For quite some time now, the construction industry has had a nagging challenge, like a twisted ankle that won’t allow it to be as nimble and dynamic as it could. That challenge? Its recruiting pipeline.

Even before the pandemic, but especially after it, many construction firms have struggled to fill positions on all rungs of the ladder. According to a McKinsey report published earlier this year, this labor shortage is set to worsen as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law begins to fund new projects across the nation.

Fortunately, the construction industry is making strides in discussing and acknowledging its talent pipeline shortcomings. However, the real problem doesn’t lie in how recruiting is done. The problem lies in who construction firms reach out to when trying to fill job openings and what their diversity initiatives (if any) look like.

Historically, construction has grappled with diversity and inclusion challenges. Recent demographic statistics indicate that the industry remains overwhelmingly male-dominated and under-representative of the Black and Asian workforces.

To increase diversity and representation, construction firms need to address three key factors:

1. Re-evaluating how and where talent is sourced;

2. Promoting the value proposition of a career in construction;

3. Making investments in developing and sustaining relationships within underrepresented and diverse communities as part of a plan for cultivating cultures of inclusion, belonging and growth.

How and where talent is sourced

Let’s be clear: Gender and racial disparities can be resolved over time. One way to approach this is more proactive outreach programs to HBCUs and diverse professional engineering societies, just to name two examples.

Obviously for smaller, regional construction firms that can seem unrealistic (particularly in areas with less diverse colleges and populations). But you don't need to add 20 new schools to your campus recruiting portfolio to have an intentional strategy for approaching and building relationships with diverse groups of students and prospective talent. For any employer, now is the time to be introspective about hiring practices and how they can engage with new faces to generate interest in building a career in construction.

So what does an intentional strategy even mean? It means that a construction firm or industry organization can’t simply stroll into an HBCU or a college’s women in engineering group and expect to win over prospective architects or project managers by making enough noise. Immediate results are not realistic. It takes investment, not necessarily monetary, but of time and relationship building so that a foundation of trust can be established and potential recruits can receive full exposure to the industry’s opportunities. Once established in these communities, a snowball effect can occur as word spreads in the talent pool that construction is a viable, reliable and promising career path.

An intentional strategy also means not relying solely on your recruiters. They should not work alone as bastions of hope for the construction industry’s workforce development. Oftentimes, recruiters are following the talent acquisition strategy of their firms. Leadership at any construction company, large or small, must reckon with said strategy and how they cultivate a workplace culture that incentivizes recruits and keeps employees happy.

Promoting the value proposition

Surprisingly (or perhaps not), universities are one of the toughest environments for the construction firms to break into regardless of their ability to establish a meaningful presence. At that age, most students have a general sense or outright determination of what career they’d like to pursue or at least what industry they’d like to work in. To drive a significant influx of future talent, the journey for construction recruiters must start as early as the third grade. This is the stage in a child’s life where future career preferences begin to truly form beyond the “I want to be an astronaut/dinosaur/athlete” phase. For many years, efforts to promote more conventional STEM careers—in science or high-tech, for example—have been designed to reach younger children; they have enjoyed immense success resonating with them and with driving them into these fields when they’re older.

This is where the onus falls on construction firms to plant the seeds of interest in the next generation, showing that construction can provide a highly enjoyable and rewarding career regardless of position. Speaking of the work STEM organizations have done in elementary and middle school education, the advancement of construction technology also has opened up both more opportunities for recruitment and much stronger competition.

This changes the game because construction firms need to realize they are not just competing for talent with other constructors, but also with a variety of industries with similar talent needs. Today, construction companies need more software engineers to develop AI and automation programs for robots, they need sustainability experts and climate scientists to push forward clean energy goals. The list goes on of needs that must be addressed today and for the next five to ten years.

Remember the “Got Milk?” ad campaign of the early-mid 2000s? The goal of the campaign was to benefit the entire dairy industry. No matter what dairy brand you buy from, just drink more milk. The construction industry needs to take a collective approach to recruiting more often. No matter the recruits’ background, the industry’s goal should be to build a robust talent pipeline of diverse people who are motivated to jump into construction work. This can mean expanding degree programs, opening up consideration for candidates with real-world experience instead of focusing solely on formal degrees, tapping into trade schools wherever possible, and even participating in societal re-entry programs and veteran employment organizations. All it takes is time, authenticity, inclusivity and patience.

Sustaining relationships

This should be a priority for the construction sector over the next several years. But it would be meaningless if retention wasn’t part of the plan. It’s the final step that can make or break a construction firm’s recruiting approach. While taking the time to build outside interest in construction, company leaders must also invest in the internal culture of their organizations. Not just in encouraging diversity, equity and inclusion, but in consistently showing each employee that they are a meaningful part of the firm’s ecosystem. A great start is to provide tangible “mile markers” for career development, so employees feel that every day they come into work is the next step in furthering their career and positively impacting the company and larger community.

It would be a bold lie to claim that talent shortages and diversity hiring challenges, regardless of the industry, can be solved with any sort of quick fix. Only by building out a detailed strategy, taking steady steps toward realistic goals and having an unwavering and authentic purpose can construction leaders make real, positive changes to the culture of our sector. Show that this work provides opportunities for everyone, and that sentiment will spread faster than future job openings can open up.