Construction Industry for Recruitment Challenges - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theConstruction Industryfor Recruitment Challenges. Answer: Introduction The objective of this paper is to discuss the key challenges for recruiting the workforce in construction industry. The construction industry is suffering a huge skill shortage across all of its disciplines from tradesmen to architects so we view employability very differently from say PWC who have very exclusive recruitment programs as they are seen to be more attractive employers than the construction industry is. Therefore what employers deem to be employable is very different across different industries. While there is higher cost to the organisation associated with school and college leavers the Construction Industry Training Board are very keen for trainee schemes in the industry to be as inclusive as possible and award extra funding to companies who provide many routes in to the industry (Naranjo-Valencia Jimnez-Jimnez, 2011). T hey state that they should lead on increasing the appeal of working in construction and encouraging new entrants to the industry. There is acute shor tage of construction workers not only in Australia but also across various nations, as people do not want to work in construction industry. Analysis: Issues Challenges The construction industry has evolved a lot. However, in recent times, the industry has found itself in tough situation due to lack of workers (Pinder, 2014). There are various challenges that surround the recruitment in construction industry. Some of the challenges can be discussed as: Demographic Issues and Challenges One of the key challenges in the construction industry is that women are considered not suitable for this industry. When it comes to women, the lack of role models and masculine image of entrepreneurs represented in different contexts makes self-employment an unconsidered option. Some of the other barriers to self-employment include: Personal barriers: Confidence and courage to take risks. Lack of human capital consisting of: education, experience and skill to create a differentiated product. Lack of financial Resources and strong networks (Pinder, 2014) Nevertheless career barriers are not strange and will not be. They are normal experiences. It can occur to any person in life, executive or secretary, physician, Politician or janitor. Some career barriers can emanate out of nowhere while some surface slowly from daily pressures of life. Individuals feel them intensely and painfully irrespective of how and why they happen (Ordanini Silvestri, 2008). Motivation and Behavioral Issues Authors argued that lack of motivation among the construction workers is also one of the biggest challenges for recruitment in construction industry. Author continues with the personal skills needed for better employability like adaptability, integrity, self-discipline and flexibility.Whilst degree plays a major role especially in the global economy, it is clear that it cannot be seen as a standalone to secure employment, thus suggesting the need for Employability Skills. Employability Skills is what will facilitate the importance of the degree held in an organisation thus stressing the importance of both degree and Employability (Pinder, 2014). The most obvious reasons are a lack of degree and experience and insufficient employability skills. These barriers among others can be addressed through several ways such as participating in voluntary work, internships, placements, part-time work, curricular activities, etc.; engaging in any of these could enhance employability skills, provid e experience and showcase the level of determination and initiative to employers, thus helping graduates to secure employment. Ways to work around this is by identifying and understanding what barriers people feel they face or will face and then being conscious of doing the opposite to them. For example, if people have low self-esteem, volunteering within a small company where people can learn and feel comfortable around the people can help with self-esteem when entering into a chosen job in the future (Brock Knutsen, 2014). Number of Available Options for Graduates In recent times, number of other industries has surpassed construction industry as the preferred choice of place to work. In a way, the IT industry can be considered as a threat as today, college graduates wants to work in IT industry and not in construction industry. Therefore, it can be said that the evolution of new options for graduates is also a challenge of recruitment for players in construction industry (Wilson, 2014). Ageing Workforce Issues The old workforce in the construction industry is getting old. There are more people leaving the job (due to age) than the young population that want to join the industry. The young crowd or the people of new age do not find any attraction in the construction industry (Dion, 2012). In addition to these barriers, Pinder (2014) identifies 18 barriers: being single or narrow minded, lack of experience, low achievement motivation, inability to identify and take opportunities, unwillingness to stretch our comfort zones, having family obligations, being poor at time management,fear of success and fear of rejection, fear of failure, having no focus or direction, having poor concentration ability, having a lousy strategy, having a high risk aversion, poor or lack of execution, having low energy, having limited resources and inadequate support, being lazy, low self confidence, resilience and self esteem and unwillingness to get appropriate professional support in construction