As employers in the construction industry struggling to find the best workers to make you competitive, you have expectations about the graduates of construction management (CM) programs. The industry perspective is important in defining the necessary skills of qualified CM graduates. You want individuals who understand the fundamentals of construction, including estimating, scheduling, and cost control. But how will you attract the best and brightest in today’s competitive market without knowing their desires about their future employers.
ABC National hosted a panel discussion at its convention in March to address this. The session, What Does It Take To Be an Employer of Choice, addressed what contractors can do to stand out from the competition when trying to attract these individuals to join their teams.
The panel was led by Gretchen Bockenhauer, Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor in Construction Management at UW-Platteville. Participants included Camden Johnson, Construction Management Student at the University of Northern Iowa; Kennedy Kramek, Construction Management Student at Michigan State University, and Zach Wynstra, Construction Management Student at University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Here are some of the more valuable excerpts from that discussion to provide perspectives from these students:
Zach Wynstra: First three things, assuming that the company already has good culture and you fit in with and all that, how much the company wants to invest back into you, if that’s certifications, setting up the right software, and safety training … everything else. That’s a big one because I’d rather work with a company that wants to continually make me better. And that’s how you grow as company leaders … and then also, having room for advancement, being able to do it in house when you have opportunities of hiring from outside. If you’re there and you’re dedicated and you’re working for the company and giving your time … I would like to have that room for advancement with it and have a regular open conversation, regular checkups, making sure that you’re happy where you’re at.
Kennedy Kramek: The main things I look for is just right up front, the company, is if they can tell me what my opportunities are going to be, how I have to fulfill these goals and how I’m going to be able to succeed in a team environment, a culture that strives for success and excellence. Just working together and all the time. So good culture basically. And of course, just showing that they’re also willing to invest in me as an individual whether that be programs to benefit if I ever want to have family balance my life or even further education and just grow as a professional speaker going to work for 30 years, but also continue to grow in my interest in academics or professionally.
Camden Johnson: For me, it’s very much similar. Culture is definitely number one. The people that you’re with and location. For culture, I always like to talk to contractors about the culture and then see if they’re goanna talk about it or be about it because a lot of people talk about their culture when they don’t do anything to promote their culture and at the end of the day, there’s going to be problems. It’s just inevitable, and how you face those problems and the people that you deal with will make or break your career and if you enjoy it or not. So, culture is definitely number one and then actually making the promise to keep that culture and then keeping up on that promise, because I see a lot that people talk about their culture. You go there and then you find out it’s not exactly what they hyped up when they were interviewing you … Right now, I work for a company called Build It. They’re mainly a heavy civil side of the industry and I sell their training platform while I’m in school and I talk to companies all the time that are pushing training, and I talk to companies that aren’t interested in training and then I see the companies that are pushing training and employees that they’re getting in. Right now, everyone’s having employee retention problems and finding good employees … and the people that push training and are willing to provide it I see they have a lot more success retaining employees and finding them and it makes me want to go work there more because they’re investing in their people.
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