5 Hacks to Beating the Talent Crunch
Actionable changes you can make today to attract & retain talent
The choice between a career shaping Singapore’s future skyline, or working for a tech start-up which allows users to leave product reviews on vegan cat food, should be pretty straight forward, right?
Right…?
Uh oh.
One of the construction industry’s most pressing challenges is attracting and retaining the local talent needed to drive business growth. This is exacerbated by public policy which has marched inextricably towards discouraging filling skill gaps by recruiting from overseas.
With the recent release of the SCAL-IHRP Human Resource Guidebook for Construction, this edition of The Contractor highlights five pragmatic ways builders can mitigate the crunch on manpower, talent, and skills.
#1 - New Generation; New Priorities
“Aiyo. Kids these days…” - every generation in human history, confounded by the generation that follows.
At the heart of construction’s talent crunch is the shifting set of priorities and expectations by young, tech-savvy Singaporeans entering the workforce.
Starting with how job descriptions are crafted, contractors will find it easier to attract the next generation when their priorities are addressed in the job postings and other early jobseeker touchpoints (alongside job fairs, the company website & social media channels).
What are the company’s values? What kind of culture should I expect here? Is collaboration and teamwork valued? Can I grow in this job? Will there be flexibility for me to meet my non-work aspirations if I work at this company? Does this company take sustainability seriously?
These are questions which most executive teams will already have devoted substantial attention to. However, with job stability and salary no longer being the only considerations, finding ways to communicate these ideas in the public domain - where jobseekers can find them - helps position contractors as attractive employers.
Australian HRIS platform Employment Hero recently published results of a survey of Gen Z workers asking them, “What is your number one priority in choosing an employer?” More than one third gave responses which may not have been top-of-mind for preceding generations.
Career Trajectory (22%)
Salary (15%)
Personal Values & Impact on World (13%)
Company Culture (13%)
Remote Work Options & Commute (12%)
Research shows that Gen-Z place greater emphasis on collaboration in the workplace, prefer more participatory decision-making processes, and gravitate towards seeking efficiency through automation.
Pragmatic approaches to attracting young professionals include articulating work culture & values through digital channels, offering flexibility where possible, and directing promising young talent to participate in SCAL’s Young Leaders Programme.
#2 - Strategic Job Redesign
“You, ah. From now on, everything also must do.” - Construction HR Manager with limited understanding of job redesign.
As the HR Guidebook suggests, there are slightly more nuanced and strategic approaches to Job Redesign.
The three pillars of job redesign are evaluating & enacting opportunities for Enlargement (of scope), Enrichment (more challenging tasks), and Reconfiguration (better alignment with company goals).
When executed well, existing staff can be guided up the value chain to enhance their productivity and impact. To sweeten the deal, Workforce Singapore offers various financial incentives of up to $30,000 per enterprise to defray costs for contractors embarking on a strategic job redesign exercise.
The job redesign process starts with a simple audit of each team member’s existing job scope. A deep dive into how roles are structured will often surface duties which are not well aligned with business goals, which are not optimised, or which could be automated.
When this process is repeated across the organisation, certain gaps in skills and capabilities will also become apparent. As more of the lower-value add or menial work is reduced through automation, combination, outsourcing, or simple elimination - opportunities will emerge to re-align those employees’ roles towards creating greater organisational value.
#3 - New Skills: Sometimes, Training > Hiring
“Our upskilling initiatives have significantly enhanced employee engagement and talent retention, reflecting our commitment to building a continuous professional development and lifelong-learning working environment. Our dedication to a supportive culture has been recognised through several awards, including the WSH CARE awards for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024), and the SCAL Productivity and Innovation Award (Bronze) in 2023.” - Sam Pang, Deputy COO, Samwoh Corporation
Construction evolves constantly with new technologies and methods. To stay competitive, teams need to be adaptable and skilled in the latest trends. Effective collaboration across disciplines, such as with architects, engineers, and project managers, is also increasingly important.
