Construction Companies Struggle to Balance Recruiting and Retention Initiatives

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — As construction companies push to overcome staffing challenges that have led to many project delays, Arcoro has released new data that sheds light on the recruiting and retention strategies being used to address a decrease in skilled workers.

The Associated General Contractors of America and Arcoro, a leading platform for construction and specialty contractor workforce solutions, conducted and released initial results from the 2024 Workforce Survey earlier this year. Nearly 1,500 firms completed the survey, which included several questions specifically focused on recruiting and workforce management to better understand how and where the industry is attracting talent and managing the talent they have. 

Key Opportunities

“Construction employers are overlooking key opportunities that can help them strengthen their recruiting and retention efforts and, hopefully, come out on top,” said Chad Mathias, Senior Vice President of Sales and Strategy at Arcoro. “Technology, programs and resources represent a powerful combination for improvement.”

Never-before-released results of these workforce questions show that companies are making efforts to recruit from diverse candidate pools. Respondents reported actively targeting the following groups: 85% recruit new graduates, 81% recruit minorities, 80% recruit veterans, 79% recruit women, 51% recruit career changers, and 35% recruit formerly incarcerated individuals.

Room for Improvement

However, there’s progress to be made in some areas central to recruiting and retention strategies in the tightest job market in decades.

When it comes to culture, 52% of respondents said they have and promote a well-defined culture, while 51% indicate their culture helps with their recruiting and retention strategy. Meanwhile, 20% said they either don’t have a defined culture or don’t promote it.

There’s also room for improvement in training and upskilling workers. About 24% of companies haven’t implemented any upskilling techniques. Among the 76% that have, a variety of methods are being used: 45% are strengthening performance management, 27% have established new learning programs, 25% are using technology to deliver and track training, 34% are partnering with a third-party for courses, and 32% have implemented career pathing.

Surprisingly, only 14% said they use a platform to improve performance management. Survey results also indicate that companies see the value of feedback and performance management, with 53% conducting annual formal reviews. Meanwhile, 36% said they have an informal review process, and 14% reported they have no formal process.

Equally surprising is the use of analytics in the industry. 49% of respondents said they don’t use any business intelligence (BI) or other data to help with their workforce planning and management, 35% indicate they have access to and use this type of data, 10% said they would use BI if it was available to them, and 4% said they have access to BI data but don’t use it.

“This new data makes it clear that construction companies will have to up their game to recruit and retain talent in the future,” said Mathias. “However, many companies have yet to adopt modern technology for core HR processes, like training or performance management. This represents a real opportunity for the industry to take advantage of HR solutions that enable them to be more efficient and effective.”

View the survey results online and read a full analysis on Arcoro’s blog.