The Growing Skills Challenge In the Construction Sector

The Growing Skills Challenge

In the Construction Sector

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IS YOUR BUSINESS BEING CHALLENGED BY SKILLS ISSUES?While the UK construction sector looks set to continue growing albeit at a lower rate than in 20151 its recovery is exposing some major structural issues within the sector and its businesses. Among these are a number of skills challenges facing construction businesses which, when taken together, are impacting their current performance and, if left unchecked, will severely impact future performance.

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR CHALLENGES

Businesses are being impacted at all levels by skills challenges:• Attracting new staff at graduate level• Retaining recent recruits (1-3 years) in the

workforce (Especially Millennials)• Developing management capability• Leadership succession• Attracting new staff.

Recent growth trends in the sector have shifted the issue from finding more projects to finding the appropriate resources to deliver them. The time lag between economic changes and the education system’s response has meant that fewer qualified people are entering the workforce, pushing up wage costs. The RICS UK construction market survey for Q4 20152 shows that average construction earnings have risen by more than 6% in the year to October 2015 – by comparison, the average UK wage rise over the same period was below 2%. Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are particularly affected by growing wage costs and must find other ways to compete for new talent.

RETAINING RECENT RECRUITS

New entrants to the jobs market are different from the young employees of the 1990s because they are entering the workforce of the 21st century with well-developed social media knowledge and skills. These ‘millennial’ employees (those born around/after 1982) also have different attitudes towards tenure, mobility and reward. While salary is certainly a factor in determining whether they will stay with their employer, other factors are more important to them including: learning and development, autonomy in their roles, communication, and connection with the business. Construction companies (especially SMEs) are beginning to realise that their traditional methods of engaging with recent employees are ineffective with millennials and offering pay increases alone will not motivate them to stay and perform to their full potential.

DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY

In reacting to the above challenges along with supply chain issues and technical skills shortages, many construction businesses have allowed their senior managers to step down to the management level below them and get overly involved in the day to day operational management of projects and/or business functions. While this is understandable as an initial reaction, it pulls senior management away from their more strategic purpose of managing the direction and growth of their businesses. Senior managers need to develop the capabilities of their direct reports and equip them with the confidence and capability to

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Construction is one of the largest sectors of theUK economy, Contributing £92.4 billion to the UK economy (6.4% of UK GDP) in 2014. 3


better manage the operational issues. Conversely, senior managers need to develop their own capabilities to lead the growth and development of their business and strike the right balance between monitoring and evaluating the external market and developing the capabilities of their people.

LEADERSHIP SUCCESSION

The age profile of the sector’s senior managers has been highlighted regularly (CITB/CIOB) and little seems to have been done to develop practical succession plans. At the most senior management level we need to take the time to ask the question: ‘Do we have successors within our team and if so, how are we preparing/developing this next generation of leaders for increased responsibility?’ If a suitable transition period between the outgoing and incoming senior managers is not engineered then the loss of knowledge and experience on departure of retiring managers can have potentially disastrous consequences for the business.

Succession planning is also needed to accommodate the risk of top talent moving elsewhere leaving significant skills gaps in the

organisation. Equally importantly, if senior managers don’t have successors within the business structure how are they going to deal with this issue?

HOW DO ORGANISATIONS NEED TO RESPOND?The above skills issues are inter-related and therefore point to the need to develop an integrated set of solutions. Construction businesses are encouraged to consider:

• Adapting their graduate recruitment and development programmes to strongly appeal to the needs of millennial employees

• Developing the female talent pool and utilising this to attract further talent into the business

• Engaging recent recruits in collaborative project work that helps build strong connections between millennials and with other talented employees to drive improvements/changes within the business

• Identifying and developing those managers with the potential to take on senior roles, widening their business knowledge and collaborative capabilities beyond their


current role/function• Developing the decision-making capabilities

of first line and middle managers so that senior managers can focus on their own roles

• Creating and implementing succession plans linked to the development of emerging management talent as indicated above.

