Industry needs to attract new blood

by Tim Wood



The construction industry has to improve its own performance before it can even consider attracting quality new people, warned James Armstrong, chairman of Laing's construction arm.

Armstrong told a Building Research Establishment conference on Respect for People: "If we are going to attract the right people, we need to be a better performing industry and more profitable. We need to be selling more services to clients to meet the needs of their business before we ever go on site.

"This industry has a lot more to offer than just building projects on site. We can deliver solutions to enhance the profitability of our client's business and, unless we offer clients more, we are not going to get paid more money, have higher margins and be able to pay more to ourselves."

Armstrong offered evidence that weekly earnings seem to be marginally less in construction than other industries although the hours worked tended to be a lot higher.

"This industry needs to reform to be able to attract and pay the rates which are commensurate with the salaries paid by other industry sectors and we have to offer better value to clients," he added.

Armstrong cited poor continuity of employment, low investment in training, poor pay, poor health and safety, poor site conditions and low esteem as the reasons for the industry's obvious recruitment problem. The fact that total employment in construction dropped from 1.8 million to 1.4 million in 1993 and has remained at that figure for the past seven years offers further evidence.

Armstrong said: "The construction industry has clearly not performed well over the past few years. If the industry is sick, there is no way that it is going to be an attractive employer. We have got to be a different type of industry which means selling a whole lot more value than we are doing at the moment."

The future prospects for the industry look bright, however, with total construction output forecast to rise over the next few years, but Armstrong still offered a further warning: "We are going to be in an overheated industry where too many employers are chasing too few staff unless we do recruit and train and gear ourselves up for the growth in output that we are experiencing."

Nigel Dalton, head of construction industry sponsorship division at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, agreed the adoption of the Respect for People agenda is vital to the industry's future.

Dalton said: "Pay is an important consideration, but money alone cannot buy talent. Employers must create the atmosphere, style and approach that attracts talent. Respect for People is crucial to profitability and even survival. It should not be just an add on, but central to recruitment and retention strategy. Of all the challenges this industry faces this issue is the most urgent."