Employee Turnover in Construction: Why it’s Happening and What to Do About It

The construction company is facing turnover on a massive scale and it’s mostly occurring on mega construction projects. Due to their size and complexity, mega construction projects can be a breeding ground for low employee engagement and turnover by the boatload.

A low level of engagement and retention of employees leads to a variety of consequential costs and construction issues that ripple out into all aspects of projects. The good news is, with the right steps, it can be not only prevented but offset in the other direction. Here’s why employee turnover is happening and what to do about it.

Why It’s Happening

The level of chaos and disorganization mega construction projects face is almost unmatched. With hundreds of moving parts, cost effective staffing strategies and a steep learning curve, there is a lot that’s demanded out of the engineers working on the projects.

The majority of engineers are working 50–60-hour weeks, putting their heart and souls into the project. When the stakes are this high, people’s fuses tend to run short and there needs to be extra care put forth from the management team to ensure the work ethic and motivation of employees that are willingly putting the work in, as most are in the beginning of their time on the project, is protected.

Engineers can impressively handle the workload thrown at them on these projects with ease. However, it’s other factors that tip them over the edge where enough is enough. A quick note, this is for are among the top 75% in terms of performance, the lower performers are little more complex to retain and engage.

Some of the factors that send employees running for the hills include ill-equipped managers, lack of acknowledgement, low frequency feedback, lack of flexibility and zero autonomy.

The rugged nature of construction projects tends to shy away from catering to a lot of these needs to engineers. They often feel their employees need to “prove themselves” and eventually they will get compensated for it. However, the way of the world has evolved. These old school approaches no longer prove to be effective.

These days employees are more than willing to shift to another company if the current one isn’t working out. The days of employees wanting to stick it out with their company for 20+ years out of fear has shifted. It’s time for an updated approach that can foster employees to want to stick around as opposed to doing it out of fear.

What to Do About It

When an engineer is striving for excellence on a massive construction project, they want what everyone wants, to be seen, heard and supported by their company and manager. When they don’t feel like they have that, they begin to feel like the weight of the world is resting on their shoulders and for what? It’s not like anyone notices.

Providing Feedback & Acknowledgement

The interesting thing about these projects is that since they are so grand and in disarray. Management rarely makes the time to observe engineers and how they are performing. With this lake of awareness, they aren’t set up to provide feedback on a regular basis. Engineers yearn for feedback on projects such as this, especially the high performers.

Not only does it help them adjust and improve, but it communicates to them that someone is watching and that their efforts are noticed among the company. It’s management and team leader’s responsibility then to take that information and pass it on to the executive team.

The executive team should then reach out to Engineer’s who have done work that has benefitted the company in massive ways. A usual occurrence for engineers on massive projects. They are forced to make huge decisions every single day that can save the project hundreds of thousands of dollars. A quick phone call to acknowledge that goes a long way.

Poor Management & Lack of Autonomy

The hands-on nature of construction makes it difficult to fathom a work environment that is flexible and autonomous. However, the industry also has a very stop and go style of work. Work in the field can cease for various reasons like schedule delays and weather. Therefore, it is clear that there any many opportunities for companies to provide employees with flexible hours and remote working days.

The pandemic shifted the working world into an online one. Its making a lot of people question the industry they got into and whether or not they have to go into the office at all. Seeing other industries continue to work from home with no chance insight for them to work on, is difficult for engineers. They begin to feel like they don’t have the same freedom. They deserve these same opportunities.

With the right rules put in place like ensuring deadlines are still met, the field crews are unaffected, and meetings are attended, there is no reason engineers can’t have the same work life. All it takes is a little open-mindedness and modernization from construction companies.

In addition, companies on projects that require top performers to run efficiently and effectively also require top performing managers. Unfortunately, simply promoting managers into management roles without the necessary leadership skills, isn’t going to cut it. They need to be prepared to guide and nurture their team members, so they feel supported through all challenges.

One of the biggest mistakes’ managers make on these projects is micromanaging their employees, stripping them away from all autonomy. There needs to be an understanding established. On projects of such large size, there’s very little engineers can control. Every single day is spent putting out fires and reacting to things not going as planned. It’s just nature of the work.

It’s one thing for the work to throw its curve balls, adding on a manager that feels the need to control what, when and how of all of your tasks is torturous. Managers need to take a step back, convey the goals/tasks that are required, clearly delegate and leave it up to the engineers to figure out the rest. If you take this way, creativity, inspiration and motivation will be stripped away and engineers will head for the door.

The Bottom Line

The complexity of construction work makes it one of the most remarkable trades. Projects move at amazing speeds to hit deadlines and they do it with incredibly quality standards. This type of work requires the help of high performers. If high performers and other employees are leaving on a massive scale, these mega projects are bound to take immense and avoidable losses in profit.

The old school approach is outdated. It’s time to nurture the people putting in the grueling hours and show them that you care and appreciate their work. If don’t right, leaving the company will be one of the furthest things from their mind.