We have roughly six weeks left in 2020. Too many people I have come in contact with in the past eight months have echoed something of the same sentiment: I can’t wait until 2020 is over. I understand what they are trying to say, but the reality is just because the ball drops (probably) on December 31 and we will ring in the New Year doesn’t mean everything is going to change overnight. Rather, we as an industry have to make that change happen. Are you ready?

If we want 2021 to be successful for construction, we need to take steps today to make that reality happen. If we want a “better normal” as Peggy Smedley says, then we need to do something about it. Thus, to close out the year, we will dig into a five-week series on tangible things your construction business can do today—right now—to make your business as successful as possible in 2021.

As Smedley always says, we need people, process, and technology for a successful technology implementation and project deployment. (Here is a hint, we will be focusing closely here on all three in the next few weeks, but more on that later). First up, our workforce.

The U.S. BLS (Bureaus of Labor Statistics) projects that overall employment of construction laborers and helpers is projected to grow 5% from 2019 until 2029. This is faster than the average for all occupations.

It suggests: “Although employment growth of specific types of helpers is expected to vary, overall demand is expected to be driven by the construction of homes, schools, office buildings, factories, and power plants. Increased use of prefabrication may result in more employment of helpers to build wall panels and other construction components offsite.”

Interestingly, it adds, “However, prefabrication is also projected to result in the need for fewer helpers of brickmasons, blockmasons, stonemasons, and tile and marble setters in the production process and of workers such as construction laborers in onsite installation.” More on that in the coming weeks.

Let’s turn our attention to another source. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that one in every five Americans will reach retirement age by 2030. And beyond that, by 2035 some 78 million people will be over 65, while 76.7 million will be 18 or younger.

The general consensus here is this: We need more workers. In five years, many workers are going to leave the workforce, making it even more apparent that we need these workers now. So let’s talk strategy.

David Bennett, vice president of sales, RevTwo, has an interesting recommendation: Respond by creating a centralized knowledge base or service data repository that could be accessed by workers when they have a problem. Basically, capture that knowledge now to be able to pass on later.

He has a great idea here—and it is something that we have been talking about here at Constructech for years. We need to tap into technology in order to make our workforce more efficient (thus requiring fewer workers) while also using the latest and greatest advances in order to inspire younger workers to consider construction.

As IDC forecasts, the mobile worker population will grow steadily in the next four years, increasing from 78.5 million in 2020 to 93.5 million mobile workers in 2024. By the end of the forecast period, IDC expects mobiles workers will account for nearly 60% of the total U.S. workforce.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but we need to do this now. We need to equip our workers with the right technology. But I think we are going to need to go a little bit further than this. Rather than just saying we need to add more technology and call it a day, we also need to look at how we inspire and motivate our workers to perform the task at hand.

We need to acknowledge the elephant in the room—COVID-19—and we need to have a real conversation about this. I have written about this before. All the glitz and glam of flexible working is starting to wear off. We are beginning to see that flexible work arrangements work well for some personality types and completely falls apart for others, depending on if you are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.

We need to figure out how to motivate and connect with our workers. For today’s young workforce, purpose and social issues rank higher than ever before. Having a shared purpose is more than just messaging; rather workers want leaders to be engaged in societal and cultural issues. Now, more than ever we need to determine how to inspire and motivate our workers to engage in our construction projects.

In the next five weeks, we will dig deeper into other topics and trends for the year ahead. Next week, we will look at how some of our business processes will need to evolve, then we will look at the growing reliance on emerging technologies, rounding out the conversation on people, process, and technology.

In the last two weeks of the year, we will discuss the drive for smart infrastructure (especially considering we will be getting another ASCE Infrastructure Report Card in 2021; we need to be prepared) and finally we will wrap up the year with a conversation on the need for resilience in the face of change. Join us next week, as we continue to look at what big trends are coming in 2021 and beyond.

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