Recruiting and Retaining a Qualified Labor Force in the Construction Industry: What to Strive for and Consider

• Published in: The Construction Lawyer Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 14 - 25
• Main Author: Ebeler, Erin
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago American Bar Association 01-10-2022
• Subjects: Beneficiaries; Careers; Charter schools; College students; Colleges & universities; Community colleges; Compensation; Construction industry; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Employees; Employers; Engineering; Federal government; Internships; Labor; Labor force; Labor shortages; Landscape architecture; Learning; Marijuana; Mentors; Recruitment; Secondary school students; Secondary schools; Students; Technical education; Training; Vocational education; Workforce
• ISSN: 0272-0116

Prior to COVID-19, topping the list for most firms responding to the AGC's 2019 survey were concerns relating to the quality of the recruitment pipeline and an increasing percentage of marijuana use among laborers.5 These staffing challenges led to project delays, increased costs, and upward bid adjustments to account for such likely events.6 The AGC's proposed response to the labor shortage includes funding requests to the federal government for career and technical education, increased constructionrelated immigration, grants for community or career college students, and making it easier for firms to establish training programs.7 This article offers practical guidance on recruiting and retaining a robust workforce while still complying with a company's legal obligations and limitations.8 I.Developing Interest in the Construction Trades The early 2000s saw a relentless push for high school graduates to attend a traditional, four-year college and pursue a career in corresponding fields; presently, the labor surplus in those industries and debilitating student loan debt have steered many Gen Z students to less-traditional career paths. In Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) Career Center provides opportunities for students from all OPS high schools to study electives that are not available elsewhere.15 Students are transported from their home school to the Career Center, which offers courses in 13 career fields, including construction, electrical systems technology, and welding.16 The Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Washington, D.C., operates under a similar structure and is "the first public high school in the country to offer both college preparatory and vocational education exclusively dedicated to the design professions and construction trades. Any promise of compensation, express or implied, suggests that the intern is an employee. * The extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by educational institutions. * The extent to which the internship is tied to the intern's formal education program by integrated coursework or the receipt of academic credit. * The extent to which the internship accommodates the intern's academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar. * The extent to which the internship's duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning. * The extent to which the intern's work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern. * The extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.27 This is a fact-specific, flexible test and avoids the outcome of one factor being determinative. [...]teens are twice as likely to be injured at work than are adult workers.