Despite employing 5% of the total workforce in the US, there remain hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs in the construction industry. Although the construction labor shortage will indeed impact the industry in various ways, there are measures you can take to mitigate its impact.
We’ve outlined the following core areas of concern with recruiting and retaining construction employees. Many of these areas involve utilizing the latest technology.
Continue reading below to learn how to ensure your company remains productive and profitable during the shortage.
1. Construction Labor Shortage: Look at Your Onboarding  Â
The first place you need to assess when looking at facing the labor shortage is how you currently onboard your employees. With the continued digitization of the industry, refining your onboarding process can be the best way forward. It can ensure you’re looking for the right people at the right time.
Doing this digitally also makes it quicker and less expensive than manually organizing your recruitment. Think about your hiring strategy. If you create the perfect onboarding process, you’re more likely to find the right employees for your company. You’ll also appear more attractive to those who are looking for employment in the industry.
This is a two-way street, which means more employee options for you and a job opportunity for them. The right onboarding strategy can help to mitigate the impact of the labor shortage crisis at large.
2. Adopt Mobile Technology  Â
Moving to mobile technology can place you a step ahead of your competitors. It’ll also allow you to directly target and prevent the impact of the labor shortage on your company.
Construction industry mobile applications can save you time and money. This works across all aspects of your business, from workflow and communication to onboarding and employee satisfaction. The most important aspect of mobile tech is that it allows you greater access to a mobile workforce. It can keep you connected to workers throughout your company at all times.
This can help create a faster information workflow between you and your employees. It keeps you more knowledgeable about what’s actually going on at your construction site. This can be attractive for new recruits, as it proves your company is using technology appropriately.
3. Focus on Retention as Well as Recruitment Â
When it comes to the labor shortage, most business owners think that the solution is about hiring, not retention. But you need to focus on keeping your current employees, as well as hiring new ones. This is easier said than done, but there are steps you can take to retain your current employees. It’s all about creating the right environment for your workers.
Ensure all the correct safety measures are always in place. The right adoption of technology can also help you maintain communication with your employees. It also helps them do their job easier, which can keep employees satisfied.
The trick is to future-proof your talent. Keep training your workers and ensuring they’re up-to-date on any new tech you’re implementing. Not only does this make them feel a part of the company, but it also gives them key skills to take them through into the future. The best way of future-proofing is through cloud computing solutions as most cloud systems are easy to learn and provide more flexibility in your day-to-day.
4. The Future of Cloud Computing in Construction
Much like with mobile applications, cloud computing is a key way of mitigating the impact of the labor shortage. Cloud computing can work alongside mobile applications to help you transmit information. This can be a way of directly communicating with all of your employees.
Not only is this a quick way of sharing information, but it’s also highly secure. The paperless nature of this method ensures accuracy, and saves on waste, saving you money in the long run. A company using cloud computing will be more attractive to potential recruits. It’s also the best way of retaining your current workers.
Not only that, but it can help you keep track of workers remotely. The right cloud platform can sync with a huge array of other technology solutions. This can include drones as well as remote monitoring systems and other solutions that directly impact your business.
5. Keeping Your Employees Safe  Â
We mentioned this briefly above, but the importance of safety can’t be stressed enough. Every builder has the right to feel safe on any construction site they’re working on. By ensuring safety, you’re ensuring the quality of your business. This is in the eyes of both prospective employees and current employees, which is vital to solving the labor shortage.
A safe working environment will allow all of your workers to fulfill their duties quicker than they would have in an unsafe environment. This ensures they’re kept both safe and working hard, which is a win-win situation for everyone involved.
It’s fairly understandable for a prospective employee to ask about health and safety practices in an interview. You should be ready to list your practices and measures to help attract talented individuals to your company.
Your health and safety measures shouldn’t just be pen and paper rules and practical measures either. This is another area where technology can take you one step beyond other construction companies. With the right cloud solution, you can implement health and safety measures into the cloud. This might include temperate check syncing, or remote tracking that can alert to any injuries or falls.
Safety should be your highest priority to make sure the labor shortage doesn’t impact your company’s bottom line, and your workers are always safe.
Software Deployment That Mitigates The Labor Shortage
The above examples should help you prevent any impacts of the construction labor shortage on your company. However, the best way to guarantee this is to deploy the right type of construction software. Bangert has dedicated construction software that assists with all aspects of the construction industry.