industry. Ways to Overcome the bBarrier There are various different barriers that impact on a person ability to be successful in gaining a career in the construction sector; however, some are harder to overcome than others. An example would be being poor at time management, to me, this is something that can easily be overcome as there are lots of short courses available to train and combat this issue. In comparison a barrier that may be harder to overcome is fear of failure as this is something that needs to be built up over time and the individual needs to learn to accept and view failure in a different way to their current way of thinking. This barrier would be something that would need to be changed slowly and in steps to avoid reverting back completely to their initial way of thinking. It is also recommended that the organizations should also focus on modern way of recruitment like social media forums for recruitment, etc. The organizations can also encourage their employees to refer their friends (Wilson, 2014). The more time students spend at workplace to acquire experience, the better they get in acquiring, developing and maintaining the skills and attributes employers are looking for e.g. communication skills, Literacy skills, Time keeping, ability to use initiative, enthusiasm and commitment, IT skill etc. which help them to secure their ideal role. Caron Hwang (2013) said that a lack of experience indicates that although a graduate may be well educated might not have been tested in the real world. He goes on to say that they will then normally lack the skill sets to deal with customer interaction, conflict or working with colleagues in a team environment. Michael suggests that when studying, students should get a part time job or volunteer to demonstrate they want to gain as much knowledge and experience as they can. Having said that, work experience may not be of huge importance to some roles but it is suggested that a strong working background could imply good work ethics (Reidenbach Robin, 2013). It is suggested that organizations in construction industry should focus to give good salary to people, as salary is one of the most important motivator for people. It is important that the players in the construction industry should change their operation and procedures to include performance based reward system. It will also help if the government of private firms can come with some specific courses for graduates in construction industry. Generally, employability skills is a very good thing but it will work better with a degree to back-up, higher degree to a level can help one to hone his employability skill which will in turn cause one to be very exceptional in his or her career. It is important the performance management system for the organizations in construction industry should be fair. Aguinis (2013, p. 21) distinguishes between 4 types of fairness or justice: distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice. He refers many times to the perception of the perf ormance evaluation an interesting subject, as this perception is subjective and might accordingly vary from employee to employee to managers. Whether or not people perceive something as fair has many layers. McDonough Lin (2011, p. 144) for example states that people would always compare 2 points: first, their own input to the reward they get in relation to what they expect, and second their results from point 1 in relation what they think point 1 looks like for others. The performance management process that the firms on construction industry should practice can be shown as: Performance management Process for Construction Industry Achievement of organization strategies and goals Performance Planning: The goals should be clearly identified and understood by both parties, manager and employee The objectives should have a clear link with general objectives of the organization All the objectives should be identified in a way that they should provide challenges, but at the same time should be achievable Providing feedback: In order to be efficient, all feedback should be given on time and discussed in a private and quite place It is important to discuss in details with the employee and to establish a positive exchange of input in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the points that need to be improved Receiving input from the employees: The employees should be able to provide potential solution/steps to achieve to selected goals Conducting performance evaluation Conducting performance review Conclusion The above paper discusses the key challenges of recruitment for organizations in the competitive industry. It would be correct to say that construction industry has reached a place where the demand of employees is more than the supply. It is critical that people learn how to gain new knowledge, manage it, build on it and be able to transfer it to others and receive from them to be successful in ever-dynamic work environments that are becoming institutions of teaching themselves. The key learning for organizations in construction industry is to create and establish a culture where employees retention could be increased. The demographics issues and the ageing population issues are some of the biggest challenges for organizations. The unfortunate thing for organizations is that there is no easy solution for this problem. One of the things for organizations to move forward is to use more of automation so that the dependency on human resources is reduced. The recruitment challenges could be overcome if different stakeholders join hands. 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