If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.

I know this is a cliché, but it encapsulates why the construction industry is struggling to attract and retain the skills it needs to deliver on the work that needs to get done.

Especially in the context of groundworks and civils contractors who are pulling their hair out because of the churn rate of Site or Setting Out Engineers.

This isn’t a criticism of anyone or anything, just an observation that the challenges we are facing now are the result of decades (or arguably centuries) of an industry as a whole system not adapting to technological and societal changes.

In fact a lot of the approaches we see today which are not serving us well as an industry, would actually have been critical for commercial survival 100 years ago (which isn’t that long in grand scheme of the six thousand years since construction started).

For example aggression, dominance hierarchy, long hours, dangerous working conditions, sacrificing health, no work life balance, no diversity etc etc were all a really effective strategy at one time. It got the job done.

‘Do what I tell you’

‘Don’t ask questions’

‘No I don’t want to hear any suggestions of how we can improve, thank you’

But things were simpler back then. Construction projects were simpler, information was simpler, life was simpler, the education system was simpler.

So it ‘worked’.

But times have changed, and whilst as an industry obviously we have really moved forward, there are still some old ways of thinking (which may have worked perfectly well at one time) which are still hanging around.

If you often find yourself ringing around to urgently find an Engineer who can start tomorrow or the next day because the last one ‘didn’t last 5 minutes’ (for whatever reason), it be might time to look at what else might need to change in your company.

If you think this might be you, and you might be ready to have a peek under the bonnet and make some long lasting changes so you no longer need to be dependent on freelance or agency Engineers, drop me a message.