4 February Identifying and Managing Skill Shortages February 4, 2021By ICI Administrator Aspire 0 Ramping up your team’s capability to service projects can lead to poor decision making and increased risks. How can you implement an ongoing structured program that provides proactive upskilling so that when opportunity knocks you and your company are ready to succeed? Working with contractors right across the country provides a comprehensive view of the industry’s current issues and challenges. One key issue that the industry continues to face is an increased risk profile on projects stemming from management skill shortages for leading hands, supervisors, engineers and managers. It is a significant challenge across all states and exacerbated in some regions where workforces are rapidly increasing due to the COVID response. There is no one root cause of these skill shortages, however, contributing factors include unstructured and rapid career progression, staff turnover, outdated internal competency building programs and annual review processes that miss the mark. As a growing industry fuelled by government investment, there will likely be periods of significant and rapid growth. For your average business, while growth is positive, this can stretch existing resources which in turn leads to a reactive, unstructured rapid growth in personnel. This “work it out as we go” strategy then leads to new leading hands, supervisors and managers making key decisions without the appropriate knowledge, training and experience increasing the chance for mistakes and an increased risk profile. Similarly, performance review and appraisal processes that lack depth and take the form of a tick-box exercise fuel these risks within your business. A strong performance review process involves both parties - manager and staff member - identifying key areas of development for them to achieve their current role to a higher level in addition to positioning them for the next role in the business. With these skills gaps identified, implementing a program to build competencies in these areas across your supervisors, managers and leaders builds organisation-wide capability, helping to position the company for growth. The Institute of Civil Infrastructure exists as a response to the civil industry identifying this ongoing issue. It has been created for the industry and by the industry. Support your performance appraisals, supervisor onboarding and management training programs through The Institute’s flexible and accessible Learning Courses. With a range of 75 industry-developed short courses (2-4 hours), the targeted upskilling needed to build capability and decrease risk within your supervisory team is covered. As opposed to generic and time-consuming diplomas and certificates, you have the ability to choose what learning is best suited to your team based on their identified areas of development, providing them the skills they need. Related Posts Skill Building Companies are making a significant shift toward skill building. Skill building is more prevalent than it was prior to the pandemic, with organisations doing more skill building now than they did before the COVID-19 crisis. $450 billion in civil projects up for grabs, but the workforce must almost double to fill the skills shortage As the recent data from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) and Deloitte into Australia’s public infrastructure pipeline highlights, civil contractors continue to face major skills shortages and capacity issues in meeting the record demand for infrastructure projects. A $450 billion pipeline with record low numbers of skilled workers The current economic climate and forecast staffing/skills shortages have combined to create an atmosphere in which developing and retaining staff are crucial to business success. It’s increasingly apparent that contractors who invest in teams, who develop learning pathways and provide their staff with the skills needed to be successful will experience a significant commercial advantage. 91% of employers are experiencing a skills shortage Outlined in a recent Infrastructure Partnership Australia Pipeline report is evidence of a ‘once in a generation’ pipeline of civil works. The report identifies the pipeline in our region as having a value of 713.9 billion dollars, representing significant growth opportunities for our industry; as these projects come online. New Tax Breaks for Civil Contractors Investing in Skills & Training Federal Government announces tax incentives to businesses who invest in training and skills ICI Insider - 7 Golden Rules of managing underground services This month’s ICI Insider is relevant to all in the civil industry – Duty of care towards services safety - Controlling the various dangers that exists as a result of services that are near or within your projects. Designed and delivered by an expert in this field, you will also learn more about current incidents to assets across Australia. Comment (0) Comments are closed.