A Revolutionary and Structured Approach to Construction Work Force Management: The Tier II Strategy

Shortages of skilled construction workers and their consequent impact on project performance have been reported with increasing frequency over the last few years. Several diverse factors have contributed to the problem, including decreased real wages, transient nature of work, poor industry image, lack of training, and lack of a worker-oriented career path. Various studies to address individual issues have resulted in limited successes. However, none of these approaches has comprehensively addressed all the issues within a single framework. The Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) at The University of Texas at Austin has proposed a work force management strategy, referred to as Tier II, to address the need for a comprehensive approach to the problem. Projects executed under the Tier II strategy would utilize fewer, better-educated and skilled workers who perform craft functions and some lower-management functions and receive higher compensation, while delivering improved or comparable project results. With the participation of industry leaders, labor organizations and experienced highly skilled craft workers, the strategy and its implementation metric have been developed. The metric has two broad categories: (1) project worker skills and (2) project execution. To date, baseline data has been gathered from 12 industrial construction projects located in seven states within the USA, including surveys from over 500 workers. An equivalent number of projects are scheduled for gathering additional data by the end of 2002. Preliminary findings suggest a strong potential for implementation of the Tier II strategy as a structured work force management strategy under which the technical and management skills of workers are recognized, utilized, and remunerated. Refining the Tier II strategy is an objective of gathering current baseline data. If proven successful, this strategy will mitigate the shortage of skilled workers while maintaining or improving project performance.