Want to hire the best talent? Equip them with the best tech
When talking about the construction industry, the tight labor market and shortage of skilled workers available to successfully fill roles mean that companies are often left scrambling to fill roles with workers who don’t fit the ideal employee profile, simply out of desperation to get their jobs done on time and on budget.
Many Millennials and Gen-Z’ers, who have often been told that college is their only ticket to career advancement and success, have discounted the construction industry as a viable career option. This cycle of increased demand and decreased employee inventory has left many orgs scrambling. However, the construction industry is able to offer job stability, enviable salaries, and stimulating work that almost guarantees no two days are the same. The combination of benefits, in parallel with exciting technology options, makes a career in construction alluring.
Training and onboarding new talent are costly. There’s no way around the ramp-up time that aids those who are hired to do a job to understand what the scope of the work is, get familiar with their new colleagues, and learn new software and applications that the business already has in place.
How, then, can construction companies actually hire the best talent?
By promising them new and cutting-edge technologies that help them hone and increase their skills. The technical education that can be gained on a construction site is a new idea that can help attract, retain, and promote talent by keeping them engaged through learning. By doing so, the stigma of working in construction breaks down, allowing college graduates to pursue careers in the construction industry without judgment or skepticism. By positioning the construction industry as forward-thinking through technology, jobs become more lucrative and the talent pipeline fills itself.
Introducing a platform for building a mobile app that allows new employees to own and report on their progress gives prospective employees a fresh outlook on the construction industry as a whole. Creating a culture of citizen developers (those who don’t possess a traditional software engineering background, but who can create, develop, and deploy business apps without significant guidance and support), who feel ownership over the technology they’re using means that adopting a low-code app has a higher return on investment. This reliance on technology to get the job done signals that the old industry they may have had in their minds is gone and that the investment in tech to aid their jobs has ushered in a new way of getting work done.
Fulcrum allows for a seamless exchange of information and data between employees and managers in areas such as inspection, quality control, asset management, and more. Removing pen and paper from the job site means that construction companies can assure their future employees that technology that can be applied to both the role they’re in, as well as their future roles, can get them up to speed and onboarded more quickly, as well as integrating their work with existing employees.
Our mobile data collection and workflow automation platform also allows organizations to deliver location-based insights automatically with every record and report. The app Instantly delivers fully formatted reports to stakeholders, meaning new hires don’t have to spend their time building reports and dashboards from scratch. Managers can discover data-driven insights to help everyone make better decisions about safety, asset management, and staffing.
Using key technologies to aid in day-to-day tasks is essential for attracting the next generation of employees that can improve on, enhance, and define the future of construction.
Are you interested in learning more about how Fulcrum can enhance your next construction project? Start a free trial now.
