Recruitment in the Construction Industry
The UK has been crying out for construction workers for a long time now. The shortages now were in no small part due to the early 1990s industry recession when training budgets were cut and construction having to play catch-up ever since.
The UK has been crying out for construction workers for a long time now. The shortages now were in no small part due to the early 1990s industry recession when training budgets were cut and construction having to play catch-up ever since.
Things such as the successful Olympics bid has brought into sharp focus just how much the industry now lags behind in terms of providing properly trained professionals not just on the projects in London but across the UK as a whole.
According to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), 23,500 workers drawn from across the whole spectrum of construction skills will be needed to service the Olympics’ projects - and this requirement is for before 2008. Such are the demands on the construction industry for such a global event.
The ongoing challenge of the construction industry and the recruiters who provide the workforce is to turn around the skills shortage. Month on month, the REC’s Report on Jobs has show that demand for permanent and contract construction staff continues to outstrip all other sectors.
The REC sector that I chair comprises 150 recruitment firms specializing in all trades under the construction banner.
Without exception, we believe we will really need to see an upsurge in the number of people taking up a career in construction, literally now, if we are going to satisfy this enormous potential shortfall in the workforce for the construction industry.
REC members are addressing these issues through the creation of a Sustainable Employment Legacy Forum (SELF). SELF brings together construction recruiters with companies and other interested stakeholders to involve recruiters in industry schemes to attract more people into a career in construction.
One example of how this is already working in practice is through a partnership between REC members and the Construction Knowledge Exchange (CKE) based at London South Bank University. The CKE has funding from the London Development Agency under the "Headstart" Programme to provide 150 eight week placements over two years for undergraduates in the construction industry. The idea of the scheme is to ensure students get work experience during their course which will boost their chances of employment afterwards.
Helping with these placements will also help to reduce the skills deficit in the UK in general.
Coupled with the need to attract new people into a career in construction are the changing demographics currently occurring in the workforce, which will mean increasing numbers of employers having to embrace diversity within their future business plans.
The prediction is that by 2010 only 20 per cent of the UK’s workforce will comprise white, able-bodied males under 45 who do indeed represent the typical image of a UK construction worker.
One possible solution already discussed and debated both within the industry and indeed within Parliamentary circles are workers from Romania and Bulgaria after their countries’ Accession to the EU in 2007.
Construction recruitment is critical of the current thinking of Home Secretary John Reid who plans to restrict entry of their workers into the UK labour market. Despite this restriction, it will still be possible for these workers to live in the UK and be self-employed without any restrictions.
The UK economy has benefited from the large number of migrant workers who came from the new accession countries in recent years, who have filled vacancies in ever sector including construction. So the differing approach to the Romanians and Bulgarians is likely to create more problems than it solves, driving more to work illegally or on the black market.
There are countless numbers of projects up and down the country that urgently require skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
For any local authority engaging construction staff on general projects, the first point of contact should be with a recruitment agency.
Specialist recruitment will ensure that candidates’ skills and interests are well matched with any potential roles within the authority as well as being able to offer guidance on any other issues relating to recruitment.
All construction recruitment should be committed to the very highest professional standards, signing up to and abiding by a Code of Professional Practice ensuring the best possible delivery of services.
Sectors of the construction industry should also be able to give advice on training, health & safety, CSCS and CIS issues to help make the transition into employment in construction run as smoothly as possible.
For those authorities who are recruiting for any projects, the key to continued success should be in ways of sustaining construction employment levels now and for the future.
Through careful planning now, we can ensure that with UK’s stable economy underpinning the general boom in construction over the past few years, increased investment in rail infrastructure and the boom in the commercial property sector will continue generating work for the construction industry across the country.
To find out more about the REC and its construction sector members, visit the website http://www.rec.uk.com/rec/sector-groups/construction-directory.aspx
By Trevor Rees
Chair, Construction Sector
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation
