You know you’re having a labor crisis when you have more projects than workers to build them. With the extended strong economy, reliable qualified workers are difficult, but not impossible, to find.

The labor shortage in the construction industry is estimated to be in excess of 200,000 workers.  Here are suggestions from Ken Roper, a consultant with FMI, on how to alleviate your labor crisis.

• Revise your bidding strategy. Become more selective in the jobs you bid. Before bidding ask yourself how well the project fits with your available labor supply, particularly the field supervisory positions.
• Establish a structured process for recruiting. If you’re running ads in local newspapers or posting a “help wanted” sign at your job site, you aren’t being aggressive enough in your recruiting efforts. The people you want to hire are already working for other contractors. If they aren’t, you don’t want to hire them. Expand your reach using the Internet.
• Formalize a college or trade school internship program. Establish relationships with college professors, instructors, and guidance counselors at local colleges, universities, and trade schools that have construction management programs. Ask for the top students. Many already will have several summers of construction work under their belts.
• Cross-train your employees. Use employees who have several different job skills to your advantage. If the pan operator is absent and the foreman can operate the pan, put him or her to work. Cross-training may be easier at non-union sites, but even at union shops you can cross-train within work categories.
• Maximize your resources across disciplines, departments, and divisions. When you’re short estimators, ask project managers to help. In summer move shop workers to the field and in winter move field workers into the shop. Eliminate the “it’s not my job” attitude and inculcate a culture of one team, one mission.
• Use independent contractors. Many equipment operators have their own machinery. They prefer the freedom and independence of running their own small business. Independent contractors (for example, framing crews for general contractors) are a good outsourcing possibilities for staffing as long as they are well managed.
• Partner with your customers. If customers are expecting 100 percent and you can’t deliver, you haven’t managed the customer’s expectations and relationship well.
• Partner with other contractors. General contractors can partner with subcontractors or other generals. Subcontractors can also partner with generals and other subs. With this many partnerships it fosters a sense of a family working together to benefit the customer and the contractors.
• Partner with suppliers. Many contractors are buying modular components, in essence buying their suppliers’ labor.
• Partner with labor. Partner with your local union. You will find they appreciate being treated as business associates. Non-union contractors can formalize relationships with labor-supply resources.

What Goes Up Must Come Down
Inevitably the economy will turn downward. When that happens, the best employers bite the bullet and keep their most productive workers on the payroll. This engenders loyalty and builds trust. Contractors who have a reputation for firing employees at the first sign of an economic slowdown won’t be able to hire the best when the economy takes its inevitable swing back up. In the long run, keeping employees on the payroll during the leaner times cuts down considerably on attrition when times are good.

Internet Construction Job Sites

Construction Employment Databases

• www.aecjobbank.com
• www.constructiononly.com
• www.constructionjobstore.com
• www.jobsite.com
• www.careersinconstruction.com
• www.construction-careers.com
• www.constructiongigs.com
• www.engineeringjobs.com

Construction Usenet Newsgroups

• www.alt.building.resumes
• www.alt.building.jobs

Construction Chat Rooms and Message Boards

• Build Talk at www.buildtalk.com
• Construction Education Connection at www.construction.st

Construction Mailing Lists

• www.buildernews.com
• www.aecnotify.com

Construction Trade Association Job Banks

• Construction Financial Management Association at www.cfma.org
• National Association of Home Builders at www.nahb.com
• American Society of Professional Estimators at www.aspenational.com
• American Institute of Architects at www.aiaonline.org
• International Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives at www.nacore.com
• National Society of Professional Engineering at www.nspe.org