At a recent Construction Leaders Roundtable in Christchurch, hosted by the Building Institute Aotearoa and Procore Technologies, construction leaders came together to focus on workforce attraction and retention.

The discussion centred on a pressing challenge for the sector, with construction vacancies forecast to reach 70,000 in New Zealand within five years, and potentially 300,000 in Australia. Leaders highlighted the need to address high attrition and retirement risk, the impact of culture and work-life balance on retention, and the importance of repositioning construction as an attractive long-term career.

There was strong agreement on the role of apprenticeships in developing future leaders, and the value of stronger partnerships with education to better prepare the next generation.

Both the Building Institute Aotearoa and Procore will be taking away the insights and input from the discussion as we continue shaping our programme of events for the year and the type of content we deliver to members and industry. There is plenty here to reflect on as an industry, particularly as we think about how we attract and retain talent for the future.

We would welcome your thoughts on this, and how your organisation is actively working to safeguard its future workforce through attraction and retention strategies.

The next Construction Leaders Roundtable will be held in Wellington in June.