they are fit for work.

You will also save money and time on your projects as you will have fewer interruptions due to accidents, delighting your clients and improving your profitability.

In Conclusion

The construction industry needs to develop leadership as a skill so it needs to be learned, edged, trained, and developed. If you are not training your people in leadership, those skills will deteriorate.

You need to invest in all your people. Don't expect to get immediate results. Be patient. The return on investment will take time but will reap greater profit.

Investing in people is difficult as you can’t analyze it, you can’t quantify it. But you will get a return on investment in the end.

Figure out how to effectively invest in people to reduce your employee turnover and you will have a strong competitive edge.

To make your people happy you have to hire and train the right people, offer an engaging, connected, and caring culture, will make you more attractive to prospective employees and clients.

Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now