EXECUTIVE REPORT
New technology, in the shape of drones, is already being used by AMI Group to locate stolen plant.
Business brains
Challenges facing hire managers and strategies for better decision-making were amongst topics discussed at the recent HAE Conference. Alan Guthrie reports.
Forward Together was the theme of the HAE Conference held at Loughborough University in October, and various sessions covered changes in construction practices and demographic trends that could impact on how hirers do business in the future.
Developments in the construction industry were discussed by Focko Imhorst of McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consultancy whose clients include some of the largest construction equipment OEMs. He described how construction related spending accounted for 13% of global GDP and that this could rise steadily in the years ahead. He also suggested that the industry had hitherto changed little compared to others, like retail, agriculture and manufacture, in terms of adopting new technology.
Such developments could affect three area operational areas, Focko Imhorst said. Workers in the field could find themselves using 3D printers, autonomous vehicles and remote controlled machines, while office personnel might use virtual reality technology in their design work, and manipulate data obtained from drones to calculate required structural requirements. Work teams could adopt digital modelling techniques to develop new solutions with customers. He suggested a tipping point could be reached where new techniques became the norm and some hirers might need to determine their requirements in order to relate to customers, as well as recruiting appropriately experienced personnel.
Construction data
Michael Dall, Lead Economist for Construction with Barbour-ABI, which generates construction data for UK businesses, described how
the organisation tracked projects from initial planning application through to their commencement gain insight into the types of work that was becoming more common, together with their location.
Data from the past 12 months suggested that residential development accounted for the largest volume of activity, particularly in London and Greater Manchester, showing the strength of the house building market. This was likely to continue into 2019, with Government incentives like the Help to Buy scheme assisting. Barbour-ABI is working with HAE to replicate its services for the hire market, to see how such construction trends might influence demand for hire services.
Gender pay gap
Three employees from Vp and its group activities spoke on career opportunities for women in hire. Vp Compliance Director Amanda Knowles, who originally joined as Senior Internal Auditor after working in banking, described how, of 2.1m people working in UK construction, only 11% are women, with only 1% actually employed on job sites. Given that the construction consultancy, Arcadis, suggests that 400,000 industry entrants are needed annually until 2021 to replace those leaving or retiring, this could change a long as attitudes do also.
A survey by Keepmoat Homes found only 13% of women aged 16-25 would consider a construction career, believing there to be barriers to progression, a gender pay gap and a lack of female role models. Amanda Knowles suggested that, if more women were recruited and reached senior roles, this would encourage others.
Jessica Bowen, Branch Manager at Hire Station’s Greenford depot, spoke of the satisfaction working in hire gave, dealing with areas as diverse as fleet management and profit and loss control, to maintaining product knowledge and building team morale. Jessica, who was named as Hire Manager of the Year in the 2018 HAE Hire Awards of Excellence and was overall Hire Achiever of the Year, spoke of prejudices that needed to be overcome, such as customers only wanting to speak to male colleagues and assuming that a woman could not be a senior manager.
The house building market has proved resilient over the past 12 months. 37
Similarly, Heidi Russell, Regional Account Manager for Hire Station’s southern division, spoke of the richness of a career in hire and opportunities for progression and development in a variety of disciplines, from sales and marketing, to Health & Safety and IT. She believed that, with self-belief and determination, women would be successful, and that in her team the number of women had doubled since 2014.
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