You can’t imagine spending your life and your career behind a desk. Bringing your skills, knowledge and experience to bear on a diverse range of complex tasks is the only life for you. And it’s one that brings you enormous professional pride and satisfaction. Nonetheless, you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t admit that it was a stressful, challenging and sometimes inhospitable working environment. And while every workplace can be challenging at times, the logistical, psychological, sociological and economic realities of the construction industry make for a unique combination of stressors. When working in the construction industry, it’s essential that you understand these stressors and guard against them for your personal health and professional efficacy.  The unique problems of occupational stress in the construction industry The construction sector represents a very specific set of challenges in terms of stressors. It is an intensely physical environment, and one that’s often physically and psychologically challenging.  Ordinarily, when employees find working environments stressful, they need to take time off to rest, recuperate and bounce back stronger. However, in the construction sector, studies have shown that while an overwhelming majority of construction industry professionals report heightened occupational stress, only 6% had taken time off a result of this. There could be a number of factors that explain why construction professionals are so loath to take the necessary time off to combat workplace stress; The construction industry is still overwhelmingly male. And in such an environment, displays machismo and strength may lead construction professionals to feel that taking time off is a sign of weakness. A substantial proportion of construction workers are self-employed contractors and lack the traditional safety net of sick pay and medical insurance that their salaried counterparts enjoy. Thus, they may be less willing to take time off for fear of costs or monetary loss. They may also feel that if they are perceived as taking too much time off that they could lose a contract and / or be replaced on a job.  Their professional pride makes them unwilling to take time to themselves when there is a task at hand. While all of the above are understandable, they must not be allowed to endanger the long term health and wellbeing of construction professionals. And in an age where almost 70% of construction professionals feel that they face increased stress, anxiety and depression as a result of working in the construction industry, this is potentially a ticking occupational time bomb.  The trickling down of stress The economic realities of the construction industry can also exacerbate the stress felt by professionals at all levels. Construction industry has always been a highly competitive, low-margin industry and in an era where competition has become increasingly aggressive, it can feel as though every contract is hard won, and meeting every budget and deadline becomes a little more urgent. As such, the stress felt by firms and management can trickle down to professionals at all levels. And when you’re working in an industry like construction which involves skill and precision, an atmosphere of tension, stress and anxiety can lead to mistakes. Which in turn can damage the reputations of firms and lead to opportunity loss, recriminations and an even more intense working environment.    Lack of support and stress relief at home Many construction professionals work long hours and content with a physically and intellectually demanding workload on a daily basis. And that combination is not always conducive to maintaining healthy, happy relationships at home. Interpersonal conflicts with partners and spouses or a lack of spousal support can compound the anxieties and frustrations of the workplace.  All construction professionals need to have an outlet for stress relief, whether that’s hitting the gym after a long working day, betting on sports via a site like Borgata Online, playing video games, or simply taking a long walk or a jog. Unless stress is dealt with on a daily basis it can become cumulative and become chronic stress.  Not only can this make construction professionals’ lives more difficult, it can also make them vulnerable to a range of some of our nation’s most serious chronic diseases. Chronic stress triggers the body’s inflammatory response. While this is usually a perfectly normal part of the healing process, when there are no injuries to heal, this inflammation can build up throughout the body, leading to an increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, diabetes and even some forms of cancer among many others. What’s more, this risk is exacerbated even further if you have a diet that contains a lot of processed foods, especially processed meats like bacon, ham and salami which are also classified by the World Health Organization as group 1 carcinogens. That’s the same category as cigarettes!

When caring for your staff, it’s important to know that they aren’t machines. You can’t just throw money at a problem to make it go away, or to improve things. Of course, this can work to some degree, sometimes to a great degree, but if there are deeper problems, money can’t solve it. For instance, you can’t guarantee that your staff will follow safety protocol more closely or work more productively by giving them more money to do so. That being said, investing in safety equipment and training can help these results come about more efficiently.  So perhaps it’s not about throwing money at a problem, but rather knowing where to divert it, and use what you know about people management to aid you. Yet all of this is unimportant if you cannot look after your staff correctly. They require careful maintenance, and must be given the tools to succeed. More than that, looking after your staff isn’t just a nice thing to do to get into the ‘best employer awards’, it’s also something that you must practice to abide by employment law. So, let’s consider how we can improve in our approach: Give Them Regular Breaks Give your staff regular breaks. This is more than just being nice. It can be a statistic that you track in order to better understand how your staff are managed, and what changes you need to make. In any vehicle over 3.5 tonnes, the EU stipulates that a digital tachograph should be implemented to measure working time directive calculations and more. If working in a construction industry, this could be a vital new addition to ensure you’re abiding by the right rules, and helping your staff get the rest they need. Improve Your HR Department HR can sometimes be seen as a corporate tool of keeping staff in line, but that’s not the whole truth. From helping staff with mental health issues (as in referring them in the right location) to ensuring complains are dealt with, to offering a confidential space for staff to report issues within your firm, improving your HR department means investing in your people and ensuring they are cared for. This is more than a platitude. It’s a practical daily effort to increase your continual worth. Celebrate & Praise Their Progress Celebrate and praise the progress that they’re making. Furthermore, only give this praise when it’s due. Ironically, the more you do that, the more staff will trust it, and from there they will give you reasons to offer them praise. This serves as a means of both training and encouraging staff, as when you praise something you like to see, they will likely repeat that. For instance, if the safety equipment on site has been perfectly inventoried and tracked, complement the team the next day for it. This tool is free, and it gives you the chance to more easily develop your team and your relationship with them. With this advice, we hope you can look after your staff more easily.

