Businesses shut down or went remote nearly overnight at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some industries—like construction—came out of quarantine sooner than others—at least partially—but now other businesses are slowly returning to work as well. The return to work is looking a whole lot different than the initial shut down. What will work look like after COVID? Let’s take a closer look.
McKinsey suggests during the pandemic the virus most severely impacted arenas with the highest overall physical proximity scores. Think personal care, on-site customer services, and leisure and travel. It also says, specifically in construction and other outdoor production and maintenance industries, COVID-19 has had little impact as work is low proximity and taking place mostly outdoors. However, the longer term is going to a look a little bit different, with work areas with higher physical proximity scores likely to be unsettled.
I would argue the COVID-19 pandemic did much more than shut some industries down; rather it changed industries, which will impact how construction works in the future. For example, we need to reconsider how we will design offices, homes, and cities. We need to redesign the very world we live in—and the construction industry will be tasked with taking up that mantel.
Here is something else we need to keep in mind. As many as 25% more workers may need to switch occupations than before the pandemic. Take this trend into consideration. Before the pandemic, job losses were concentrated in middle-wage occupations, while low and high-wage jobs continued to grow. Nearly all low-wage workers who lost jobs could move to other low-wage occupations. However, due to the pandemic’s impact on low-wage jobs, McKinsey now estimate that almost all growth in labor demand will occur in high-wage jobs.
What does this mean? In the future, more than half of displaced low-wage workers may need to shift to occupations in higher wage brackets and requiring different skills to remain employed. We need to reskill and upskill our workforce. Now.
Workers in occupations in the lowest wage bracket use basic cognitive skills and physical and manual skills 68% of the time, according to McKinsey, while in the middle group uses these skills 48% of the time. In the highest two brackets, those skills account for less than 20%. The most disadvantaged workers may have the biggest job transitions ahead, in part because of their disproportionate employment in the arenas most affected by COVID-19.
We know the pandemic accelerated remote work, ecommerce, and automation, but now we need to consider what comes next. We need to consider the skillset the new worker will have. We need to consider how the new jobsite will look. Everything from company culture, to empowering employees, to implementing new processes, to leveraging technology changed nearly overnight—and now we need to consider how to approach these in a new way going forward.
We don’t need to make big drastic changes overnight like we did at the start of the pandemic, but let’s keep our eyes on the future trends to make savvy decisions for our businesses.
In the coming weeks, let’s dig into each over these areas a little bit closer. Let’s journey into the better normal—as Peggy Smedley calls it—together. Let’s uncover new cultural movements sweeping construction, and how to empower people with the right technology. Let’s look at how our cities, homes, offices, and jobsites will look different. Many already do, but let’s take the time to look at what the future is going to hold in this better normal. Let’s move forward together.
Original Article: https://constructech.com/the-construction-industry-after-covid/
