< PreviousFor years, the construction industry across North America has seen fewer skilled tradespeople enter the workforce, creating challenges in getting projects completed on time and within budget. While the labour shortage is not new, it is reaching a breaking point.Written by Robert HoshowskyBuildForce Canada’s 2014-2015 report, ‘Building a Strong and Vital Construction and Maintenance Workforce,’ estimated that over twenty percent of Canada’s existing construction workers would retire in the next ten years, with numbers going even higher in eastern provinces, up to twenty-five percent.In the United States, the situation is no better. Eighty-two percent of National Association of Home Builders’ members, when surveyed, stated their greatest concerns as the readiness of workers and the costs of their wages. The situation particularly affects smaller and medium-sized firms that do not have the financial resources of larger companies.Reasons behind the employee shortage – which has been steadily worsening for decades – are numerous and are reflected in the numbers of both older, seasoned workers who are departing the industry and fewer younger people who are entering it. During the downfall of the global economy a decade ago, with construction projects slowing down or stopping altogether, some skilled workers left the industry, never to return. And although the industry is rebound-ing, the shortfall still exists.One of the persistent factors undermin-ing the construction and manufactur-ing industries is the myth, perpetuated by high school guidance councillors for over thirty years, that such jobs are ‘dirty, dangerous, and demeaning.’ Many students who expressed interest in blue-collar jobs were instead directed toward ‘clean’ white-collar office careers by schools and parents. While some parents steered their children away from construction, citing hard work and long hours, safety risks, job uncertainty, and low wages, those in the industry argue that nothing could be further from the truth. While pay scales vary by state and province, some special-ized positions in electrical maintenance and automation offer $50 (CDN) per hour and more for experienced workers, while salaries for skilled residential carpenters are approximately $78,000 per year. Additionally, tools and equipment have evolved, as have safety regulations and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as helmets, eyewear, work boots, safety harnesses, respiratory devices, and more, making workplace danger less of an issue than in the past.11CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Despite the boom in building across much of the U.S. and Canada and the offer of well-paying jobs, the con-struction industry continues to face a shortage of workers. An estimated one million positions need to be filled, and construction companies are using a combination of traditional methods and new, unique ways to bolster their ranks. Some are turning to high schools and job fairs to demonstrate the benefits of working in the trades and recruit future employees through internships and related courses. Others are finding relat-able ways of reaching youth.Companies are going beyond well-known job recruitment websites like Monster.com and LinkedIn and increas-ingly turning towards social media sites including Facebook, Facebook Messenger ads, Twitter, and Instagram. One of the advantages of these sites and others is the ability to reach a reach a very wide audience through algorithms including likes, interests, and hobbies, targeting those who might have an interest in construction.As some companies increase their online presence to target potential young workers, others are using other methods like drones and virtual reality to attract today’s tech-savvy generation. This modern mindset also extends to training where some construction company owners are using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as valuable training tools. We live in a highly connected world, where many workers check their phones up to ten times an hour, so why not capitalize on using this screen time for training? Compared to textbooks, where information is delivered in large and sometimes overwhelming chunks, digital formats are used for smaller bits of material in video, audio, or text format, which makes teaching and learning easier.Mobile instruction is viewed at the convenience of the employee, on his or her time, no matter where he or she is located. Along with being easy to update compared to costly printed edu-cational materials, online training can actually be cheaper to provide than tra-ditional bricks-and-mortar learning, as no physical space is needed to be rented or in-class teachers to be hired.For the construction industry, the dire need for fresh talent pools of workers cannot be understated. Last April, the Vancouver Real Estate Forum met to discuss housing affordability, reported Joannah Connolly in Burnaby Now. At the forum, Concert Properties President and Chief Executive Officer Brian McCauley addressed the province’s goal of 114,000 affordable homes to be created over the next decade.