Building next-gen construction leaders
By Tina Nazier, MBA, CPC
Director, Strategic Alignment, Wipfli LLP
While a downturn in economic activity is rarely welcome news in any field, the construction industry may soon have more bandwidth to tackle a long-simmering, high-stakes challenge with the potential to stymie future growth and profitability. A potential slowdown provides an opportune time for every firm to take a hard look at their leadership pipeline.
Much of the industry focus in recent years has been the dearth of construction workers to fill jobs to keep up with construction expansion needs (the Home Builders Institute estimated a shortfall of 2.2 million workers between now and 2024.) That problem still needs attention and hardly exists in a vacuum from the management deficits — but without question, leadership needs for the near- and long-term in construction have not gotten the consideration they deserve.
In 2019, well before the start of the pandemic, the average quarterly turnover rate in the construction industry as a whole — defined as the ratio of separations to total employment — was 17.4%, or about two percentage points higher than the average across all industries, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The trend has worsened since given the increased pace of early retirements and other resignations over the past two and a half years.
So where is the next generation of superintendents, project and hiring managers, and executive team leadership coming from?
To a great extent, addressing the leadership “backlog” requires bolstering your current hiring, retention and promotion practices. Younger workers today typically do not join a company expecting or hoping to stay there for decades, unlike new hires from previous generations. Yet, your strategic goal should include training and professional development opportunities that would alter that trend.
Leadership pipeline
Besides meeting current needs, improving retention at construction firms at all levels simultaneously helps to shore up the pipeline of future leaders. Companies need to focus on developing career paths that engage workers, keeps them fulfilled and incentivizes them to stay.
It’s important for current managers to keep in mind how their own actions affect employees of different generations. The command-and-control style of management familiar to most baby boomers is likely to turn off (and push out) younger workers who expect and thrive in more collaborative experiences with coworkers and bosses. And while plenty of individual characteristics exist, it’s important for managers to understand broadly how to influence and engage every generation.
Construction superintendents struggle if they get stuck in old-school ways of communicating. Some expect the people they manage should simply follow instructions and stay quiet with their own suggestions.
