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Soapbox: Construction industry must market itself for the future
Of all the issues affecting the UK's construction industry, the problems of recruitment and retention are ones that register prominently on the radar for many firms.
I'm convinced that the industry should make changes in order to face up to the problems of skills shortage, graduate recruitment and retention and migrant labour.
It's fair to say that too many firms have rested on their laurels for too long when it comes to addressing the issues of appointing and keeping hold of high-calibre staff.
We see innovative industry-wide initiatives such as National Construction Week but they fail to get wide support.
Construction firms simply have to get engaged with secondary schools and universities to make it clear that the myriad of trades do represent an attractive and lucrative long-term career proposition.
Our business has grown rapidly in just two years on the back of a candidate-focused approach but we want to see more women and people from the ethnic minorities targeted by the construction industry as a whole.
You are bound to have skills shortages when just three per cent of new recruits are women and just over two per cent come from minority communities. This presents another prime opportunity to focus recruitment through links with education.
The major issues arise when recruited staff simply don't feel valued or rewarded enough to stick with it, and we come across these situations every day.
I believe the Government needs to help the construction industry to market itself to schoolchildren. By the time people are at university the choices have generally been made. Courses need to be designed and implemented into the national curriculum to gain interest in the industry early on.
Companies need to create good links with both schools through work experience, talks and sponsorships, and with universities through sandwich-year placements, open days and summer internships.
With regard to the burning issue of graduate retention, a comprehensive programme needs to be devised that looks at talent mapping, addressing training issues through regular appraisal and the encouragement of work study arrangements.
Many construction firms do this, but too many do not.
Succession planning and salary benchmarking are essential to ensure that glass ceilings are shattered and the option of promotion or a new position is available before the candidates are actively looking.
For this to work, each and every business must be innovative and forward thinking and always looking to promote from the inside before advertising externally.
Opinions and ideas must also be valued within a progressive framework. Sounds like common sense? All too often this is not the case in UK construction, hence the present malaise.
Bonus schemes and share options must be considered as well as years of service rewards. It is extremely important to make sure employees feel there is strong leadership with visions and values being clearly communicated.
There are many good examples of companies that have put in place excellent graduate programmes and we should see a sharing of this best practice.
As a specialist recruitment firm we have to have an intimate knowledge of our industry and frequently visit building sites in order to ascertain the type and quality of staff required.
We have seen a dramatic rise in migrant labour in recent times and some chose to identify this as a problem.
Quite simply, it's not a problem. It's an evolution in the supply of staff for a sector that isn't addressing the recruitment problem on its own shores.
We can treat all of these issues as problems but those firms that see them as opportunities will prosper in the long term.
Ben Lerner, managing director of Leeds-based construction recruitment specialist Logical Resources Trades
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