Investing in training and development helps staff remain current with industry advancements. For contractors looking to upskill your workforce, the SCAL Academy offers a broad selection of programmes, including customisation based on company’s needs. Contractors can also evaluate options for highly targeted training for their teams using the detailed blueprint for building a training roadmap in the HR Guidebook.
Contractors looking to enhance their training regimens to gain key knowledge and skills benefit from starting with a Training Needs Analysis (TNA). Creating a TNA is covered in the HR Guidebook in detail but starts by linking training priorities to strategic, long-term company goals.
Often times the most pressing need will be developing key skills which are in short supply across the organisation. But other strategic motivations may include the need for succession planning or creating more redundancy in core skills.
For the training investment to pay dividends, a benchmarking framework is needed to evaluate the efficacy of training (by comparing before-and-after). Employees themselves must also see a clear link with how the training programmes will help them perform better and develop further, to ensure their motivation is high.
Rather external recruitment for key skill gaps, upgrading the existing team to gain missing competencies is the key piece to solving the talent crunch puzzle.
#4 - Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs)
“Flexible work arrangements and bonding activities like free Tabata sessions and departmental gatherings have significantly helped promote work-life harmony. This has led to happier, more engaged employees. We’re committed to a fair, inclusive workplace that prioritises staff wellness and making Teambuild a great place to work.” - Jane Pang, Senior HR Manager, Teambuild Construction Group
Notwithstanding the mandatory consideration (and documentation) of reasonable FWA requests from 1 December 2024 onwards, providing flexibility creates a more attractive value proposition for potential hires with transferrable skills who may be evaluating career choices across several industries besides construction.
There are three types of FWAs which employers may be able to apply:
Flexi-Load (for instance job or responsibility sharing)
Flexi-Place (including working remotely or hybrid between home-site)
Flexi-Time (staggered hours, compressed workweeks into few days, or more flexible hours).
The on-site nature of construction creates some barriers for builders: tight deadlines, the need for certain specialists to be in physical proximity, and a regulatory regime around permitted hours and noise management.
The HR Guidebook provides a useful conceptual framework from the Harvard Business Review for considering which specific tasks within an employee’s remit could be the basis for more flexible arrangements:
In the context of the construction industry, site work and physical labor and inspection would fall within the “Place Constrained” horizontal axis.
Having a clear written policy about FWAs as it relates to certain tasks & responsibilities will prepare contractors to evaluate and respond to any employee requests.
#5 - Career Progression Visibility
Potential recruits don’t just assess the job on offer today, but also where this might lead them a few years later.
Most senior professionals in construction today worked their way up through the ranks. In the past, the pathways to bigger roles were often organic and informal.
To attract talent, adding visibility and structure to career progression is highly effective, especially when this information is accessible to the jobseeker. For many builders, this will be a process of formalizing and documenting what’s already long been in place.
The SkillsFuture skills framework for the Build Environment identifies eight high-demand career tracks: architectural consultancy and design, engineering consultancy, quantity surveying, construction management, project management, digital delivery management, and facilities management.
A starting point for companies to create better visibility to these career tracks is defining: the job title path, the escalating levels of responsibility and accountability, and the required experience, skills & knowledge at each level of progression.
For employees, knowing “what’s next” is empowering, and can set them on a path towards availing of opportunities to upgrading themselves to achieve their career aspirations.
Unsure where to start? The HR Guidebook has you covered with an entire section devoted to designing and communicating career progression pathways.
Why It Matters
SCAL President Mr Lee Kay Chai noted in his remarks during SCAL’s 2023 AGM that,
“The population is aging, and young Singaporeans have different career aspirations.
We can no longer just offer jobs with good pay and expect to attract talent. Changes in Singapore’s social compact mean we can't rely on overseas manpower to fill gaps.
Talent won't always be there; we (as contractors) will need to work for it.”
Elevating the role of Human Resources to be more strategic and long-term goal-oriented, rather than administrative, is the most impactful “hack” to beating the talent crunch in the years ahead.
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Thank you,
SCAL’s The Contractor team