Being employable is something that most of us all want to be. No matter who we are, our backgrounds, or what industry we work in, you will always want to make sure that you are able to get the job that you want, when you want to get it. Yet, it’s not always that easy. Even if you are a great person, you are someone that really cares about the work they do and puts the effort in, you may still not have an aura of employability about you. It could be that maybe your CV isn’t quite selling you, or that you don’t have some of the skills that people are looking for. It could even be that you can’t get across your skills enough. As much as you may not want it to, this could then actually hinder your chances of moving up in the industry or getting the job that you want. And so, you’re going to want to think about what you can do to make sure that you are more employable. It can be hard to work out what you need to do to be able to make that happen. Maybe you are a hard worker and you are already doing a great job? When that’s the case, you may not know what you need to do to stand out more. However, you’ll be glad to know that there are a handful of things that you can do that will really help you to stand out. Here are ten options to help you. 1. Get Some Coaching To star with, if what you really want is to be able to move up in your career and get into a management role, then maybe leadership coaching would be for you? You may find that once you get some accountability and guidance, you start to know exactly what it is that you need to do to grow. But, this can take time and it’s a learning curve. Either way, having a coach can really help you here. 2. Learn A New Skill Next up, it could be that you want to think about picking up a new skill. If you are worried about employability, one of the best things that you can do is learn something new. If your skillset is limited, trying your hand at a new skill that will help you to grow is exactly what you need. 3. Get Further Qualifications And then, you might even want to think about taking that to the next level by getting further qualifications. Maybe there is a professional qualification in your field that you can undertake? Or even a higher-level degree that you can study for? These can definitely help to boost your appeal to employers. 4. Speak To A Specialist The next thing that you might want to do here, is speak to a specialist in all things careers. It could be reading careers advice online or getting in touch with an HR expert. Either way, if you’re able to get all of the information you need about what would make you more employable, or what you can do to get a promotion, it’s going to help. Anything that is more personalised to your role and industry will allow you to implement changes and climb the career ladder. 5. Drill Down On Your Talents From here, you’re then going to want to make sure that you’re really harnessing your talents. We all have talents – no matter whether you’re a skilled worker, manager, or in the finance team. Everyone has strong points. Yet, do you know what yours are? If you don’t, it’s time to think about them. If your CV doesn’t show off who you are and what your talents are, then how would an employer know? 6. Improve Your Performance Then, you might want to think about what you can do to improve your performance. If you know that you could liaise with customers better or avoid errors more often, then you’d definitely stand out more. It could be as simple as minimizing distractions or using a good consumer guide to choose more effective eyewear. Anything you can do to help improve your performance will always be a great idea. 7. Go Above & Beyond From here, you’re also going to want to make sure that you’re doing more. If you just do the bare minimum of work then you may not stand out. Yet if you’re the one going above and beyond and looking to do more to drive the company forward, you’re going to stand out as an important employee. 8. Do Some Volunteer Work Another thing that you can do here is volunteer. Not everything you do should be centred around your current role. If you want to show that you are a great person to hire, give your skills, experience, and CV some depth. When you volunteer your time to a cause, it can allow you to grow your talents and broaden your horizons. And, not only that, it will show that you have another dimension to you. 9. Get Results The next thing that you can do, is to make sure that you are delivering results. This can sound really hard on face value, but if you can start to talk about your job and role in numbers and figures, you will suddenly look impressive. Employers want to know what you can do for them. If you can show how you’ve increased profit margins by X or lowered employee turnover by X, you’ll start to look like a more professional candidate. 10. Understand How You Add Value Finally, you’re then going to want to make sure that you are aware of exactly how you add value to a business. Great people really matter in a company, but if you’re not getting results or adding value, then you won’t stand out. But if you are fully aware of how you can benefit or enhance a business with your skills,

A new partnership arranged by the developers behind a proposed £20 million Gateshead retail scheme could create work and training opportunities. Fintry Estates and development partner Hargreaves revealed revised plans earlier this year for the 8.2-acre site, off Albany Road, south of the Baltic Business Quarter. It is set to feature a discount food-store, additional retail units, garden centre, micro-brewery/pub, drive-thru coffee shop and a gym, and could create about 138 job. The developers have ow partnered with partnership with Gateshead College to offer work and training opportunities to student in both construction and retail. “Hargreaves and Fintry Estates are serious about investing in Gateshead, the place and the people. As we begin the economic recovery, our proposed £20m development will help pump-prime the local economy, creating around 125 jobs during the construction phase, and around 138 when the scheme is fully operational,” said Graham Wilson, director at Fintry Estates. “We’re proud to be partnering with Gateshead College, to ensure the young people of Gateshead are well-equipped for work. If planning permission is granted, we’ll work together to offer real work experience and employment opportunities for college students on the site, through the construction phase and into operation as a new retail and leisure quarter. The proposed development demonstrates a massive vote of confidence in Gateshead,” Graham added. A planning application was submitted to Gateshead Council by the Newcastle office of national planning and development consultancy Lichfields earlier this year and is expected to be heard later this month (August 2020).

