The Great Resignation

If you haven’t heard this term used yet, it refers to the mass exodus of talent leaving the engineering/construction industry (as well as other industries). According to a recent 60 Minutes episode, 20M people quit their jobs in the 2nd half of 2021. A staggering number to say the least. The mass departure from the engineering/construction industry was sparked by a number of issues, namely the aging of the resource pool across owner/contractor engineering and construction departments, the constant fluctuation of activity across the industry, the inability of our industry to embrace change and primarily technology change… and lastly the recent pandemic and the stimulus provided during the initial stages of the pandemic. There are many other aspects of this resource departure from the industry, but the end result is and will continue to be a depletion of project development and execution knowledge and experience. McKinsey reports that in the next 3-6 months, 40% of employees are somewhat likely to leave their current job. This will continue to lead to projects that cost more, take longer and most critically do not meet quality and safety targets. 

It may seem logical to blame COVID-19 but in reality, the pandemic merely exacerbated already existing issues and concerns of the current workforce. Whatever the reason, it has employers scratching their heads. A recent article by Recruitics published in the Recruiting Brief weekly email states that there are 5 main reasons which are contributing to The Great Resignation.

So, what are we to do about this reality?  First, owners and contractors alike need to recognize that this is a real issue and replacing a 20 - 30 year veteran of the industry with a 1 – 5 year experienced resource will have its issues and will cause serious project delays and cost increases. Technology advancements, as referenced in our Digital Transformation article in this issue of Panorama, need to be embraced across engineering, procurement and construction activities. These advancements will bring a higher level of efficiency across the engineering, procurement and construction activities but will also attract the next generation of project resources that thrive in this technological world. Utilization of evolving work processes such as Advanced Work Packaging, Modularization, Standardization, Inherently Safer Designs and others, are improvements on already established processes but integrate different owner/supplier/contract relationships, new tools and previously mentioned technology advancements. 

There are a number of collaborative organizations that are aggressively working the issues outlined above. These issues cannot be solved by one company or one project at a time. There must be an aligned industry wide set of initiatives that address the resource retention and attraction issues facing our industry. The Engineering and Construction Contracting Association (ECC), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Construction Users Roundtable (CURT), Project Management Institute (PMI) and Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) all have initiatives around future leaders and the next generation of resources to support our industry. These initiatives include mentoring, training, simulation tools, etc. all based on information transfer and accelerating the experience process.

Pathfinder’s suggestion is to recognize the situation as a reality and get involved in the solution. Have your staff participate in the above-mentioned society initiatives, give time for mentoring and sharing of real-world lessons through the above organizations, your university or trade school affiliations, etc. Also, embrace some of the new technology, try the tools and expect that some may not be successful but build a process that failing early is acceptable. Learn from the failures but continue to drive to close the project delivery gaps. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Cabano
Steve is President/Chief Operating Officer for Pathfinder, LLC and has over 30 years of direct Project Management experience for Owner, Contractor, and Government clients in various industries.
slcabano@pathfinderinc.com
856-424-7100 x122