The Tier I Construction Work Force Management Strategy

The shortage of skilled construction workers in the United States is a long-term and structural problem that at times may be alleviated slightly during a recession but will continue to worsen as time progresses. The reasons behind the shortage are numerous, ranging from a poor image of the industry, to declining real wages, to poor work environments and the lack of a stable worker career path. Incentives and wage increases represent some of the solutions used to address the situation but are difficult to sustain without a comprehensive, long-term strategy to support them. An alternate approach is the Two-Tier work force strategy. Developed with senior industry advisors and researchers from the Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) and the Construction Industry Institute (CII), it is comprised of two work force management strategies, Tier II (CCIS) and Tier I (CII). Tier II is designed to improve workers' skills and productivity creating a situation where the value of the workers is increased (Borcherding et al, 2001). The goal of this increased value is increased wages and longer careers in the industry. The other strategy, Tier I, is designed to efficiently manage an existing workforce, regardless of its skill level. The focus is on organization, communication, and utilization of field management. Both strategies are defined by metrics that measure the degree of implementation. The metrics represent the ideal goal of the strategies without prescribing the methods of implementation. Both the Tier I and Tier II implementation metrics must be tested and refined using baseline data. Approximately 25 projects have been volunteered and at the time of this paper, data has been collected from 13 projects with over 500 construction workers interviewed. The characterizations of the workforce and the preliminary Tier I findings are presented in this paper.