How Contractors Can Combat Workforce Issues
While there is an abundance of work, there are not enough people willing to do the job. Here’s what contractors can do to address this issue in 2024.
(Courtesy of SMACNA)
Dr. Anirban Basu, Chief Economist for Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA), anticipates a busy 2024 for the construction industry.
“Construction activity is not so much driven by economic growth — that’s a factor — but by economic transformation. And that’s what we see right now. We have growth, but even more so we have transformation,” Basu, who sat down with Seth Lennon at the SMACNA Annual Convention to discuss 2024 predictions, says.
Contractors are expected to be busy on many projects in the realm of artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and the reshoring supply chains in the United States. But, as opportunities grow, so does the need for talent.
“On the one hand, contractors are extremely busy, but the No. 1 challenge by and large is finding enough workers and calling onto those workers who are skilled enough to do the job well, to not create issues with client satisfaction, that kind of thing,” Basu says.
How can contractors recruit some of the younger members of the workforce?
“The younger workforce seems to be very different from older members of the workforce. So other members of workers seem to be very motivated by money. If you pay them more than show up more than work on weekends for him, whatever it happens to be. They're very thankful for their jobs, so on and so forth,” he says. While money is a motivator for the younger workers, they are interested in having more flexibility in their jobs. In addition, they care about social missions.
“In many cases, these young people want to work for an enterprise that has a broader social mission. It could be to strengthen America through infrastructure investment. It could be making America safer. It could be making our air cleaner, whatever it happens to be,” he says. “But to emphasize the fact that we're doing very important work at SMACNA. The members have been doing very important work for making the world a better place, a cleaner place, a safer place, more efficient place, and to emphasize that part of the social mission as he tried to recruit and retain those younger workers, in particular.”
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