Introduction
The Australian construction industry has been for the past few years encountered many challenges starting from the economic restrictions construction industry. Many construction companies that aim at flourishing in this industry have claimed to encounter a similar problem through inefficiency. Inefficiency has been noted in all areas of the company’s activities that vary from inefficiency in business processes, supply chain, communication channels. All these forms of inefficiency incur huge costs on the Australian construction companies. Achieving efficiency remains one of the major goals of the Australian companies in that the most efficient companies receive huge benefits. Efficiency within a company brings about productivity, attraction of more and better employees; they also ensure delivery of high quality finished products and acquire the best jobs. Increased efficiency within a company ensures more sustainability success.
These strategies are brought about by looking into current business processes and determining the areas where they should improve and impact efficiency. Construction companies in Australia should ensure efficiency in order to become more productive. For instance, one area that should be improved on in the current construction companies is that, they should avoid using many spreadsheets to keep record of their performance in terms of projects. This could lead to wastage of time as it would take several days to get hold of all this data into one meaningful report. It may also lead to inaccuracy and hence inefficiency. In order to change this situation, construction companies should consider implementing a fully- integrated software package. This is one of the things that the Australian companies need to consider in order to become efficient (Whyte 2006.P. 14).
This paper will discuss the importance of for more skilled and experienced labor in a booming construction market such as Hutchison Building Company based in Australia and the effects on the quality of the project. The first part of the paper will focus on the main key concepts related to the issue with respect to the Human Resource Management and the Communication Management. It will also elaborate the need of having skilled personnel within the company that help in attaining the company’s objectives. The final parts of the paper will emphasis on the effects of quality with reference to the Hutchinson Building Company. It will also bring out the necessity of evaluating the current major concerns that should be considered.
Background Information
The Hutchison Building Company is believed to be among the largest construction companies in Australia and is owned by private developers. The company holds its pride for having been in existence for over a hundred years since it was started in 1912. The company consists of a dedicated team that enables it to achieve the capabilities and expertise which have developed into a large scale construction company. Over the years, the company has risen from a mere building and construction company to hit sectors that entail mining and engineering. The company’s offices are based in different areas of Australia like; Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia NSW and NT. It also has about 1300 staff members who are directly employed. In addition to this, the company has taken on projects that entail building commercial and residential high-rise, mining and resources industry infrastructure projects, industrial, sporting, health, government, retail, education, hotels, clubs, tourism, civil works and modular construction as well as certain student and resources sector accommodation. The main headquarters of the company is based in Brisbane and has a chain of offices all over Australia that stretch from Cairns to Hobart, the Bowen Basin to the Pilbara and then from Sydney to Perth (Hutchinson, 2002.P. 39).
Currently, the company has undertaken more than 170 projects which range from building residential areas, retail, industrial, education, high-rise residential, civil, commercial and resource sector projects. The company has experienced immense growth under the legacy of Mr. Jack Hutchison Senior who has been the director of the company for many years. Jack declined the seat as the Chairman of the Board of the Company for his son Scott who was a builder with a Degree in Engineering from the University of Queensland. Jack settled for the Managing Director position in the year 1992. He later retired in 2001 but remains as an active shareholder in the company. Jack’s son Scott has overseen the expansion of the company ever since he was the Managing Director and later the Chairman of the Board soon after his father retired. Greg Quinn was also appointed as the Managing Director thereby taking Scotts place. This duo aims at developing the company over the next century and maintain its’ face as a vibrant, fashionable and innovative construction company. They aim at upholding the company’s culture with a healthy respect for traditional values and the proud heritage that has been thoroughly crafted for the past hundred years (Jupp, 2001.P 212).
Hutchison Building Company has more than 1300 experienced and skilled staff who receives support from an extraordinary financial capacity and a flawless reputation for integrity and fair dealing. The financial reports show that the company has an annual turnover of $ 1.3 billion. The company has also focused on setting up in different geographical locations in order to meet the needs of the changing economic climate and to look after their valued employees. The company has also taken up projects in other regions outside Australia such as Japan, New Zealand and Canada. It plans to carry on with its growth initiatives in order to meet the standards of the ever changing economic and construction industry.
