Don’t Let the Skilled Trades Shortage Hurt Your Bottom Line
As a result of the skilled trades shortage, construction costs are increasing, projects are taking longer to complete, and bid contracts are becoming more expensive. While this may threaten your bottom line, following these steps can help you improve construction labor productivity and increase your profit margins:
- Reduce your B- and C-level employees from your core, full-time workforce
- Maintain a lean permanent workforce of only your most skilled and productive craftworkers
- Partner with a contract labor staffing solution to supplement your core workforce as needed
- Send contract employees back to your staffing partner as work volume decreases
Maintain Construction Workforce Productivity in Any Economy
Most construction workforces are comprised of 30% A, 40% B and 30% C-level employees. By eliminating the lower end of your B-level employees and all of your C-level employees, you can maintain a lean permanent workforce that includes only your top-performing craftworkers, who, by the way, are also typically your safest employees.
As the workload increases beyond what your core team can handle, you can incorporate contract labor into your staffing strategy instead of re-hiring B- and C-level employees. This allows you to supplement your core team of proven employees with the skilled craftworkers you need to complete more projects more efficiently, and with higher levels of quality and safety.
Then, as the volume of work diminishes, you can immediately send the contract employees back to your staffing partner – giving them several days’ notice so they can mobilize their employees to other jobsites around town. This eliminates profit-draining holdover or overstaffing costs associated with full-time payroll. Ultimately, it helps you to sustain an optimized work-to-worker ratio that will maximize your overall workforce productivity and profit margins.
Learn more in this video:
*Source: Severe Labor Shortage Continues to Plague Construction Industry