Communication Skills: Challenges in Australian Construction Industry

This report examines the significant challenges encountered by construction managers in the Australian construction industry. It highlights two major issues: safety requirements and workforce problems. The report emphasizes the importance of safety, discussing the financial and human costs of inadequate safety measures, as well as the potential of technological solutions like wearable devices and VR training. It also addresses the shortage of skilled labor, the need for an adequate workforce to handle advanced technologies, and the lack of employee motivation and coordination. The report further discusses the impact of an aging workforce and the need for new apprentices. It references several sources to support its claims, including articles and reports on construction industry trends and challenges. The report underscores the need for proactive measures to address these challenges to ensure the industry's continued growth and success.

COMMUNICATION
SKILLS

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Challenges faced by Construction managers in today’s Australia
Australian construction industry is one of the biggest industries in the country. There are
different challenges faced by the firm operating in this industry. These challenges have not
allowed managers of the firms to plan extensively and ensure multi-level growth of the
company. These challenges are producing risk to the companies especially in the current
business environment that is highly volatile. Among the different challenges faced by the
industry, two of the major challenges that are confronting their growth are safety
requirements and problems related to workforce (Razak Bin Ibrahim, et al. 2010).
Safety needs to be priority of every industry and it is crucial that companies fill all the
requirements that ensure that proper safety is maintained at the workplace. Construction
industry faces this problem the most. There are many workers that die at the construction
sites due to lack of proper safety measures. Sometimes it is the failure of the company to
provide all the requirements of safety and sometimes it is due to negligence of the employees
towards their safety that actually is making this challenge bigger (Fulford and Standing,
2014). Due to high demand for the compensation and insurance by the families and relatives
of the people that die on site there is huge unnecessary financial loss to the company which
could have been easily avoided.
Construction industry has been poor in working towards the safety of an individual and
workers at the workplace. This is majorly due to the fact that safety is a costly affair. The
equipment that is required for the safety is of higher cost and since each company has large
numbers of employees attached with it hence the overall cost of operations goes to higher
levels. But the industry has enormous potential for wearable devices, like helmets and smart
glasses that can give visualization both in augmented and mixed reality (Gallagher, 2017).
These visualization tools can provide improvements in accuracy, efficiency and safety. In
the time, when the companies are trying to reduce their cost, it has become difficult for them
to invest huge money on fulfilling safety requirements (Li and Liu, 2010). At the same time it
is also to be noted that most of the workers that is working in this industry works on contract
basis hence companies are not giving importance to their safety. They feel to be the duty of
contract companies to provide trainings regarding safety. In between companies and

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contractors, it’s the workers that are paying the price. The safety challenge has become
greater because these days, in Australia very tall buildings are being with innovative design.
This is making it further problematic for the company as they have to ensure that more
appropriate safety resources are being utilised in the construction industry.
The major problem lies in the lack of safety training. Since construction demand is increasing
hence they require qualified construction experts and contractors. For maximising profits
companies are cutting corners on safety trainings. This is where problem lies. Many of the
workers do not know how to use the safety equipment appropriately and smartly in different
situations. Companies are not teaching what slightest of mistakes can cause them heavily. For
resolving this issue, companies need to use different types of technologies such as app based
safety training and other online mediums rather than just providing manual trainings
(Gallagher, 2017). The use of VR technologies can be highly helpful in this regards.
Company needs to use innovative approach and advanced equipment to train all their
employees. More collaborative approach from both employees and firm will help them in
achieving their desired results (Francis and Lingard, 2012).
Another major challenge that construction industry is facing is related to labour and
workforce related challenges (McGrath-Champ, Rosewarne and Rittau, 2011). There is huge
shortage of skilled labourers. This nation is unable to produce enough professionals that are
skilled and has ability to handle their job roles. People who are skilled are demanding higher
salaries which companies are not willing to give hence they are forced to work with fewer
skilled workers. Companies require labourers that are capable of handling the advanced
technologies easily. Efficient use of technology will help the organisation to enhance the
efficiency of the work process which is crucial for improving the productivity of the
organisation (Gallagher, 2017). Since today, society is demanding for construction that is fast
and has innovative design hence companies will have to ensure that they have an adequate
skilled workforce that is capable of meeting these requirements.
It is also seen that workers at the construction sites are working for less hours especially in
the time when they are actively engaged in their work. They are not willing to support the
managers so as to work for extra hours in order to improve the productivity of the workplace.
There is a serious lack of motivation of the employees due to poor pay scale, reduced
compensation and benefits by companies. There is a lack of coordination between the
managers and the lower level employees which is bringing negativity at the workplace

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(Townsend, et al. 2011). This is also because of the fact that most of the companies have
taken contract labourers at the workplace. These labourers are not working according to the
company’s objectives. Company also do not give attention towards their needs as they have a
contract with their contractors. With the decrease in the power of the Unions, companies are
not giving employees platform where they can communicate their problems. Due to reduction
in the amount of the fixed jobs in the industry, more and more people are moving towards
other industries that provide more benefits to the employees and have less physical work to
do.
Leadership development has also become an issue in the industry as most of the people are
not willing to take self-initiatives towards skill development (Walker and Lloyd-Walker,
2016). Due to the lack of leaders, it is possible that firms may lose quality of their human
resource. Along with this there is a major problem in the workforce is that are around 14% of
the employees are over the age of 55. The ageing society of Australia is a threat to the
construction industry as it requires young and energetic people in their workforce. It is
assumed that around one third to half of the people are going to get retired in the coming five
years and hence the industry will require additional 17,000 to 26,000 new apprentices that
will replace the people that are going to retire (Heaton, 2015).

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REFERENCES
Ashworth, A. and Perera, S., 2018. Contractual procedures in the construction industry.
Routledge.
Francis, V. and Lingard, H., 2012. The case for family-friendly work practices in the
Australian construction industry. Construction Economics and Building, 2(1), pp.28-36.
Fulford, R. and Standing, C., 2014. Construction industry productivity and the potential for
collaborative practice. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), pp.315-326.
Gallagher, B. 2017. How Technology is Changing the Construction Industry, CE TECH.
[Online] Available at: http://enewsletters.constructionexec.com/techtrends/2017/01/how-
technology-is-changing-the-construction-industry/. [Accessed on 26th April 2019].
Heaton, A 2015, ‘Is Australia Heading for a Construction Trade Shortage?’ Sourceable,.
[Online] Available at: https://sourceable.net/is-australia-heading-for-a-construction-trade-
shortage. [Accessed on 26th April 2019].
Li, Y. and Liu, C., 2010. Malmquist indices of total factor productivity changes in the
Australian construction industry. Construction management and economics, 28(9), pp.933-
945.
McGrath-Champ, S., Rosewarne, S. and Rittau, Y., 2011. From one skill shortage to the next:
the Australian construction industry and geographies of a global labour market. Journal of
Industrial Relations, 53(4), pp.467-485.
Razak Bin Ibrahim, A., Roy, M.H., Ahmed, Z.U. and Imtiaz, G., 2010. Analyzing the
dynamics of the global construction industry: past, present and future. Benchmarking: An
International Journal, 17(2), pp.232-252.
Townsend, K., Lingard, H., Bradley, L. and Brown, K., 2011. Working time alterations
within the Australian construction industry. Personnel Review, 40(1), pp.70-86.

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Walker, D.H. and Lloyd-Walker, B.M., 2016. Understanding the motivation and context for
alliancing in the Australian construction industry. International Journal of Managing
Projects in Business, 9(1), pp.74-93.