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The construction industry has been facing a labor shortage for quite some time.<\/p>\n
Not only major construction companies and construction consulting firms, but also local governments and independent administrative agencies are making a concerted effort to recruit and retain construction engineers and other professionals.<\/p>\n
It's a never-ending cycle of one-upmanship\u2014one person outmaneuvers another, only to be outmaneuvered in turn...<\/p>\n
The labor shortage in the construction industry is nothing new. For over 10 years now, people have been saying that \u201cthe construction industry is facing a labor shortage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although people have been saying for over 10 years that the construction industry is \u201cshort on workers,\u201d I can\u2019t help but wonder if the industry has truly been addressing this labor shortage head-on.<\/p>\n
It reminded me of something a site manager at a certain mid-sized general contractor had said before.<\/p>\n
At the time, I was working for a construction consulting firm, and we had been commissioned by a certain mid-sized general contractor to provide design support for a tunnel construction site.<\/p>\n
That general contractor is a very well-known company in the construction industry, and one day, the site manager there told me, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come take a look at the site sometime?\u201d So, along with the president and some colleagues, I headed to the site. When we arrived at the site office in the evening, we were immediately shown into the manager\u2019s office, where he gave us a briefing on the site.<\/p>\n
At that time, the director said, \u201cWe\u2019re having a hard time because there are so few young people. We\u2019re making a company-wide effort to recruit, but the results haven\u2019t been very promising.\u201d He added, \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on technical high schools and visiting each one in the prefecture that offers civil engineering programs to promote our company.\u201d<\/p>\n
When my boss asked, \u201cSince your company is well-known and has a strong reputation, won\u2019t you be swamped with applicants?\u201d the director replied, \u201cNo, no, that\u2019s not the case at all. Students with college or technical college degrees are snapped up by major general contractors, large consulting firms, and government agencies. That\u2019s why we\u2019re focusing our efforts on technical high schools. \u201cTechnical high school graduates aren\u2019t to be overlooked, you know. They make perfectly capable employees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since I was a graduate of the civil engineering department at a local industrial high school in the same prefecture where the project was taking place, the office manager asked me, \u201cDo you know anyone? If so, please introduce them to me.\u201d Even though I wondered if he was really serious about wanting to hire someone, I just gave a wry smile and replied, \u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do,\u201d and that was the end of the conversation.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard stories like this at my previous company, too.<\/p>\n
Although that company was well-known enough to be called a \u201cmid-sized general contractor,\u201d it is said that one year, the number of new civil engineering graduates it hired was in the single digits.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that they had set aside only a few positions; they had actually set a target of hiring about 30 people, but the effort was a complete failure. Of course, the entire company had focused its efforts on the recruitment drive, and they reportedly conducted vigorous outreach activities, such as sending alumni to universities and holding information sessions.<\/p>\n
However, from an outsider\u2019s perspective, I wondered if this company\u2019s HR department was really taking its work seriously. While it\u2019s all well and good to visit universities and have students meet with alumni, just like the branch manager at the mid-sized general contractor mentioned earlier, I didn\u2019t sense any \u201centhusiasm\u201d for recruitment.<\/p>\n
This is something I notice on the ground as well. While people say, \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough staff,\u201d they might try reaching out to recruitment agencies or staffing firms\u2014saying, \u201cLet\u2019s ask a recruitment agency\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s ask a staffing agency\u201d\u2014but ultimately, they end up doing nothing about it.<\/p>\n
They pay recruitment agencies or job sites, and if they can\u2019t hire anyone, they just blame the other party. In other words, they may seem like they\u2019re looking for people, but they\u2019re not really trying to find anyone.<\/p>\n
Seeing that, I became disillusioned with both the company and its people. Given the current labor shortage, it seems to me that they\u2019re treating the issue as if it were someone else\u2019s problem and simply shirking their responsibilities.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re serious about hiring people, there are surely still plenty of steps you can take\u2014such as overhauling your public relations and human resources structures, reviewing your work environment and work arrangements, and improving compensation and benefits.<\/p>\n
It seems that, after all, the sense of crisis regarding the labor shortage in the construction industry is still only that significant.<\/p>\n
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