Hundreds of thousands of construction jobs will be created in the U.S. during the next several years. Many remodelers are beginning to wonder whether they'll be able to fill even a few of those positions with the kinds of employees they feel comfortable sending into clients' homes.
Photo Credit: Current Population Survey; U.S. Census Bureau/Bureau of Labor Statistics
In El Dorado Hills, Calif., Paul Reeves of Reeves Construction struggles to find new hires who can pass the drug tests required by his insurer. Rarely does the “whiz quiz,” as some remodelers call it, not reveal methamphetamine, cocaine, or marijuana, if not also high levels of alcohol, in U.S.-born applicants who might otherwise seem qualified.
Meanwhile, it might be the end of the line for the Reeves family of builders. Whereas 43-year-old Paul learned the trade from his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, starting as an adolescent sweeping the shop after school, his own kids and their peers “don't want to get dirty,” he says.
“I live in an affluent neighborhood, and other than me, pretty much the only people they see working in the trades are Hispanic immigrants,” Reeves says, adding that one of his best carpenters is a 47-year-old, college-educated math teacher from Mexico. There's no trade track at Reeves' local high school — no problem, as sexier occupations are clicks away. His teenage stepdaughter makes $10 an hour as an intern for Intel, a position she lined up online. Even Starbucks pays $10.50 an hour plus benefits, Reeves says.
Across the country in Green Bank, W.Va., Malinda Meck has a hard time finding well-rounded workers of any age for Jacob S. Meck Construction. Given her state's chronic poverty and high unemployment, one might expect droves of applicants for her steady, well-paying, benefit-rich jobs. Retention is even more challenging; employees seem to drift away on a whim. Some go to nearby ski resorts or lumberyards, and some are just “too hung-over or stoned to work,” she says.
So dire is the skilled worker shortage in Meck's area that she's even started new businesses that supply roll-off garbage containers and portable toilets. “These jobs don't require high-level skills,” she says.
A different employment dilemma faces Jerry Liu in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He finds that educators and parents are major obstacles to reinforcing his journeymen carpenters — guys in their 40s and 50s whom he calls “the walking wounded,” and who he predicts will soon be able to command salaries of $100,000 or more in the competitive market.
Photo Credit: Bureau of Labor Statistics
As in many metropolitan regions, school systems in Liu's area have down-sized vocational education. Sadly, some construction programs that remain seem to be a dumping ground for low achievers that the schools don't know where else to put. “Our schools define success as ‘percentage college-ready,'” says the owner of D.G. Liu Contractor, in Dickerson, Md. “It's an inherently prejudiced system” because it implies that trade professionals aren't smart, he says. “Where do you get construction workers when everybody's raised as keyboarders?”
Determined to avert “crisis in 10 years,” Liu has been proactive about workforce development, going so far as to develop his own apprenticeship program [see “Growing His Own,” in Best Practices]. Many other remodelers have found their own ways to crack the labor code, and we'll be showcasing some of their success stories as well in this series.
But the prevailing mood in the industry is this: Far too few young people are being groomed for remodeling careers. It's going to take far more than an ad in the paper and a decent hourly wage to find and retain skilled and committed employees.
REALITY AND PERCEPTIONS
The talent deficit isn't new; a declining emphasis on vocational training in the U.S. — the traditional breeding ground of skilled tradespeople — has been under way for decades. “We've been talking about the labor shortage for the last 25 years,” says Mark Richardson, president of Case Design/Remodeling.
Neither the shortage nor a major shift to Hispanic workers ever really materialized at Case, in part because of the well-known company's magnet-like allure to experienced workers from shuttered companies [see "Into the Fold,” in Best Practices].
What Case is starting to experience — and what seems to be the root of what many believe to be an impending labor crisis nationwide — is an aging workforce. The median age of workers in construction occupations is 38.9, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Citing job growth and worker loss data from the Bureau, “the construction industry will be short 2.3 million workers by 2025,” says Brindley Byrd, a former remodeler who is executive director of the Capital Area Construction Council of Lansing, Mich. “Demand is increasing, and the workforce is being depleted,” even in depressed economies like his own, he says.
Photo Credit: American Institutes for Research; National Center for Education Statistics
“We're all asking where the next generation is coming from,” says Dave Borgatti, a carpentry instructor at The Wood Construction Center at Seattle Central Community College. He and others agree that a key sticking point is society's wholesale devaluing of blue-collar work, which has spurred severe cutbacks in construction education and an otherwise unflattering image of a profession that many remodelers know can be lucrative, intellectually challenging, and personally gratifying.
“The problem is part image and part awareness,” says Jim Carr, a professor of construction management at the University of Arkansas, in Little Rock. He cites a Wall Street Journal survey that ranks careers: Construction laborer ranked 248, just after cowboy.
“Our image is that of dirty, stinky men,” says Brett Pressler of Timberland Construction, in Orem, Utah. Echoing Reeves and others, he notes that many kids live in a virtual world of You-Tube and Xboxes, with “PCs and TVs in every room. They have it much easier” — coddled by parents, in many cases, and given trophies even if their team never wins — and often “have no sense of delayed gratification.”
