The residential construction industry faces a costly challenge: turnover. Retaining existing employees is as important to the bottom line of a business as attracting new talent. Building Talent Foundation (BTF) CEO Branka Minic learned some startling details about turnover in the industry while interviewing workforce experts.
· Residential construction employers are struggling to recruit, efficiently upskill, and then retain new skilled trade workers.
· 75% of newly hired employees leave the industry within the first six months on the job.
· The cost of losing even an entry level construction worker is estimated at more than $15,000.
· This means decreased profits for trade companies and homebuilders, and increased home prices for homebuyers.
This raises a lot of questions about the future of the industry. What causes new hires to leave? Do they struggle to see a career path? Are they put off by a bad boss? Is it a lack of training? Did the job not meet their expectations?
“A big part of BTF’s mission is to not only connect talent to hiring managers, but also support those newly hired individuals and retain them in the trades. Because retention is so important, it is critical to learn the causes of turnover. With that information employers can deploy best practices that will lead to increased retention,” said Jason Krieger, BTF’s Manager of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning.
Branka urges all of homebuilding and construction's stakeholders to encourage participation in the 10-minute Survey, as an opportunity to listen, learn, and respond. Here are the goals of this initiative:
· Establish reasons why skilled trades people stay or leave their jobs and the sector, by conducting a brief online survey across residential construction trade companies.
· Conduct follow-up interviews with respondents who volunteer to participate.
· Host focus groups with employers experiencing success in retention to share their real-world best practices.
· Publish a report and host a webinar to disseminate best practices to employers on how to better retain talent.
Here are the survey links to share with employees.
Link to survey in English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FJJBGND
Link to survey in Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2L32BKV
“Constructing and distributing the survey has been a collaborative effort within our network,” said Branka. David Weekley Homes provided human resources expertise, and their deep knowledge of trades to help us create the questions and design of the survey process. Leading Builders of America (LBA) Quality Council, Home Builders Institute, Carrier, Rheem, and other BTF partners are distributing the survey to their trade partners, contractors and other relevant contacts. The Builder’s Daily is promoting the project on social media..
Once the information is collected, world-renowned expert Professor William Scott Jackson and his team at Oxford University’s Centre for Employee Engagement will analyze and interpret the data. BTF will use the information to identify ways to improve engagement and retention.