Australian Construction Industry
The Australian Construction Industry has faced many challenges over the years where most of the people employed lack the skills to carry out the desired operations. Companies have offered many job opportunities in the industry but the shortage of skilled labor still hinders them from flourishing. Over the past few years there has been a significant shift of people working on short term contracts due to the unpredictable nature of the market place. Companies have offered more permanent positions as a way of attracting people with the required skill set. The demand for highly skilled labor has increased for both the civil engineering and construction sector. This calls for immediate action and adoption of various strategies that will bring in people who are more skilled into the industry. Some of the strategies that should consider include: advertising jobs that attract women to apply, engaging activities that widen the scope of potential for the applicants and contents that inspire women to believe the opportunities. Ensure that the proposed jobs are competitive enough especially in areas regarding the career opportunities (Ofori, 1993.P. 86). In order to attract people with skilled labor in the construction industry, advertisements should be done using different pictures that use luring language about the job. They should also locate advertisements in visible positions where people will notice them especially women. Women’s voices should be made. In addition to this, the Construction industry of Australia needs to adopt a talent strategy that requires the workers and the managers to understand the skills, experience and capabilities it needs to deliver strategic objectives and business plans. The Human resource department should critically review the skill set of the personnel and define their roles in order to determine their potential and what should be added (Wood, 2009. P. 234). Another important aspect concerning the need for skilled labor in the construction market is that the human resource management in connection to the communication management should gather opinions from the workers and work together with them in the realization of their goals.
Human Resource in Hutchinson
The Hutchison Building Company has working personnel of more than 1300 staff. These workers should work hand in hand to enable efficiency within the company. A strategy referred to as dissecting motivation should be adopted in order to clearly understand the aspects of the company’s direction and agendas that motivate the employees (Castañeda, 2005. P. 803). The important aspect about having skilled personnel or labor in an organization is that it brings success and is essential for efficiency. The basic strategies that should be followed in order to acquire skilled workers within a company such as Hutchinson involve determining the new recruits as well as existing employees in terms of their potential. In this case, the project manager should consider the following concepts that should be adopted by the human resource managers and the communications manager. The first step that the human resource department should consider is job contesting. This one involves combining the marketing and recruiting ideologies with the goals of attracting more energy around the position. This will enhance the volume and quality of applicants as well as improve the marketing benefits for the company (Zhu, 2011.P 117).
The second strategy would involve hackathons used by the leading engineering companies to bring together skilled engineers and other skill sets to compete for prizes. It usually utilizes special cases such as using certain companies’ objectives to develop better applications in addition to the ones already in existence. This way engineers and other professionals are able to discover their talent in the midst of others. The human resource management should apply this strategy in Hutchison Company in order to realize the skilled workers and allocate them jobs depending on their specialty. The project manager should take this as an issue that needs to be addressed in order to identify the skills of the workers in the Hutchison Company. The third step involves networking. It requires the management to connect with other organizations in terms of attending industry events and being active in the community. This way connections are made that could assist the human resource managers find the preferable workers who have the right skills. The workers or potential recruits should take it upon themselves to attend as many events from the company as possible. Having coffee with people who seemed to have potential and following up is another aspect that puts in the time to build relationships that are worth it in the end. Meeting up with potential employers or even employees is the best way of networking (Jones 1998. P. 113).
The next step should that should be considered is making the page on careers unique. It requires creativity in order to attract candidates. This is where the communications managers come in to make the best job pages attractive. They should write about the company in a way that lures or catches the attention of the reader. Some pictures should also be incorporated in order to tell more about the company. This is another aspect that the project manager should take note of about the communications manager (McNevin 2006.P. 88). In addition to this, the benefits of the company should be sold out appropriately. The career page should communicate the benefits of the company especially to the potential applicants and explain why they should look forward to work for the company. It should also inform them on the objectives, working hours, plans just to mention but a few. The job opportunities should be posted in different locations either on the internet or other sources. This will enable diverse applicants to get the information. The advertisements should be very unique and should reflect on the company’s culture and the type of talent the company is looking for. It should sell more priorities about the company.
Candidates should be engaged during the talent search or recruitment process. This is where candidates are asked about interesting ideas like the projects they have worked on, their funniest work experience and so on. This helps the candidates relax and maybe share their ideas or are able to reveal their talents. Sharing the favorite skilled employees is also another strategy that ensures the skilled people end up getting the right jobs. It involves helping the company employees get better jobs elsewhere. During the recruitment process communicate with the recruiters from another company and advocate for that employee who is talented. This will ensure that the skilled people get the right jobs and bring development to the company. The other strategy involves holding an event where presentations will be made and this way talent will be identified (Greig, 1992. P. 45).
