Issues faced within the construction industry
According to Statista, in 2021, the construction industry in the UK was estimated at a massive 122 billion British pounds. Over the last few years, the industry sector has faced many external problems that are out of their control, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in costs meaning materials and labour have soared. We’ve highlighted the main issues that the construction industry is currently facing.
Material shortages
The supply chain crisis in 2021 left a vast majority of construction workers with material shortages. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the production of materials slowed with demand increasing. Brexit is also a significant factor in this shortage with delayed shipments and new regulations being enforced, it can all slow the delivery of overseas materials. With a lack of HGV drivers increasing, this also means the transportation of goods has slowed by a significant amount.
Skill shortage
According to the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, 75% of contractors are having trouble recruiting skilled workers, this is caused by an ageing workforce, with the majority reaching retirement age and fewer young people joining this area of work. The problem that this creates is an increase in costs, with construction company owners having to spend more on recruitment fees, which results in them having to pay higher prices for shorter-term staff to help in the completion of work.
Health and Safety
The construction industry has the highest amounts of reported health and safety incidents. The lack of adequately trained employees can have a severe negative impact on businesses within this sector. There are many procedures that must be carried out, such as PPE, compliance checks and mandatory health and safety assessments.
Health and safety forms must stay up to date; if not, then this can result in hefty fines, the reason these can sometimes be missed is because a lot of construction workers don’t use digitalised systems, so any warnings or notifications reminding them about mandatory forms can be overlooked.
Worker productivity
It’s a priority that worker productivity is high when working within construction in order for projects to be completed on time. With those experienced and skilled workers retiring, the younger, less experienced ones join and this can result in work not being completed on time due to projects becoming more complex.
Communication
Within the construction industry, communication is the area where a lot of companies face issues. At times, workers will rely on word-of-mouth to discuss important and sometimes critical onsite news, this can quite easily get misconstrued. A simple online group chat can resolve communication problems and prevent minor errors from occurring, by sending messages to highlight any updates, issues or tasks that need to be completed.
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