As construction companies push to overcome staffing challenges that have led to many project delays, Arcoro released new data about the recruiting and retention strategies being used to address a decrease in skilled workers.
The Associated General Contractors of America and Arcoro released initial results from the 2024 Workforce Survey earlier this year. Nearly 1,500 firms completed the survey, which included questions focused on recruiting and workforce management to better understand how and where the industry is attracting talent and managing the talent they have.
“Construction employers are overlooking key opportunities that can help them strengthen their recruiting and retention efforts and, hopefully, come out on top,” said Chad Mathias, Arcoro’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Strategy.
The newly released data shows that companies are making efforts to reach diverse candidate pools:
- 85 percent recruit new graduates
- 81 percent recruit minorities
- 80 percent recruit veterans
- 79 percent recruit women
- 51 percent recruit career changers
- 35 percent recruit formerly incarcerated individuals
However, there’s progress to be made in some areas central to recruiting and retention strategies, Arcoro said.
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When it comes to company culture, 52 percent of respondents said they have and promote a well-defined culture, while 51 percent indicated their culture helps with their recruiting and retention strategy. Meanwhile, 20 percent said they either don’t have a defined culture or don’t promote it.
About 24 percent of respondents haven’t implemented any upskilling techniques. Among the 76 percent that have, a variety of methods are used:
- 45 percent are strengthening performance management
- 27 percent established new learning programs
- 25 percent use technology to deliver and track training
- 34 percent partnered with a third party for courses
- 32 percent implemented career pathing
Only 14 percent of respondents said they use a platform to improve performance management, but survey results indicated that companies see the value of feedback and performance management, with 53 percent conducting annual formal reviews. However, 36 percent said they have an informal review process and 14 percent reported no formal process.
When it comes to analytics, 49 percent of respondents said they don’t use any business intelligence (BI) or other data to help with their workforce planning and management, 35 percent indicated they have access to and use this type of data, 10 percent said they would use BI if it were available to them, and 4 percent said they have access to BI data but don’t use it.
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“This new data makes it clear that construction companies will have to up their game to recruit and retain talent in the future,” Mathias said.