Assisting with a multitude of developmental aspects both professionally and personally, leadership coaching is designed to encourage employees to transform themselves into being the best they can possibly be. It also assists management teams and higher level executives in seeing which aspects of the business an employee really excels in and which blind spots could be improved upon. A recent study by FMI about the impact of leadership coaching in the built environment revealed some interesting findings for the construction sector. Flexible in its approach to business management, coaching is designed to be specifically tailored to the needs to the individual receiving the coaching. Construction firms often create their business model around the ideology of the economy being able to grow and shrink at the drop of a proverbial hat. Leadership coaching is often required in order to sustain this adaptive approach to business, as it allows leaders to be best prepared for a range of challenges the future may hold. The sector has always been volatile, with construction leaders regularly handling levels of complexity and ambiguity that would be considered extreme by the measure of many other industries. This rapid change of pace within the industry has rendered more traditional leadership techniques old-fashioned at best, requiring leaders and executives to better equip themselves to deal with an ever-changing global landscape. Strategic thinking is the name of the new game, aiming to minimise ineffective or knee-jerk responses to the business environment which can cripple an organisation with remarkable rapidity. Introducing coaching into the equation provides numerous benefits to the industry’s leadership by helping to manage transitions and develop essential skills, as well as turning those skills into positive habits for lasting change. Unlike conventional training, a coaching-led approach to development allows for maximum flexibility and agility while still providing the essential, tailored individual support that leaders need. FMI’s study notes four particular areas where access to coaching can provide critical support to leaders within the construction sector. A Sounding Board Executives often feel isolated at the top of their organisations, so access to a coach provides a much-needed “thought partner” who can be reliably confided in, especially as entering senior positions dramatically shifts the working dynamic with former organisational peers. The main workforce is often also critical of the leadership team, both at an individual and collective level, which can result in feelings of isolation and self-doubt, affecting wellbeing and ultimately business performance. Coaches again can step in here to act as valuable neutral parties so that leaders can still give voice to sensitive or complex issues which others below them in the organisation may struggle to empathise with. This leads to improved self-awareness in executives, with many saying that working with a coach as an external advisor has helped them to better understand and process feedback they receive as leaders, in turn producing healthier and more effective leadership approaches and an improvement in their organisations. More Effective Leadership Transitions The idea of “loneliness at the top” only becomes more notable when leaders transition into new roles as part of succession planning. Ambiguous expectations and complexities in taking over leadership from another introduce a “perfect storm” of isolation and self-doubt for many, especially when combined with a significant shift in previous internal relationships. Having a coach on hand to help shift thinking and adapt to a new role proves invaluable, with 91% of FMI’s study participants saying that engagement with a coach made them feel increased readiness for a new role. This development of new active skills and assistance in navigating changing relationship dynamics leads to more capable, confident, self-aware and stable leadership teams. Boosting Role Engagement Employee engagement is a hot topic at the moment given its power in so many aspects of the business world. Interestingly leaders tend not to seek out coaching specifically for the purpose of improving engagement, but nearly 88% of FMI’s surveyed participants said that access to coaching improved their engagement with their roles. Boosting job satisfaction and confidence, as well as helping to reduce the learning curve for new roles and improving relationships in the workplace all contribute to positive engagement. This gives increased likelihood of retention, effectively boosting leadership development ROI in the long term, and almost always produces performance boosts which enhance overall business profitability; a powerful combination. Driving Commitment & ROI As well as boosting “secondary” ROI drivers such as engagement and retention, using coaching as a way to develop specific leadership competencies to drive success will almost inevitably lead to both individual and organisational growth. In the highly volatile E&C environment, covering required skillsets can be time consuming and expensive, but coaching offers a highly engaging way to empower leaders to self-develop while at the same time directly boosting their in-role efficacy. “Multiple research approaches confirm the idea that coaching offers an ROI that verges on the extraordinary,” says Nick Goldberg, founder and CEO at leadership development solution Ezra Coaching. “Investing in leadership throughout an organisation produces enormous benefits, not least of which is maximising engagement and retention potential for employees. By working to make coaching more accessible to all leaders, a business is investing not just in its workforce and culture but in its whole growth trajectory.” While a great deal of focus is often placed on the benefits of coaching for soft skill development, in fact many leaders decided that access to a coach also improved the strategy, culture and even financial health of their organisations. In a challenging sector where the right leaders are a very scarce commodity, investing in people with coaching not only ticks valuable HR boxes but will significantly elevate the potential of the business in its entirety.