Sources: Association for Career and Technical Education; Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics; Educational Testing Service
“I can't imagine a young person naturally being drawn to carpentry. There's just no emphasis,” says Wanda Poe, executive director of the Austin (Texas) chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). Exacerbating the problem, Texas bans people under 18 from construction jobsites. “Construction is not on their radar screen” unless a relative or educator steered them toward it, she says.
Increasingly, the opposite seems more likely. Dan Taddei, director of education at NARI National in Chicago, witnessed this first-hand when one of his sons decided he wanted to go straight from high school to a career in graphic arts. “I got the impression the counselors wouldn't even talk to him until he committed to go to college,” Taddei says. He's heard similar stories from NARI members nationwide, particularly in affluent areas where “the parents all want their kids to go to college, or at least the school superintendents perceive that to be the case.”
Not that the industry is opposed to higher education. On the contrary, “we love to have workers who are college educated,” says John DeCiantis of DeCiantis Construction, in Stonington, Conn. “We want them to be able to problem-solve — it's very important in my line of work,” and many carpenters at his and other companies do have advanced degrees.
How educators view remodelers may be a different matter. After a meeting with educators, DeCiantis heard that “they were surprised that we were coherent — we had our teeth, we spoke intelligently, and some of us are highly educated.” More people need to know “that construction workers aren't uneducated slugs,” he says only half-jokingly.
“College has its place, but one of the things we've forgotten in education is that not everybody learns the same way,” Taddei says. “Some kids don't learn by book, but by working with their hands. And they're being left behind.” He adds that there's also a giant skills gap between novice construction worker and professional remodeler. “In order to get the skills required to be a carpenter in remodeling, it's hard to get there from being a laborer.”
BACK OF THE CLASSROOM
So what of skills training programs? Interestingly, vocational education itself — today called “career and technical education,” or CTE — seems to be on the upswing. There were 15.2 million U.S. high school students in CTE programs in 2004, up from 9.6 million in 1999, according to the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). But the CTE umbrella covers diverse fields — carpentry and electrical, yes, but also programs like 3-D animation, physical therapy, and emergency medical care. Only 58.1% of public schools had a construction class in 2002, ACTE reports.
“Every time you turn around, you hear about a construction program being closed down or consolidated,” says Tom Holdsworth, director of communications and government relations with SkillsUSA, which prepares students for careers in 130 technical and service occupations. “We've seen good, healthy increases in programs such as robotics and computer networking and CAD [computer-aided design],” he says, “whereas the more traditional construction trades have more difficulty in attracting or keeping students.”
Photo Credit: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Association for Career and Technical Education
Some newly constructed high schools, if they have a construction program at all, “have a programmed computer for CAD,” Borgatti says. “That's their nod to it.”
There are wonderful construction programs, to be sure, but others are underfunded and underattended. “It's a numbers game,” says Dave Snyder, a school support specialist and special education teacher at the Career and Technology Center of Frederick County (Maryland) Public Schools, referring to the challenges of maintaining enrollment in the center's carpentry class. “Public education is focused on raising test scores due to the unfunded federal mandate created by No Child Left Behind legislation,” he says. Hands-on classes such as woodworking “are at the bottom of the totem pole,” beneath “academic” (and, it's worth noting, less space- and material-intensive) subjects such as science, math, and English.
In the meantime, “we're losing the kids who are sitting at the back of the classroom, staring out windows,” DeCiantis says. In response, he has worked with the Home Builders Association of Connecticut to develop an accredited two-year degree program in construction technology (stay tuned for more details in next month's issue of REMODELING).
And the kids who do find themselves in construction classes? Too often — at least for now — they seem to be there because they don't test well and educators don't want to deal with them.
The result can frustrate even the most dedicated teachers, many of whom could be making far more money working in the trades than in the classroom.
Photo Credit: Fairfax County Public Schools; Pew Hispanic Center; FMI Corp; SkillsUSA
A telling example is in West Virginia, where David Yost left a fulfilling career with the military (and took a $70,000 pay cut) to teach building construction at the high school he graduated from 40 years ago. He estimates, “conservatively,” that 98% of his students can't read or do math beyond the 7th grade level, and says that “they literally have not been taught” even such basic life skills as critical thinking, work ethic, and integrity.
To prepare his students for construction careers, which do require those skills and many others, Yost has a classroom budget that averages $600 a year. “I've had to beg for donations from the local home builders' association and building supply companies,” he says. But “the thing that really blows my mind is that we spent $1.4 million on an Astroturf football field and $270,000 on a basketball court that we don't need,” he says. “The problem isn't really the students,” Yost says. It's the adults. “We're failing the students.”
View BEST PRACTICES
BEST PRACTICES
We accepted that there were not enough ready-to-go skilled people out there to meet our needs,” says Jerry Liu of D.G. Liu Contractor. “So one way of coping was to say: ‘How do we turn inexperienced people into carpenters?'”
Among other steps, Liu created a four-year apprenticeship program adapted from the union training he had decades ago. And, “we held our own job fair,” he says. “We posted an ad, parked trucks around the area with signs on top, rented a hotel room,” and hired “a standout” from among the few who stopped by.