The key concepts involved in this topic revolve around the shortage of skilled construction workers. This is because most of the workers with enough skills to build have moved away from this field and joined other well-paying jobs such as mining and oil drilling. This has raised the alarm for construction companies such as a Hutchison Building Company in Australia to search for the skilled workers. The current major concerns around this issue are that the human resource managers are not considering the skill set of most employees during the recruitment process. Most of the workers in construction companies today do not have the required skills to carry out the operations effectively. This in turn leads to inefficiency which affects the production rate which also affects the quality of products delivered. Efficiency within a company such as Hutchinson would lead to improved supply chain, business processes and efficient communication channels. This would also improve the quality and standards of the company (Beesley 2013. P. 276). The other issue is the decline in the role of the public sector. The state plays a minor role in moderating influence or creating stability in the construction market. This is followed by changes in the structure of the industry where subcontractors have been relied upon to deliver management and coordination functions rather than the construction work (Hewage, 2011. P. 685)
The growing need for more skilled labor in a booming construction market has become an issue of concern over the world not just in Australia. It has brought people from different states to be employed in Australia to carry out these tasks. Some of those employed are not even qualified for the job and thus end up rendering poor services and low quality services and products. The human resource management in the company should consider communicating with the recruits on the job positions being offered by the company and the requirements for those positions. This will eradicate inefficiency (Kissling, 1984. P. 37). The importance of ensuring skilled labor in the construction industry is that it ensures the construction of better housing, it brings about improved infrastructure as well boosts the manufacturing and energy sectors. This also creates new jobs and helps improve the economy of Australia. Since the construction industry is on the rise, communications managers within an organization should ensure that they elaborate the requirements of the particular position as well as engage the recruits in tests to capture their capabilities. This would also give the recruits an opportunity to showcase their talents and secure better paying jobs. The communications managers should also ensure that the job pages are well indicated on the goals, objectives and strategies followed in order to give the recruits a clear picture of the company and what their role will be. This will also facilitate the chances of the potential recruits to bring in what they know and have to ensure efficiency (Lingard 2009.P 46).
The effects on quality related to the issue of lack of skilled labor can be attributed to the erosion of social dialogue and undermining of collective agreements. Collective agreements and social dialogue are critically involved in the construction industry as they provide a channel through which social benefits and training are shared. The process of many employers bargaining over pay may lead to increase in the chances of certain firms paying under the same rule. The other effect is that there are lower levels of economic and social security. This affects the income security as well as the social security. Under income security, the two basic considerations to be made include opportunities to work or rather the numbers of days to work and the wages paid for the work done (Forbes 2011. P. 66). There have been changes in the employment relationship that have affected both. Many subcontractors only work temporarily and for a certain duration of a project which lead to even smaller units of work. This largely affects the employment sectors and thus lack of quality. The wages have been affected in that temporary workers are paid much lower than permanent workers. In Australia permanent employees in this industry are paid better than temporary ones or rather subcontractors. This will also affect the hours of work as many subcontractors are forced to work for long hours. Some choose to do so in order increase their wages. This is another effect that should be rectified as it at times leads to inefficiency (Barfield, 2003. P. 67).
The next effect of quality is social security where it is evidenced in the construction companies in Australia that they do not pay social security for their employees. This denies the workers the opportunity to receive such services or use their benefits such as health care and lack of protection against loss of pay during the period when they are not in a position to work during sickness accidents or old age. This could be associated with the link to health and safety. Changes in the industrial structure and employment relationships have largely affected the conditions for occupational safety and health. Many accidents have been reported but since there is no insurance cover, the cases are not filed or recorded. Training on skill information is not adequately given and thus quality is not achieved (Dainty, 2005. P. 393).
The considerations that should be done or rather the way forward includes strategies such as continuing labor subcontracting, prioritizing on areas where action that cater for the interests of employers and workers are considered, trade unions should be given new roles and pressure impacted on other groups, there should be flexible workers protection policies that extend social security to all, health and safety should be promoted and better training methods should be offered in order to promote skills (Arup, 2006. P. 58).
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