While green buildings and new building methods have come into play. As one of the more established, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ sort of industries, construction is dominated by low margins, stringent processes and a few fierce competitors.
The Youth Employment Services (YES) initiative was gazetted on 28 August and Contracts Director for Bartlett Construction, Wayne Bartlett says that implementing this in the construction industry will come with its own challenges.
“When you look at our sector, it’s established and most of the senior management team in the big companies is aged 40-plus. Our staff turnover for instance is very low and the average employee has been with the company for 15 years,” explains Wayne.
In saying this, Wayne says that companies are breaking the mould to adopt modern strategies in order to gain a competitive advantage. “Our industry is price driven. There is zero room for error and it’s difficult to differentiate. Over the past few years, we have breathed some new life into our companies by employing younger talent to help accelerate and differentiate our business’s portfolios, offerings and positioning”.
Speaking to the topic of carefully calculated margins, Wayne says that some construction companies are hesitant to hire new talent as the industry leaves no real room for learnings through failures. “Sad but true, our industry lacks skills and while we have seen 45 000 jobs added in 2018 (Businesslive.co.za), we still struggle to find youths with the skills that our industry requires”.
Wayne says that Bartlett Construction has taken liberties, even prior to the YES initiative, and has actively been employing and upskilling youths.
“The responsibility now lies with the private sector and we have found that through mentorship and hands-on training, youths are coming up the ranks and have as much opportunity as our more established employees. We are also seeing fresh thinking and new perspectives”.
Talking to the benefits of the YES initiative, Wayne says that moving up one or even possibly two places on the BEE scorecards is a major competitive advantage for companies operating in this sector.
“It’s important that we view this as an educational mouthpiece for our country but that companies too can reap the rewards. This initiative addresses youth unemployment, recession woes and prepares the future decision makers of our country to take over and do great things.”