COMMENT The skills crises facing construction and property has never been more acute.
The CITB announced a few years ago that we were short of about a quarter of a million workers in the industry. YouGov figures from about the same time said 3% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 were looking to construction as a profession. And the ONS said 20% of the construction workforce were over the age of 50. That figure hit 58% when you added in the 29-45 age group.
To quote NASA’s Apollo 13: “Houston we have a problem”.
To encourage more people to choose our sector for their career, we need to be out there showing what a fantastic place this is to work.
Setting the bar
Willmott Dixon has targeted appearing in some well-recognised employer benchmarks, such as The Times Top 50 Employers for Women, where we have featured on the past four occasions. More recently, we made a concerted effort to appear in the Best Companies list, which is open to all sectors. It’s a tough process, with companies judged on feedback from their people to an independent online poll.
To our huge delight, we came first in the Best Big Company to Work For category, with our chief executive Rick Willmott also recognised as Best Leader. Areas that helped us score highly included having an inclusive culture, adopting agile working and nurturing an environment where people are empowered to thrive without any barriers.
Winning Best Companies was a milestone for the built environment sector. For the first time, a company from our sector has topped a poll that is normally the domain of sectors such as insurance or tech. It’s put us on the radar and shown that our industry can compete with the very best in offering a rewarding career.
That’s why EG’s Future Leaders is so important. By shining a light on our talented people, it acts as further inspiration to many more who would otherwise have considered another sector.
Construction has changed irrevocably since 2020 and the pandemic. Our attitude to inclusion, creating an agile workplace and changing normal patterns of work so we make technology work better for us is a game changer.
Willmott Dixon topping the Best Companies poll was a sign of this change, but it’s only the start. Where once people would aspire to work in finance, tech, accountancy or the legal professional, construction and property is now up there. How do I know this? Just by looking at the thousands of people who apply for our management trainee programme.
And what’s more, the gender balance is about even. That trend has been growing but has become more prominent in the past two to three years. The old stereotypes of construction and property are disappearing, and our ability to attract a wider talent pool is increasing.
Delivering social value
That’s why I was incredibly proud to see Megan Kennedy from my team appear at EG Future Leaders. Megan joined us as a trainee and in her short time with us has progressed to become a framework manager.
Along the way, she has won our annual trainee challenge for her work leading a team that delivered important social value to vulnerable people. This included designing a skills course for women wanting to kickstart to their career, refurbishing five children’s homes in Hertfordshire and delivering a seminar for care workers in children’s homes.
It’s that drive to make a difference that marks out a new generation of young construction and property professionals, people who EG Future Leaders has highlighted so well. By doing so, it is creating role models to entice more young people into our industry.
We must keep shining a light on our people and what they do and put a marker in the sand on every occasion because only this will help our industry thrive and not be hampered by a lack of good people.
Chris Tredget is managing director in north London and Northern Home Counties at Willmott Dixon
