Under Construction: Three Trends Changing How We Build.

The state of the construction industry has often been regarded as a barometer for the economy’s health. After all, construction brings a wealth of business opportunities: new jobs and infrastructure, greater capacity for production and commerce, and the chance to forge lasting relationships. It’s also incredibly fluid: jobsites are completely transformed over a matter of months, required tools and equipment change daily, and the scope of any project may suddenly shift to accommodate new demands and ambitions.

In such a dynamic environment, change is not only necessary, but advantageous for both contractor and customer. This is true not only from project to project, but over the long arc of the industry as well. In this issue of Bytes & Insights, we’ll look at some ways that construction is changing to become safer, more diverse, and more multi-dimensional.

Safety in Numbers

In the construction industry, risk is a reality. From the lowest trench to the highest roof, hazards are inherent in every craft and trade on the jobsite. Today, many industry leaders are committed to setting a new standard of excellence in safety, bolstering projects with additional safety personnel, establishing new and refining existing best practices, and setting their people up for success with the training and equipment best suited to each task.

Though risk can never be eliminated entirely, human elements such as education, vigilance, planning, and accountability can safeguard people and property, while wearables and other smart technology can further improve monitoring and minimize threats.

But no amount of initiative can serve as a substitute for the buy-in of the industry’s rank and file members. Large-scale participation in industry-wide events, such as the upcoming Construction Safety Week, elevate the importance of a strong and unified approach to safety that empowers team members at all levels to protect themselves and others. Leading firms can also encourage wider representation with their own safety programs. Recently, Gray’s annual Trade Partner Safety Summit brought together a variety of trade partners to educate them on best practices and team building as well as to engage in an open dialogue and encourage them to use their unique voice and perspective to drive progress around safety. Events such as these underscore our commitment to empower and challenge our team members and trade partners to make smart, measured, and safe decisions.

Purposeful, focused involvement in safety initiatives is not only good for the industry’s workers, but their companies as well. A safer jobsite is a more effective one, with fewer stand-downs and events impacting schedule and budget. At Gray, we put safety and quality of life first, and this is reflected by our team members’ and subcontractors’ performance on jobsites across the nation, with a safety record that’s more than 50% better than the industry average.

Byte: To make construction a safer field, safety can’t simply be a virtue, but a value in action. By protecting people, we make a difference for our teams and elevate the entire industry.

For more information on how Gray demonstrates our No. 1 core value with our safety program, visit here.

Power to the People

Discuss construction with a friend or coworker in the industry, and there’s a good chance the conversation will turn to the heavy equipment found on nearly every jobsite. Or perhaps the talk will focus on the physical nature of the job—difficult manual labor, bustling environments, or working at heights. These are undeniably aspects of construction, but though they strike a strong image, they don’t define the industry—the people do.

As the balance of U.S. economic activity has shifted from the primary and secondary sectors (predominantly raw material extraction and manufacturing) to a focus on services, businesses operating within these first two sectors must be more innovative in attracting and retaining new workers. The push to become more worker-friendly has led to some positive trends in construction; namely, that the industry is a more inclusive and diverse environment than it was only a few decades ago.

Recently, the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) hosted its 25th annual Women in Construction Week?, an event which seeks to recognize the contributions and successes of women working in construction as well as to promote and advance opportunities for women. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, events such as WIC Week encourage the next generation of women to enter the field and infuse the industry with new talent. (Click here to join a NAWIC chapter in your region.)

As the nature of construction changes and its service offerings expand, the field truly offers something for everybody. In an industry that is 89% male and 87% White, it’s important to engage a broader demographic and raise awareness of the wide variety of roles that construction offers. Diversity fuels innovation and fosters engagement by inviting new perspectives and challenging old ways of approaching problems.

Today, minority-, women-, and disadvantaged-owned business enterprises (MWDBE) can receive government and non-profit certification that enables them to better compete for contracts and expand their markets. For instance, Gray’s home state of Kentucky operates a program that supports MWDBEs on the path to certification. Such successes lead to greater representation for these groups, which provides opportunities to educate and hire diverse young talent.

Byte: Engaging a diverse new generation of construction workers starts by amplifying the voices of those making an impact in the industry today.?

Building Is Just the Beginning

One of the most impactful trends in construction is the emergence of the fully integrated partner, which brings greater value to projects by providing services that go beyond pouring concrete, erecting steel, and the typical trades associated with construction management. Diversified service offerings generate new revenue streams, expand market reach, and lend stability in periods of economic downturn—all positives for the construction industry. But most of all, fully integrated services better serve the market and the customers who need them.

Today’s customers often require more than pure construction services. Instead, they need partners with the capabilities and track record to help them not only build their facilities, but also innovate processes and operate safely and efficiently. A fully integrated partner can streamline construction with design-build services, provide specialty engineering, optimize and automate operations with digital technology, manufacture process equipment, and more.

This approach offers benefits that outlive any single construction project. A fully integrated business brings expertise from past projects that can improve customers’ existing processes. Finding the right partner helps customers develop a focused long-term growth strategy, solve operational challenges, and build a relationship with a trusted service provider.

Clemens Food Group exemplifies the advantages that a fully integrated partner can provide. The fifth-largest U.S. pork processor, Clemens chose Gray’s robust service offering for its landmark production facility in Coldwater, MI, using the company’s design-build, engineering, automation, and equipment services to create a world-class operation. Following the project’s success, Clemens and Gray partnered on another award-winning project—a major expansion to its production facility in Hatfield, PA.

While pure construction will always provide a foundation for business growth, a single provider that can meet the full spectrum of a customer’s needs offers a winning formula, and one that customers are increasingly looking to pursue.

To learn how Gray’s fully integrated services can grow your business, click here.