Nowadays, the construction industry is facing a severe labor shortage. It is no secret that many contractors struggle to retain employees, regardless of how many projects they undertake or how much profit they make. Employees are a company’s most significant resource; without them, internal operations may be slowed or even halted. If you are losing numerous employees in a row in a pattern of rising employee turnover, you should stop for a second and address the issue right away. If this trend continues, your company’s productivity will suffer, and your company’s survival may be jeopardized.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer regarding employee retention in the construction industry. Each company has its unique work environment, internal processes, and personnel issues. Luckily, there is still some positive news for employers regarding managing construction. However, several methods help boost employee retention and reduce high employee turnover – one example is the use of construction scheduling software. In this article, let us look at employee retention and turnover and several strategies for increasing staff retention from within your organization.
What is Employee Retention?
For any business to succeed, managers must be able to keep their best employees on board. This is what employee retention aims to achieve. Employee retention refers to an organization’s policies and processes to reduce employee turnover risks and retain key personnel.
For various reasons, people leave their jobs – some are voluntary, such as moving employment, while others, such as being laid off, are not. Instead of focusing on the loss of a poor performer, employee retention methods generally focus on voluntary departure detrimental to the organization.
Why Is Employee Retention Critical in Construction?
One essential strategy of an optimized construction crew management system is to make employee retention a priority. High turnover affects revenue, productivity, employee experience, and knowledge retention, and some of it might be avoided with early management intervention. However, boosting your capacity to retain employees is advantageous for various reasons. To begin, here are a few of its advantages.
Skill Development and Training Efficiency
When an employee leaves, you lose all of the time, money, and effort you put into training and developing the abilities that make them key personnel in your organization. Companies can save money on recruiting and get more out of employee training by concentrating on staff retention. Fees paid to recruiters or advertised vacancies, interview-related travel, and possible signing bonuses are all included in recruiting costs.
Increased Labor Productivity
One of the challenges of project management for construction is maintaining a consistent level of productivity on the job site. Employee turnover slows you down since it takes time for a new employee to catch up on speed, quality, and output. It also takes a toll on surviving employees, who are forced to take on more work and, as a result, may generate lower-quality results. High-retention workplaces with more engaged employees are more productive.
Improved Employee Engagement and Morale
Employee retention encourages stronger relationships and engagement, which boosts morale. On the other hand, a regular stream of resignations has a depressing effect on the workplace, resulting in many negative consequences. Satisfied and engaged employees are guaranteed to stay with a company with high retention rates.
Better Work Environment and Company Culture
Employees that have been with a company for a long time are likely to be more engaged, informed, and skilled. They have also developed strong bonds with their stakeholders. When an employee leaves, the company loses out on the potential value he could have brought to the organization. When engaged employees are aligned with a company’s culture, it can significantly boost your company’s processes.
Better Customer Experience
Inexperienced and unskilled recruits are more prone to make mistakes that negatively impact a customer’s experience with the company. Experienced employees are more adept at dealing with consumers and have strong interpersonal relationships with stakeholders.
Enhanced Profitability and Revenue
Employee retention is not just about saving costs, but it also positively impacts income, profitability, and revenue. Employers with higher retention rates create a better customer and employee experience, keep experienced top talent, and are more productive.
What Happens When a Company’s Employee Turnover Is High?
When you are a project manager or a contractor, you know that when a top engineer, heavy machine operator, or foreman decides to leave the job, the project’s completion is jeopardized. Furthermore, firms with higher employee turnover rates must pay more attention to replacing talent and addressing challenges such as reduced productivity, fatigue among slacker employees, and lower employee engagement rather than improving the work environment and culture. These negative consequences can result in even higher employee turnover and jeopardize the company’s overall profitability.
What Are the Causes of a High Employee Turnover?
As stated in the earlier section, people leave their jobs for various reasons, regardless of the pay, tenure, or job descriptions. We have listed six general categories of the causes of employee turnover.
- Personal Reasons
- Work-Life Balance
- Incompatibility
- Work Relationships and Culture
- Lack of Opportunity, Training, and Skill Development
- Health and Financial Reasons
Five Strategies on How You Can Boost Your Employee Retention for Your Construction Company
Without a doubt, losing a highly trained worker will result in disastrous results for a construction company’s projects. It can cause months of delays and many headaches for project managers. However, it takes more than a simple pay increase to keep people pleased at your company; it also takes safety, communication, and advancement chances. In this section, we have listed five strategies to boost employee retention.
Evaluate The Current State of Your Company
Employees care about more than their pay – instead, work-life balance, work culture, environment, and relationships play a big part in making personnel stay. Employee engagement, attrition rate, retention rate, benefits participation, complaints, productivity, and employee referrals are all metrics that should be tracked and monitored to get a clear picture of what’s going on at your organization. These human resources team helps managers plan when warning indicators indicate a problem.
Build Stronger Employee Relationships and Connections
Digital tools, such as subcontractor scheduling software, have a purpose beyond keeping projects on track and staff interested. They also aid in developing relationships between contractors, subcontractors, and their office or crew personnel. Setting clear goals, providing enough coaching and feedback, and appropriately recognizing employees are essential components of relationships and connections.
Invest in Skill Development and Training
When a company spends on training, employees understand that they are serious about their performance. It also demonstrates a commitment to a safe working environment. Ensuring that your company has full-time trainers that move from job site to job site with a fully equipped training trailer to provide craft employees with on-the-job training. It gives employees the impression that the company cares about them.
Emphasize Constant Communication and Team Collaboration
Good team communication is the foundation of good team collaboration. It’s a win-win situation when people communicate openly. It keeps business owners informed and makes others feel more connected and invested in a project’s success. Using a construction inventory app or management software streamlines communication across the board, making it easy to share progress reports, expectations, best practices, and respond to questions.
Provide More Opportunities for Career Growth
Good employers do not merely think about what is going on right now – their long-term plans often span weeks, months, and even years. Using the power of high-potential workers to shape and lead your company to even greater heights. It goes beyond pay raises and promotions to show the best of the best that you have a strategy for them. It would be beneficial if you provided opportunities for career growth and advancement. This keeps them challenged and helps them build talents that will benefit your company.
Place the Right Individuals in the Right Jobs
Take a good look at the team you currently have. Evaluating your crew’s skills and reviewing their current positions allows you to place each of your employees in a situation where they can flourish if you know precisely what role suits them. The more a person excels at anything, the more self-assured and happier they will become.
Involve Your Employees in Business Decisions
Making employees feel that their ideas and opinions are valued is a significant aspect of boosting employee retention. Getting feedback from construction workers is especially important. They have insights that management-level staff may not have because they are on the field. Employees will also feel more responsible for their tasks if included in the decision-making process.
Utilize a Construction Software
Keeping top employees is as easy as utilizing the leading technologies to streamline and optimize your processes. Today’s digital advancements, such as construction scheduling software, can keep you and your employees updated and on the same page. The incredibly high standards demanded in today’s sector put a lot of strain on the workforce, so most modern technologies, such as Pro Crew Schedule, can significantly impact worker performance and morale.