“Despite the boom in building across much of the U.S. and Canada and the offer of well-paying jobs, the construction industry continues to face a shortage of workers.”MARCH 201912The issue of construction costs and a lack of labour were at the forefront of the conversation, and McCauley stated that the ambitious project “would require double the output of the current infra-structure in the building industry. We can’t ignore the fact that we just don’t have the capacity to build housing as fast as we need to.”Financial incentives like on-the-job training and higher pay are also being employed, and schools are using science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes to increase aware-ness of applications to other areas related to construction, like architecture and design.The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) gives its mission as providing “members with opportunities for professional development, education, networking, leadership training, public service and more.” According to NAWIC, citing the US Bureau of Labor Statistics report of 2017, women comprise just 9.1 percent of the construction sector, about 939,000 workers in the United States, and earn an average of 95.7 percent as much as their male counterparts. This wage gap is significantly lower than for the U.S. average where women earn 81.1 percent of a man’s wage.As well as hiring more women, recent immigrants, minorities, and unskilled people, companies’ other solutions to the ongoing shortage of construc-tion workers include apprentice-hiring, which is required in Alberta for some construction trades. While this presents challenges, there is a case to be made for under-skilled employees. Despite lacking in skills, getting new staff on board who are eager to learn, enthusiastic, and show genuine initiative can foster a dedicated workforce. While this involves on-the-job training and sometimes classroom settings, this strategy can pay off.Financial platform Trading Economics says that, in the United States, the gross domestic product (GDP) from construc-tion continues to rise, from $637.30 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to $641.40 billion in the second quarter. Even as the number of workers declines, all types of new construction are on the rise, including single and multi-family housing, public works, manufacturing plants, educational facilities, and others, it is predicted that U.S. construction starts will increase from $807 billion in 2018 to $808 billion in 2019, according to the Dodge Construction Outlook compiled by construction data firm Dodge Data & Analytics. The construction industry needs to embrace innovative ways to bring new workers into the fold, includ-ing digital training and making trades attractive to young workers. 13The message in Bob Dylan’s anthem for the 60s, “The times they are a-changin’,” got lost in the 80s and 90s, an era of opulence and corporate greed. Then again, maybe Dylan was projecting into the 21st century, a time when a move toward positive corporate culture and corporate social responsibility is changing the way construction companies do business. Written by Margaret Patricia EatonWe searched the literature on organizational behav-iour to come up with definitions of corporate culture and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Theorists, we found, consider corporate culture as a collection of beliefs, customs, traditions and practices, shared and con-tinued by the employees of a corporation, and which distin-guish it from other corporations. (Hai, D.M., Ed. Organizational Behaviour, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co. 1986). While corporate culture refers to what goes on inside an organization and may be either organic or deliberate, CSR is always deliberate, has broader implications, and seems to have replaced the more limited term, ‘corporate culture.’ The Business Development Bank of Canada, a crown corporation established in 1944 with 188 business centres across the country, defines the concept in an online publication entitled “7 tips for putting corporate responsibility at the heart of your business.”“Corporate social responsibility,” it says, “is the way a company takes responsibility for its actions and their impact on employ-ees, stakeholders and communities. It includes the way your company conducts its business, how it manages impact on the environment, how it treats its employees and how it supports community activities that aim to solve social problems such as poverty or discrimination.” Similarly, Corporate Responsibility in the Canadian Construction Sector: A Practical Guide to CSR, published by the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), which has 63 local and provin-cial integrated partner associations, provides a wide-ranging definition of corporate social responsibility, including “how companies are run and managed, their ethics, culture and operations, their relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, construction and other businesses, communities, industry associations, and governments, along with their con-struction practices and projects.” It’s about going “above and beyond what is legally required to contribute positively to the environment, the workforce and communities. It includes both what the company can control and what it can influence, the latter by collaborating with partners on joint social or environmental initiatives.”The CCA is encouraging its 20,000-member firms to buy into the concept because ultimately it affects what they call the compa-ny’s “triple bottom line or ‘people, planet and profits’. It’s about Written by Margaret Patricia Eatonmaintaining and even enhancing profitability while embedding social and environmental considerations in the business and making CSR an integral part of the company’s culture.” Put simply, it’s an exemplification of the Golden Rule – if a company treats others well, it will benefit in the end. As the Business Development Bank of Canada tells its clients, although