The State of Labour
My Story
When I started my first contracting business, Team Odd Job, I went door-to-door with my friends looking for work. Before we knew it, we had more work than we knew what to do with. We had an overwhelming number of service requests but didn’t have the manpower to service all of these leads.
Once I started running my own projects, I realized just how difficult it was to find reliable and skilled labour. People would constantly not show up, or when they did, they would put in a half-ass effort and demand cash at the end of the day.
I had to turn down projects constantly because we could not find qualified workers. I thought that maybe it was just because we were a young company and just hadn’t found the right crews, but every builder we met on the way was facing the exact same problem.
There will be over 1 million job vacancies in the construction industry in North America by 2023. If we do not solve the undersupply of skilled labour immediately, we will face major lapses in productivity. These delays will cause ripple effects that are felt outside of the industry in everyday life.
How did we get into this mess?
Negative perceptions towards the trades
When I started my first contracting business, Team Odd Job, I went door-to-door with my friends looking for work. Before we knew it, we had more work than we knew what to do with. We had an overwhelming number of service requests but didn’t have the manpower to service all of these leads.
Once I started running my own projects, I realized just how difficult it was to find reliable and skilled labour. People would constantly not show up, or when they did, they would put in a half-ass effort and demand cash at the end of the day.
I had to turn down projects constantly because we could not find qualified workers. I thought that maybe it was just because we were a young company and just hadn’t found the right crews, but every builder we met on the way was facing the exact same problem.
There will be over 1 million job vacancies in the construction industry in North America by 2023. If we do not solve the undersupply of skilled labour immediately, we will face major lapses in productivity. These delays will cause ripple effects that are felt outside of the industry in everyday life.
Lack of training innovation
After leaving school, I thought about alternatives. I looked into going to trade school, but I wanted to work in the field and learn on the job. The other option was to become an apprentice and work alongside a journeyperson for years and gain new skills.
Neither of these options excited me, as I wanted to feel like I was in control of my own life, and not subject to the schedules and rules that came with traditional training methods.
I was uninspired and there wasn’t a clear path to improve my skills and career on my own terms.
What’s The Solution
We need to build a community of inspired and motivated people that want to be a part of building the future.
The UBILD Growth Program is designed to solve the undersupply of skilled labour by modernizing and simplifying skills training.
We have partnered with The Careers Foundation to make construction training fun, effective and efficient. Our tech-first training approach will make training feel like a game, offering incentives as they “level up”. We need to shape training and incentives around the modern human brain, which is driven by fast incremental rewards.
If we do not make strides towards a solution to the undersupply, we will face a massive halt in productivity that will have reverberate across the economy and society.
If you want to talk about this with me directly, feel free to shoot me an email anytime.
– Matthew
