The objective of this paper is to highlight the challenges faced by Human Resource management in attracting and retaining the construction industry workforce. The paper explains the various challenges faced by the Human resources department due to globalization, issues regarding salary and wages, health and security. It is the continuation part of assignment 2 which provides brief information about the HRM issues. The paper further provides the recommendations to help overcome the issues and challenges. It discusses what factors impacts the growth of such issues in any organization within the same industry. It also outlines the role and significance of the HR Personnel in attracting and retaining employees keeping both the employee and employer viewpoint in mind.
Construction is one of the growing and leading industries in the world that helps in generating profitability and outcomes in the competitive market. The sector of national economy is occupied or engaged in preparation of land and construction alteration and repair of structures, buildings and other real property. The construction industry plays a major role in the economy and the activities of the industry are also significant to the attainment of national socio-economic development goals of rendering shelter, employment and infrastructure. In today’s era, there is high and intense competition in the global market. Therefore, various recruitment and retention issues are being entertained by construction industry globally. Some of the key attracting and retaining issues are described below.
Various studies have been done in order to understand Talent Management easily and effectively (Pathirage, Amaratunga & Haigh, 2007). Talent Management is a wider term, but defining in a simple terms would include, anticipating HR needs and Planning in order to meet them, for the organization.It is analyzed, after a detailed study, that employee attracting and retention are one of those important functions performed by Human Resource Personnel (Kramar, Bartram, Cieri, Noe, Gerhart and Wright, 2014). In today’s scenario, the economic changes happening all over world, has been a major cause for the unemployment of candidates who wish to perform but lack the skills necessary for the knowledge oriented jobs. Thus, potential and skills issues are being faced by HRM while attracting or recruiting the candidates at international level (Madter, Bower & Aritua, 2012).
Another major issue and an opportunity is Globalisation which allows employees to rotate within the construction industry (Appelbaum, Roy & Gilliland, 2011). In order to attract and retain them, HR will have to work upon multiple creative factors for such diverse workforce which may include, reward and compensation systems, flexibility, Cafeteria, to meet the end needs of culturally diverse background employees. It has a direct impact on the employee performance and results they produce. Dries & Pepermans (2012) stated that leadership as being the biggest and the leading challenge for the human resource management in the construction industry. Due to poor leadership and various qualities in the management, organizations often fail to supervise the activities and especially the operations of the workers at the workplace. This becomes an important factor to be considered when dealing with workforce in construction industry (Appelbaum, Roy & Gilliland, 2011).
Even in the construction industry, there are employees of all ages, looking at the demographics of the population, organizations need to devise certain HR policies which are in line with the primary goals and the entire generation of employees thus, various demographic, gender, equality and discrimination issues are being handled by the HRM in construction industry (Posthuma & Campion, 2009).Another reason that retention is difficult in the construction industry, is long working hours and multiple shifts. In order to attract freshers and baby boomers, who possess fresh skills, talents and abilities, a lot of efforts and strategies are needed. The major issue is in retaining them, as organizations are worried that employees leave job for better pay elsewhere (Kramar, Bartram, Cieri, Noe, Gerhart and Wright, 2014). To retain these employees, employers will be needed to focus their attention more towards, flexible working hours, giving them an part time work opportunity, work environment suitable for their functioning, and work upon their recognition with every project they work upon it. This will give them an internal motivation to not to go anywhere else (Larsen, 2017).
Muethel, Gehrlein & Hoegl (2012) stated that stereotyping is a major issue that impacts the employers and employee’s efficiency while being in the construction sector. Cultural and diversity challenges are need to be dealt by the employers. It has been reported that the top management and immediate supervisors fail to provide motivation to the employees. Training is another important factor, in case of lack of understanding of the job role and improper training to perform the desired role and put off the employee and force them to shift to the competitor organization (Kramar, Bartram, Cieri, Noe, Gerhart and Wright, 2014). Therefore, many organizations are now using internet and technology to provide training to employees to make it easy to do their jobs safely. Training also improves the efficiency of an employee, decrease accidents on job and cost (Larsen, 2017).
Along with this, there is no uniformity in performance management system in construction system, thus top management and managers could fail to judge and analyze the efficiency and performance of the subordinates at the workplace. It creates ample of differences at the workplace among the workplace. Thus, employees decide to move or switch the current for better growth and success. It hampers financial image and goodwill of the construction industry widely. Maintaining a favorable working environment and culture is major issues in key attracting and retaining the potential and skilled workforce towards the organization. Culture helps in attracting and retaining maximum workforce within the organization but due to lack of strong and unique culture, the firm has to face various issues in today’s competitive world.
It is noted that employees sometimes are unable to understand the working systems of machinery, and other manual and technological details which are being used by the organizations. This reduces the productivity and efficiency of the workforce in construction industry, also may lead to accidents and insecurity. According to Maslow need hierarchy, security and safety are the prime needs for any employee. these issues need to be resolved through proper planning and training channels. The working of business in an improper and ineffective implementation of strategies become another issue and challenge for the Human Resource personnel in attracting and retaining employees (Sadri & Bowen, 2011).