being a socially responsible business often involves higher material and labour costs, there is a business case to be made.By being a good role model, a company will attract people who have skills such as ingenuity, leadership and the ability to work in teams. And by treating employees responsibly, costly employee turnover is minimized. Corporate culture and CSR can also impact safety, attract and retain valuable employees, provide client satisfaction, protect the environment and even improve a construction company’s bottom line. It seems that no one is arguing a case against positive corporate culture or CSR. George Hedley, a professional construction industry business coach, in his 2015 article “How to Attract Employees to Your Construction Company” for forconstructionpros.com, had harsh words for managers who complain about the labour shortage, and he challenges them to change their company culture now. When speaking at conventions he asks, “’Do any of your kids want to work in construction?’ Only one in a hundred answers yes. With such a low response from the children of people in the industry, it should come as no surprise that construction ranks number 248 out of 250 career opportunities among high school seniors.” He continues, “To find and retain great people, companies must have a proactive and aggressive employee develop-ment program. This includes ongoing training and education, programs in team building, computers, supervision, leadership as well as technical skills. Also required are employee recog-nition systems, personal development programs, and pay for performance. To develop great people requires new leadership styles that coach, inspire and encourage people to become the best they can be.” Garry Bartecki’s article entitled “Construction Firms Must Build Up the Benefits to Attract and Retain Workers” (forconstruction-pros.com February 3, 2017) echoes those sentiments. Bartecki 15CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS writes about the obvious things — benefits packages, standard allowances for work clothes and, where possible, flexible hours – but beyond those he says managers “should have a story to tell about your company, its history, the types of jobs you have worked on, success stories, and problems that came up and how you handled them.” In other words, construction companies should have a clearly articulated mission statement and cultural polices in place and be able to communicate them clearly. “This approach,” Bartecki writes, “demonstrates that management cares about the company and how it operates.” He recommends having a defined ‘startup’ program for new employees – providing skills training, assigning a senior employee to coach and mentor the new employee about company standards and bringing new employees into the planning process to learn how you plan and execute on a job. “The most pressing employee issue to address is how to keep the employees you have,” Bartecki writes. “If you have good people, or people who can develop into positions where you need them, you need to do whatever it takes to avoid turnover. A single employee turnover can cost the company between $7,000 to $25,000... and that doesn’t take into account any dis-ruption on the job site, caused by the departure.” The successful construction companies we’ve interviewed for past issues of this magazine are doing all this and more, includ-ing liaising with community colleges and universities and introducing apprentices and interns to their company’s culture. They’re also recognizing that millennial employees have a desire to work for companies that demonstrate corporate responsibility and are moving toward diversifying their work-force by hiring women and immigrants. A culture of safety is also paramount. As Evan Sowell, co-owner of Langston Construction Company told us for an article in this month’s issue, “Everything we do is dangerous. Very rarely do we work with our feet on the ground. We’re below grade in a hole or we’re up in the air.” Langston’s Zero Unsafe Behaviours program, which includes a safety committee, corporate safety manager, onsite safety professionals, site-specific safety plans for every project and training that extends to sub-contractors, earned it a First Place Construction Safety Excellence Award from the Association of General Contractors of America.Langston’s approach is one that’s supported by research. An American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation research study, Corporate Culture: A study of firms with outstanding construction safety, published in July 2002, found that, “Written safety plans can be effective, but companies must go beyond the letter of the plan and create a true ‘safety culture.’” The research team indicated that “corporate safety culture had an integral effect on construction safety performance” in the three Colorado firms it studied. “To find and retain great people, companies must have a proactive and aggressive employee development program.”MARCH 201916 All had good safety records, but the one with the best record also had the most consistent safety culture. An unexpected result of this study was the fact that the best-performing company had “no statistically significant differences between upper management, middle management and field personnel” on a questionnaire related to company culture. Everyone, no matter their position, must be on the same page in order for corporate culture to have an impact on safety. The stakes are way too high to do otherwise. While the forces that are driving the more traditional form of