Free phones won’t plug the skills gap

We’ve all heard about the suited and booted City boys enjoying five-star dining on expenses while using their stockbroker firm-supplied iPhones to email each other.  

Construction trade workers could be enjoying similar perks – if reports coming out of America are anything to go by.  

We’re not talking about lunches on expenses. The best most of us can hope for on this score is if a homeowner opens a box of McVitie’s Family Circle biccies, puts a supply of PG Tips next to the kettle and utters those immortal words… Help yourself.  

Rather, a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America reports that 54% of construction firms in the US now supply their staff with mobile devices compared with 46% in 2014.  

And that figure could rise further over the course of 2016 because 15% of firms are considering increasing pay and/or benefits in the near future to cope with a shortage of skilled staff.  

According to the AGCA, 49% of US construction firms are increasing pay rates to retain or recruit qualified builders and other skilled staff, 30% are offering incentives and/or bonuses and 23% have increased contributions to employee benefits.  

Like their counterparts in the UK, construction firms in the US have been voicing concerns about the lack of available qualified workers for the past two years.  

In fact, 70% of US construction firms report that it is increasingly difficult to find qualified workers. And 69% think the situation will remain the same, or get worse, in 2016. 

Significant pay rises

On this side of the Atlantic, the skills shortage in the construction sector has resulted in significant pay rises.  

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported last month that 61% of construction professionals feel wages in their sector have risen sharply, while average earnings in the industry rose by over 6% in the year to October 2015.  

This compares very well with figures from the Office for National Statistics that show wages in the UK overall rose by 2% in the same period.  

But while it’s great that construction workers in the UK are receiving pay rates their expertise and experience deserves, it doesn’t plug the skills gap.  

The RICS says 66% of people in the construction trade point to staff shortages as the most significant barrier to growth.  

This comes at a time when housebuilding is accelerating. The Home Builders Federation estimates 171,000 new homes were completed in 2014/15, while the government wants that figure to hit 200,000 every year until 2020.  

The answer isn’t to offer construction workers a free iPhone 6 or even a year’s supply of PG Tips and McVitie’s.   

One solution to increasing demand for skip hire among the construction trade has been put forward by NHBC chief executive Mike Quinton.  

He says the industry is working to train up a new generation of workers as well as attract those who left after the financial crisis, when construction output collapsed, back again.  

“It's that highly skilled labour people are after, much of which has to come from within the UK,” he adds.  

Here at ProSkips we are committed to helping the construction trade increase its levels of efficiency – and reduce costs – by working with construction firms of all sizes, and private individuals, to meet all of their skip hire needs.   

You may not have a company-supplied smartphone, but don’t let that stop you contacting ProSkips to get the best price on skip hire.