In the construction industry, with the increasing upcoming projects, there is a need to appoint skilled candidates and to provide them on the job training. The inability to do so impacts the hiring for HRM and further impacts the retention. According to Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, (2011), every employee has certain expectations which are needed to be fulfilled by the HR department. But sometimes HRM is unable to fulfill these expectations therefore it may hamper the working of the employees, and will result in their dissatisfaction. Such expectations include, salaries and wages, Bonus and incentives, Reward and award schemes, etc. Employees may feel rejected and start performing inefficiently and irresponsibly. It becomes a significant challenge to attract and retain any further employee. It was identified by Minbaeva, Foss & Snell (2009) that most organizations do not provide wages and salaries to the workers on regular basis with the industry demand therefore it leads to high attraction and retention issues in the workplace.
Organizations face the same degree of challenge for retention as they face attraction and hiring issues and challenges, to retain, one important criteria is salary and wages being given to them. These must be at par with the industry trend. Compensation and Reward and award system is a significant issue while retaining potential and talented employees. In case an organization fails to provide as per the industry trend, the incentives, bonuses or packages, the employee will eventually shift to the competitor for better benefits. A number of researchers support the fact that there is a positive relationship between employer brand and employee attraction and retention (Gupta & Shaw, 2014).
According to Zanko & Dawson (2012) that health and employee safety Acts and standards are not being followed by construction industry in today’s modern world. Due to which even if an HR would hire employees, it will get difficult to retain them. For any candidate, health and safety comes first than salary and wages. By not following health and safety rules an organization also impacts its own brand value in the market which eventually affects the hiring and retaining drastically (Zanko & Dawson, 2012).
The Employees are considered the assets to any company, they help in growth and enhancing brand value, an employee is the first face that any customer will look at first time to get various information, they create the impression in the market. Therefore, the Human resource personnel must keep in mind their responsibilities towards awarding, rewarding, recognizing, and resolving the issues of the employees and listening to their problems (Patrick Neumann & Dul, 2010). By retention of employees in any organization, it meant to keep them within the company, by indulging them in multiple task of their interest. Retention can be an issue and a challenge for the company as well as it is positive. It is not only the duty of the human resource management but the entire top management in building a strong brand to help attract and retain employees (Zanko & Dawson, 2012).
The main challenge employer’s face due to which any employee leaves the organization is salary and wages. Employees do not find it at par with the industry trend, and they prefer to switch to the better paying employer. Another issue is maintaining work life balance, an employee never prefers working with stress rather prefers to switch to a peaceful environment (Pilbeam & Corbridge, 2010). Self development is major concern while retaining the workforce at the workplace. The employees frequently try to seek good opportunities for boosting their skills, potential and talents for personal satisfaction. Due to lack of money and resources, the company is further failed to conduct training and development sessions, seminars and programs. Thus, it also may influence the working capacity and performance of the employees largely. With more diversification of workforce, challenges or issues related to harassment, bullying and discrimination etc. may arise at the workplace which can largely affect the productivity of the employees at the workplace.
From the literature review it is evident that the construction industry has ample amount of attraction, hiring and retention issues and challenges, the employees also face them during their employment. There are a number of strategies were also identified through review which can be implemented by the employers in order to resolve such issues.There must be enough motivation and encouragement from time to time for the deserving employees and also for the employees who are giving their 100% performance (Hasle, Bager & Granerud, 2010). To boost their morale to put more hard work in the construction industry, retention is important at-least till the time a project reaches its completion. The employees must continuously work towards attracting new candidates in the competitive market.
Brand is equally important factor in attracting candidates. The brand name and policies must be regularly checked and the quality of work must be enhanced to improve brand image in the industry. A good brand can attract and employees are also retained with a good brand name which has high credibility and reliability in the market. There are many benefits apart from salary and wages, that an employee seek in order to stay in the existing organization. These benefits include, health insurance, holiday, week offs, flexible working hours and shift hours, regular payment schemes, appraisals, accommodation, meals, etc (Banerji, 2013).
Job shifting and rotating are another ways through which employee interest in the organization is retained, when an employee feels recognized and always productive and busy with work, it is less likely they get time to switch jobs (Cascio, 2012). No employee would want to work in a place with no growth opportunity, it is the duty of the employer to work upon personal growth as well. To overcome the aforementioned issue, the employee can work towards providing challenging work and situations (Cascio, 2012). To retain the interest of each employee, a regular monitoring system should be adopted to keep a check whether they are being able to manage the challenging work conditions. It is also important to motivate the employees and to provide them with rewards and recognition from time to time. Often it is noted there is one central human resource team for the different units situated in other parts or different areas. The Human resource manager even if he or she is working centrally must constantly visit to regularly communicate and discuss to resolve issues that arise out of employment (Storey, Saridakis, Sen?Gupta, Edwards & Blackburn, 2010).
From the literature review done so far, it has been concluded that construction industry faces number of issues and challenges during attracting and hiring the skilled and talented candidates and retaining its employees in the given competition and market scenario.The main challenge that came across the employers in handling large workforce till completion of a project, retaining employees and attracting the most competitive workforce is elaborated in the aforementioned detailed study. The importance of branding and continuous improvement in brand value to attract employees towards highly credible and reliable brand is a key criteria to be adopted by any employer in order to hire best in industry employees. The above analysis based upon the literature review shows how the human resource management personnel have a critical job in attracting, hiring and retaining the workforce given the challenges and issues in hand. In recommendations, various suggestions have been proposed to control the issues identified at the workplace.
References:
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Banerji, S. C. (2013). A study of issues & challenges of implementation of information technology in HRM. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(4), 435-440.
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Dries, N., & Pepermans, R. (2012). How to identify leadership potential: Development and testing of a consensus model. Human Resource Management, 51(3), 361-385.
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