positive corporate culture are largely internal – that is, a com-pany’s need to build a competent workforce and maintain its reputation of completing quality work – corporate social responsibility is driven by external forces such as client demand, community and public expectations, green building, climate change and possible future legislation and regulations. The CCA reports “a growing demand for greener and socially responsible projects on the part of customers, espe-cially municipalities and other public sector organizations.” Meanwhile buyers from the private sector want to work with well-managed companies that in turn will help them achieve their own CSR goals such as safety and emissions manage-ment. Integrated project delivery (IDP), promoted by CCA, is “a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all participants to optimize the project results, increases value to the owner, reduces waste and maximizes efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication and construction.” It includes team dynamics, user satisfaction, community sat-isfaction, collaboration, sustainability and performance — all considerations that are ultimately connected to a fundamen-tal respect for people. IDP also complements the value-add-ed tools of Lean and BIM (building information modelling) which work best in a collaborative, open, transparent environ-ment. In addition, the IDP approach makes it easier to address client and community concerns around green building initia-tives and workplace designs which have been linked to staff health, well-being and productivity, as well as governments looking for more rigorous accounting of energy and emis-sions performance.Another driver is that of community and public expectations. Construction companies are not like other businesses, working behind closed doors; construction work is visible and because of that there’s a perception companies should contribute to the community in a significant way. Several construction companies we’ve interviewed have told us they annually take a Saturday to build a Habitat for Humanity home in their community, with everyone, including the compa-ny’s CEO, pitching in. Another told us how each of the construc-tion companies in a certain region organize a competition to see who can construct the most elaborate edifice using canned food, all of which was then donated to the local food bank. Yet another asks employees to present a case for a charitable orga-nization with which they are associated. One is chosen monthly and is helped, either through cash or an in-kind donation. And yet another company is building wheelchair ramps for people unable to afford the associated labour costs. In addition, the CCA’s report concludes that, “Changes to building codes and bylaws over the next decade are expected to raise environmental and safety standards and improve the social and environmental impacts of construction.” Companies which have a CSR policy in place and are acting on it will be ahead of the curve. 17CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS From Vaughan, Ontario comes Arsenal Constructors Inc. (Arsenal), a general contractor that caters to the retail and corporate sectors. This organization is an offshoot of International Fixture Installations Inc., which gives it a versatile outlook as a turnkey operator. We spoke with General Manager Steven Lanteigne about the company and some of the issues facing the construction industry.MARCH 201918Written by Mark GolombekInternational Fixture Installations Inc. (IFI) was founded in 1996 and has been involved in various large projects, spe-cializing in millwork, carpentry or metal work for grocery stores, retail spaces, and corporate office clients. Over the years, this company expanded its services and capabilities in response to client demands. It became evident that client work requirements extended beyond interior fixture installations. “When you go into a grocery store there are shelving units, décor, and signage. That is the typical scope of work for a fix-turing company. As time passed, our scope of work and client base expanded to include the complete interior of a project, addressing the needs of grocery, corporate, retail and com-mercial. We did everything from the ground up. Eventually, we realized that it made more sense to open and legitimately create a general contracting company,” says Steven.Arsenal was founded only two years ago as a child of the successes and strengths of IFI. The company opened with a complete interior fit-out of a turnkey operation, and this project aided in informing people of the added services. Arsenal now offers a complete interior renovation for the retail, grocery, cor-porate, institutional, and commercial sectors. “IFI complements Arsenal and will take over whenever there is any work related to the disciplines it covers. It wasn’t really a giant leap for the new entity as we were doing this kind of work all along,” says Steven.IFI has many long-term clients due to the solid relationships it has built, because both IFI and Arsenal understand clients’ needs and marketing strategies. Both companies also have much respect for the culture and protocols that help build these long-term relationships; they bring peace of mind to every project on which they work, and provide a level of personal attention that goes a long way to keep clients from merely settling for the lowest bidder. “It wasn’t really a giant leap for the new entity as we were doing this kind of work all along.”19CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Next >