Construction Informer

According to an informal poll on Building Design and Construction the biggest headache reported by firms was recruiting qualified professionals. Forty-three percent of those who voted said finding the right management people is their biggest challenge. Compare that to only a little over 7 percent saying finding new business was their biggest headache.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates construction managers will continue to be in demand at least through 2014 and perhaps beyond since the industry is seen by job seekers as having poor working conditions. Some of those conditions pointed out by the BLS include having to be available 24 hours a day to deal with delays, emergencies and weather that affects job sites.

None of this should be surprising since it can be tough to keep people motivated to continually deal with the kinds of issues managers and superintendents face everyday. One almost inexcusable issue has to do with incomplete or downright wrong architectural plans. Too often, mistakes in architectural plans force these front line managers to juggle people and materials to make up for poor plans. Not only that, and in the interest of expediting the change process, they then have to come up with solutions in the field, put together the necessary documentation and get it to the architects for approval before moving ahead. While all of this is done the project still needs to stay on schedule.

To help with retention and ultimately with attracting new talent, contractors could help alleviate some of the stresses placed on their managers by making sure they have a realistic workload and by allowing for backup help when unexpected things happen. One concept is to use a floating or roving manager, or manager trainee, who can be routed into troubled jobsites to help pick up the slack when needed.