Further, Liu learned to spot good workers early. One such recruit, third-year exteriors apprentice Donnie Clayton (left), was an industrious adolescent when Liu started putting him to work doing odd jobs. A few years later, when Clayton was an honor roll student in one of the area's few remaining high school construction programs, “we got him for a summer and said, ‘We need to make this kid feel special,'” Liu says. “We sent him home with a tool bag and tools. We wanted him to feel he had no other choice.”
Clayton, now 20, remembers being surprised by the opportunity. A job that he expected to consist of “digging holes, or whatever,” turned out to be one of continuing responsibility and clear expectations. “It was obvious they wanted me to prosper,” he says. “Instead of flying blindly and hoping that maybe there will be a raise around the corner, I get an outline of what I should be able to do to advance to different levels,” Clayton says. “We're not just winging it.”
When small remodeling companies struggle, big companies often benefit. “In the last 12 to 18 months, I would say we've had 50 small remodelers tell us they want to work for us,” says Mark Richardson, president of Case Design/ Remodeling, one of the largest remodeling companies in the U.S. “Our biggest crop of talent hasn't been young fellows coming out of vocational school, but owners who are surrendering” — who still love the craft but are worn down, in many cases, by the stresses of running a business in a softening market.
What attracts ex-owners? Stability, benefits, and growth potential. Identify their real strengths to engage their passions. “It could be their back and knees are shot, but they're really good at estimating or project management,” Richardson says. Others are carpenters, such as Chris Crosser (left), a home repair specialist in Case's Handyman and Remodeling Division.
Use technology to extend your reach and visibility, Richardson adds. “In the past, you wouldn't expect a carpenter to go to Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com. Now they do.” Also, leverage your employees' word-of-mouth network. Like a growing number of other companies, Case offers referral bonuses to employees who help the company find others with similar skill sets and work ethics.
The language barrier keeps many remodelers from hiring foreign-born workers. Jeff Santerre of Prestige Custom Builders, in Seattle, sees it as an opportunity to hire hard-working employees who are eager — and grateful — to learn. Several of his employees speak English as a second language (ESL), including paint crew members Malith Tong Malith (below, right), who survived civil war and a horrific, 900-mile desert trek in his native Sudan, and Sergey Rymaruk (left), of Ukraine.
“We've trained them how to work our way, and they've been quick studies,” Santerre says of his foreign-born staff. The key is education and language development. “They know they can't really be in charge unless their English is good,” he says. “It's their ball and chain.”
Lesa Keller, Prestige Custom Builders' human resources manager, screens all hires extensively and requires basic English knowledge at a minimum, “just for safety alone,” she says. The company also gives each of its 30 employees a $500 annual education allowance, issuing quarterly reminders to use remaining balances for classes in English, technology, or other relevant topics. Performance evaluations cover language training; ESL employees “know their compensation will be limited if they're not working on it,” Santerre says.
Most people of this generation are either texting or on their computer,” says Mitch Speck of Spectacular Home Remodeling, in Sandy, Ore. “So we thought, ‘Let's catch them where they live.'”
One way Speck catches tech-savvy prospective employees, including “awesome” apprentice carpenter Jenna Miller (left), is to advertise on craigslist, an online community in hundreds of cities (www.craigslist.com). His well-worded ad for an entry-level carpenter attracted 30 responses. It also linked to a job description, helping to weed out candidates.
Speck hires for attitude over aptitude, using a team-interview process to distinguish candidates who want to learn and grow from those with unrealistic expectations or a tendency to blame others. Miller, 30, had no prior construction experience other than a “great” seven-week class she had taken with Oregon Tradeswomen. She also had three years of college, as well as a steady but unfulfilling job as a supervisor for a phone company. A lead carpenter sat in on the interview, “and he said that one of the main things in his life was to continue learning,” Miller says. “I thought that was really cool.”
Miller also appreciates the company's small size, which has led to close working relationships with supervisors. “Even their criticism is constructive,” she says. “Mitch is such a good confidence booster.”
With four field employees younger than 30, and several employees with tenures of 14 years or longer, Riggs Construction of St. Louis has a clear knack for finding and keeping good young workers. They include 29-year-old Dan Kayich (far right, shown with Brian Marquis, John Schuetz, and Brett Randall), a project manager who started seven years ago as an apprentice. Amie Riggs, vice president, attributes a big part of this success to the company's union status. “We hire union guys who go through the system — who've had thorough training and chose this to be their career,” she says.
Riggs also does things that even remodelers in nonunion towns could embrace to become more attractive to prospective employees. Being open-book is “first and foremost,” she says. All staff review the company's finances monthly: balance sheets, budgets, P&L statements. “They know where the money goes, and they know why we have to make the margins we make.” This knowledge makes them “buy into everything,” she says. “They own their jobs. They're proud of their trucks, and they take care of their tools.”
“Being open-book helps me deal with clients when we face unforeseen issues,” says Kayich. “It helps me help clients make the right decisions.
Kayich's union training focused on new construction, he notes. “Remodeling requires a little more know-how and flexibility,” he says, adding that many apprentices don't last without on-the-job training.