One of the biggest issues facing our readers these days is a shortage of skilled labor. In last year’s survey of Top 100 Metal Builders, respondents blamed the issue on everything from a lack of a strong work ethic to competition from other industries that offer equal pay for less arduous effort.
It is that effort component in the skilled labor shortage and in how we value employees that has caught my eye. There isn’t a manager in the world who doesn’t appreciate and value an employee who works hard, produces great results and delivers consistent attention to the job.
The effort given to a job is often used as an excuse for the compensation that comes with it. How many times have you read about a billionaire hedge fund manager who talks about the long hours and full attention his job requires to justify the massive income? I recently read of one manager who complained that he started early, worked all day, then would have to spend the evening at business dinners. That is a long day, and it does require work, but I have to tell you I wouldn’t mind sitting in a four-star restaurant eating the finest food while I talked with smart people about topics I enjoy.
Compare that kind of day to the typical construction worker who rises just as early or earlier and spends the entire day in physical labor. In terms of just effort, the construction worker is putting out significantly more than the hedge fund manager. By the time he is 65, his body has worn down. He may have suffered broken bones. And is possibly even enduring repetitive motion-type injuries, strained knees, gammy back, bad hips.
Professional football players point to the dangers of the job and the potential for injury as a reason to justify large contracts. Danger is part of the calculation of their worth. Professional roofers die at a much greater rate than football players-or almost any job classification-but seldom is danger part of the calculation in a roofer’s pay.
This brings me back to the labor shortage and why we struggle to attract skilled workers. A big part of the problem is that we can’t compete with other professions that offer more compensation for less effort and risk of injury. Certainly, roofers aren’t deciding among roofer, hedge fund manager and professional football player as their career choices, but they do see that their effort and risk are equal or greater than those other positions with far, far, far, far less compensation.
My argument is that we are struggling to attract skilled labor because we don’t compensate skilled labor at competitive rates. Compensation doesn’t include just money, of course. It includes length of career, career growth, job satisfaction, benefits and other issues. As I’ve written previously, a skilled construction job is a great job, but not such a great career. Eventually, the negatives stand in the way of a person committing to the trades as a career.
Unfortunately, no business owner can solve this problem. It is societal. As a society, we no longer value people who use the skill of their hands to work. It used to be that a carpenter could raise a family, own a home and send his kids off to college on his salary alone. Today, that idea is almost laughable.
What can a contractor do, though? In the long run, the most important role every contractor plays in solving the skilled labor shortage is to do a better job of selling the value of what they bring to the table. If you’re competing on cost, you can’t improve your skilled labor force. But if you’re winning the argument about the quality of your company and its services, then you can begin to command the revenue necessary to attract the best workers and provide a career for them.