PARITY PROFESSIONALS’ RESPONSE TO THE CONSTRUCTION SKILLS CHALLENGE

Parity Professionals is active in developing talent across all employee levels in the Construction sector:• Undergraduate Development• Management Capability Development• Developing future leaders• Discovery through Consultancy.

UNDERGRADUATE DEVELOPMENT

Parity Professionals has been delivering training to construction undergraduates in Northern

Ireland through the CITB NI. Through this programme future entrants to the sector develop a practical understanding of the work environment and how they need to think and behave within it in order to maximise their performance and careers.

MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT

Parity Professionals has developed and delivered both open and in-house development programmes for junior, middle and senior managers in the sector. More recently we have developed customised programmes for construction clients focused on widening the knowledge and skills base of emerging senior managers. These programmes involve managers working collaboratively in small project teams to address cross-functional business issues (e.g. managing the supply chain in new markets) and include professional learning leading to recognised management qualifications. All of these programmes are built around one to one coaching as the core enabler of effective management learning. The coaching core provides managers with a highly effective means of homing in on key development areas and quickly driving new/improved behaviours and

actions from the managers. A recent programme for 30 small construction businesses generated a range of measurable improvements ranging from: safeguarding and creating jobs; new opportunity identification, turnover increase and creating new collaborative arrangements.

DEVELOPING FUTURE LEADERS

To help address the succession issue and increase the focus on strategic leadership within the sector, CITB in Northern Ireland has recently launched its Leader in Construction programme.


Parity Professionals was awarded the contract to develop and deliver the programme which includes 360 feedback for the participants together with powerful workshops and one to one coaching. The programme also involves an international study trip to expose leaders to new/emerging practices and wider opportunities for business growth.

DISCOVERY THROUGH CONSULTANCY

We conduct ‘Big Idea’ workshops for clients where we facilitate management teams using proven thinking models to challenge their view of the business and its competitive environment. Through such processes we help clients identify where their key talent management and leadership challenges are and engage them in creating effective approaches to addressing them.

CONCLUSIONWhile the various bodies and institutions in the sector can and are helping to address these skills issues, unless individual businesses also take an active role in tackling them, the problems will only intensify. Some construction businesses are already leading the way in developing their own solutions to attract, retain and develop the talent they need to sustain and grow their businesses. It is hoped others will quickly follow their lead as a positive reaction to the skills challenges faced by its sector.

Notes1. Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index

January 2016

2. The RICS UK construction market survey for Q4 2015

3. Building leadership capability in the construction sector,

Roffey Park


About Parity ProfessionalsParity Professionals work closely with our clients to source and develop exceptional talent, building capacity and capability in order to transform individual and organisational performance. We pride ourselves in doing things differently, and are fully committed to providing you with the best service possible.

Whether you are looking to:

• Assess or update your current approach to recruitment• Establish and introduce appropriate measures for evaluating the impact and effectiveness of

your Recruitment and Development programmes, or• Partner with us to manage your overall recruitment and development programme.

Parity Professionals are the people that can help. We have the passion and experience to make a real difference. Call our Develop team now to discuss a complimentary Discovery Session – and let’s get the conversation started.

Contact DetailsThe Develop Team

t: 0208 171 1592e: [email protected]: www.parityprofessionals.co.uk

Parity Professionals work closely with our clients to source and develop talent, building capacity and capability in order to transform individual and organisational performance. We pride ourselves in doing things differently, and are fully committed to providing you with the best service possible.

Shane Mackle

Shane is a highly experienced coach with over 20 years’ experience in management and leadership development. He has developed and delivered successful programmes for organisations across a wide range of sectors including the food and drink, tourism and hospitality, engineering and manufacturing, construction, media and voluntary/charity sectors.

His approach to leadership development combines learning and enjoyment in order to affect a desired improvement in the learner’s performance or mind-set.

The Growing Skills Challenge In the Construction Sector

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