By Jacob Snyder

Are we going to be able to get the people we need?” This is an all-too-familiar question that contractors and labor suppliers are being asked every day. It’s a valid one, too, as the aging construction workforce is retiring, the demand for construction workers is growing as the construction market continues to see increases in spending, and the skills needed are evolving.

The 2017 The Association of Union Constuctors (TAUC) Union Craft Labor Supply Survey identified that the craft shortages being experienced by contractors are worse in 2017 in both pervasiveness and degree.

Further, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the construction industry unemployment rate of 4.7 percent is the lowest since 2000, and the growth rate of construction employment is 2.7 percent, which is more than double the national average. Couple that growth with the known new demand from all of the recent storm damage in the Southern United States and you have the recipe for a massive worker shortage.

While these two elements present both a myriad of challenges and opportunities for the union construction industry, one of the most important areas that needs consideration is the impact they could have on safety performance on our jobsites. 

Below are two areas I have identified that are specifically related to safety performance which are likely to occur as a result of both the growing business opportunities and the shortage of available workers.

1. More inexperienced craft workers will be used. There are two types of experience that impact a craft worker: experience within the given craft/industry, and experience with a specific company and type of task. BLS data shows that 60 percent of construction injuries occur when an employee has less than one year of experience in an industry or with a specific employer.

That is an astonishing number to consider! During busy times, demand for veteran craftworkers grows. The new people who step in to fill the gap will be inexperienced, either with your organization or construction in general. This puts contractors in a bind: they have to figure out how to train and monitor these inexperienced workers, oftentimes without the benefit of senior men and women to serve as mentors.

2. With fewer workers than positions, workers will be asked to put in longer hours. One of the ways employers help attract workers when shortages occur is to offer more hours. In many cases this involves working 12-hour days, seven days a week. Further, employers may not use this type of schedule only to attract workers, but also to get work completed if they are unable to hire enough people to
complete it on a shorter shift schedule. 

A study by the publication Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that working in jobs with overtime schedules was associated with a 61 percent higher injury hazard rate compared to jobs without overtime. Working at least 12 hours per day was associated with a 37 percent increased hazard rate and working at least 60 hours per week was associated with a 23 percent increased hazard rate.

A strong dose-response effect was also observed, with the injury rate (per 100 accumulated worker-years in a particular schedule) increasing in correspondence to the number of hours per day (or per week) in the workers’ customary schedule. Results suggest that job schedules with long working hours are not more risky merely because they are concentrated in inherently hazardous industries or occupations, or because people working long hours spend more total time “at risk” for a work injury. Rather, these outcomes are attributed largely to exhaustion, lack of sleep, and the human condition.

Knowing this should make us question the hours we ask people to work, and should challenge us (as an industry that prides itself on safe work in a dangerous environment) to find innovative ways to address the worker and skill shortages without sacrificing our employees’ safety. 

Possible solutions. Below are five areas where the union construction industry can focus to assist in addressing the craft worker shortage and the safety challenges the shortages present. Using innovative solutions to the manpower challenges offers ways to not only address safety, but also make union construction more efficient and less costly. 

1. Recruiting. This is something that every union and contractor is making an effort to accomplish. This effort must encompass both apprentices and organizing experienced personnel.

Long term, we need to find a way to change the cultural narrative that construction and other blue collar work somehow makes someone less successful than people who go to college, only later to become baristas and make a third as much money with no upward mobility.

However, there is also an urgent short-term need. To address the current labor shortage in an expeditious manner, we need to be innovative. One such approach in our industry comes from the IBEW, which created new classifications in some areas, called CE and CW, to both compete on price and bring new people in. More ideas like this are needed across the industry to bring new, but experienced, people into the union construction industry.

2. Enhanced Training. The good news is that the union construction industry has thousands of training centers already built across the country. However, what is needed is a method to fast-track training for special skills and safety. It is paramount that workers who come to the jobsite understand the risks and how to identify and correct hazards.

From a skills standpoint, there are some new programs doing great things. The United Association has a fast-track welding program that can put a welder in the field in a very short amount of time. This will help get the needed skills to the field, with some assurance that they also have the needed training to be effective and safe. 

3. Scheduling. As shortages occur and workers are asked to work more hours to make up for the lack of manpower, companies that value safety may be called upon to be innovative with scheduling. This may require working on flexibility with customers to move project dates or utilizing non-traditional schedules to ensure workers receive time off to rest and recharge. We can only run so hard for so long as humans. It is imperative for contractors to monitor workload and think about employee health.

Very few employees will stop working long hours because of the financial incentive. So, we must take it upon ourselves as leaders to find different ways to do things. 

4. Lean Construction Principles. The utilization of lean construction principles can help improve efficiency and reduce the amount of manpower by eliminating waste and making processes streamlined and simple. 

In December of 2014, CPWR published a study that found initiation of lean construction principles leads to improved safety performance. While lean is still a relatively young concept in the construction market, it is a concept that is gaining momentum and could not only help solve manpower
shortages and the safety concerns they create, but could also be a major step forward in improving efficiency and reducing cost in the union construction industry.

5. Technology. The speed at which technology is developed and introduced is greater than ever before. There are all types of technology in the “internet of things” and virtual reality that can assist in planning and elimination of rework. There is much development in the arena of wearable technology to monitor employee condition and movement. There are new mechanical mechanisms that can reduce stress for humans and speed up processes. All of this technology lends itself to reducing the risk of injury for employees, and most of it should also make us more efficient, therefore reducing the amount of manpower required. 

As an industry facing a substantial challenge with having enough qualified construction workers — along with safety requirements and increased productivity pressure from the construction community — it will be imperative as an industry that unions and contractors work together to find innovative ways to attract and train people and find new means and methods to make work safer, more productive, and less expensive. Our ability to do this collaboratively would put us in position to meet the demands of the market and possibly gain market share.

(Jacob Snyder is the TAUC Industrial Relations committee chairman and Director of Safety and Labor Relations for Enerfab Power & Industrial, Inc.)