by Kenny Ingram
Early in the pandemic, the construction and engineering (C&E) sector faced projects being delayed, a huge pool of skilled people not working, and then when projects were in progress, the need to ensure correct social distancing and workplace safety. All brought challenges and an industry slowdown. Fast-forward to now and things have spun 180 degrees. Construction projects have resumed, and are only increasing in volume, as governments and developers look to stimulate their economies by investing in infrastructure.
We now have the U.S. Senate passing the over $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to revitalize roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports, waterways, and more. From a homebuilding perspective, there is also an appetite to make up for lost time.
But now we have a further addition to the global environment that has led to a shortage of materials and, critically, labor. C&E organizations have a huge opportunity to grab business, but not enough people to effectively design, implement, and execute these projects. The National Association of Home Builders recently published a labor report stating that a growth of over 2.2 million construction workers is required over the next three years to match homebuilding demand.
I see a combination of technology and business-led change coming to the rescue to mitigate this labor shortage in both the near- and medium-term. In particular, there are three areas of change that are key.
Modular and Offsite Construction: Reducing the Burden for Onsite Teams
One of the most innovative ways to ease the pressure of the skills shortage while boosting productivity is adopting an offsite and modular construction model. This adoption is driven by innovations in the industry thanks to new materials and more informative data. Offsite assets are also improving in quality thanks to enabling technology becoming more readily available.
With pandemic uncertainty still rife, manufacturing offsite and assembling onsite allows for lower cost, speedier construction, and crucially, less reliance on a large workforce.
Building Information Modeling: Out with Documents, In with Data
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is helping reimagine how projects are taken from design through to installation. The ultimate end goal of BIM is to allow for better information management, which gives project owners a structured set of data they can use to manage a build over its lifecycle.
BIM requires that the software underpinning construction projects be data-driven, rather than document-driven, so structured data about the asset can flow directly into the systems used to build and manage that asset. This means taking both project and operational data out of spreadsheets and into a central, structured environment.
Change Management: Encouraging the Workforce of the Future
There are some positive signs of change in the C&E workforce dynamic. A National Association of Home Builders report found that half of payroll workers in construction earn more than $50,460 annually and the top 25% make at least $71,000. In comparison, the U.S. median wage is $49,150, while the top quartile (top 25%) makes at least $67,410. The report also found women make up a growing share of the construction workforce, up to 10.9% in 2020 from 10.3% in 2019.
But more needs to be done. The industry needs to prioritize change management to encourage more digitally savvy entrants into the sector. As C-suite executives who are more prone to adopting new ideas, they will need to look to technology-led change to see how they can benefit all employees. The technological improvements are ready and available to connect everyone from the back office right through to the on-site workers.
Kenny Ingram
Kenny Ingram is vice president of C&E at IFS.
