Recessions and other setbacks have placed the construction industry in a severe crisis. Skilled labor is aging out and moving into retirement, and there aren’t enough employees to fill the pipeline. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is currently a shortage of around 300,000 jobs in the construction industry. By 2026, the construction industry will require an additional 747,000 workers in order to keep pace with demand.
It’s clear that the industry must focus on recruiting young, skilled workers and developing them for leadership roles. However, when you consider that almost half of millennials and Generation Z are non-white, were not educated about the opportunities in construction, and view the industry as a sector in need of a diversity infusion—it’s easy to understand why the industry is having trouble attracting younger generations. Today, less than 8% of high school graduates and 14% of college graduates are pursuing careers in construction. In speaking with general contractors and business professionals in construction, we have found there are five actions companies can take to help recruit and retain young, diverse talent in order to create a new generation of strong leaders.
1. Define Your Objectives
Before you can begin, you must have a clear understanding of the objectives you wish to accomplish. What do you want your company to look like in 3, 5 or even 10 years? Do you want it to be diverse? Do you want a certain percentage of your workforce to be under the age of 35? Once you’ve asked yourself these questions, you can begin to work backwards to determine the steps necessary to reach your objectives.
After you have your goals in place, it’s important that you’re able to track how your efforts are going and what additional steps need to be taken. You can do this by setting up a metric for measuring how much progress you’ve made toward enacting your vision.
2. Create Formalized Internship Programs
It’s important to be intentional with any initiatives you undertake. Instead of having a vague intention to hire younger and more diverse candidates, aim to create a formalized internship program that is designed to attract diverse candidates.
Internship programs are useful for giving students training and valuable real-world experience they can utilize in their careers. At the same time, internships provide employers with a year-round pool of promising potential hires that have already been familiarized with how the business operates.
Ensuring your internship program is filled with diverse candidates requires meeting students where they are. This means making the effort to reach out and share information about your internship program with local and national organizations, advertising on a variety of channels, and leveraging job boards and career fairs that are specifically geared toward minority students and underrepresented populations.
3. Let Employees Have a Say in Their Career Trajectory
According to a report by Deloitte, Generation Z employees tend to have an “entrepreneurial mindset,” but are also more risk-averse than previous generations. Those traits combined point to a desire for a stable, secure position—that also comes with the freedom and independence to forge their own unique career paths.
For baby boomers and Generation X, traditional career planning involved staying at a company for a lengthy period of time before being considered for promotions and increased pay grades. The same doesn’t apply in our current culture—75% of Generation Z workers expect a promotion within their first year of employment.
While you may not be able to promise quick promotions, you should work with younger employees to determine a trajectory that incorporates their input and expectations. Making it clear to employees that they have a stake in the way their careers develop will go a long way in making an impression on younger generations. Plus, it will demonstrate that you care about and understand their work values, which are important qualities they look for in employers.
4. Create a Company Culture That Supports the Next Generation of Leaders
In order to make your diversity efforts salient, your business will need to devote time to creating a culture that nurtures employees—not just a one-off initiative. One way to achieve this is by developing mentorship programs, which give junior talent access to guidance and professional development opportunities, in turn helping them become more competent—and confident—in their roles.
A case study of Sun Microsystems’ mentorship program found that mentees were promoted five times more often than employees not in the program; they also had significantly higher retention rates (72%) compared to those who did not participate (49%). And when it comes to diversity and inclusion, research shows that mentorship programs can be especially advantageous to women and minorities, who are more likely than their colleagues to count them as “extremely important to their careers.” However, for mentorship endeavors to be successful, employees should be able to easily access tools and resources to help them find mentors, and the mentors themselves will need to be as diverse as the employees you are attempting to build up.
5. Engage & Enlist Support
General contractors and construction business owners do not have the time or expertise to make widespread change all by themselves—which is why there are a multitude of organizations that exist solely to provide support in creating a viable industry for the future. These organizations act as a partner to help take some of the work off business owners’ plates and present them with opportunities to network with students to provide firsthand accounts of what working in construction is really like.
Team up with educators and guidance counselors at local schools to make inroads with youth. As mentioned earlier in this article, the most powerful way to reach students is by showing up where they are, instead of expecting them to come to you. The impact of speaking directly with young people is immeasurable.
Once students are able to meet with real people who have found success in construction and are continuing to develop their careers in new ways, they’re better able to realistically envision themselves within the industry, making them more likely to seek out job opportunities in construction in the future.
The consequences of not taking action on diversity and youth initiatives are significant. If we don’t fill the construction employee pipeline—and make it a more diverse industry—key economic indicators will begin to tumble like dominoes. In fact, the challenges of the labor shortage are already evident.
A survey by Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America found that 80% of contractors are having difficulty finding skilled workers to fill hourly positions that make up the bulk of the construction workforce. According to a 2019 Commercial Construction Survey, the shortage has caused 70% of contractors to struggle to meet deadlines, 63% to increase the costs for new work, and 40% to reject new projects. For big box retailers and large corporations that rely on construction for brand dissemination and continuation, high costs and canceled or delayed projects can result in slowed expansion and major financial setbacks.
The only way to solve the construction industry’s labor shortage and lack of diversity is by educating and constructing bridges—as opposed to erecting walls at points of difference. By showing young people that there is a path forward for them in construction, and by fostering a community of talented, inspired people and companies, it is possible to create a rewarding and sustainable future for the construction industry.
