Workforce Under Construction

When a news story features the construction industry, it is often accompanied by images of serious men and women in hard hats and tool belts, surrounded by chaos, showcasing the gritty elements of the jobsite. But according to a new study, the best tool in a construction craft professional’s toolbox might just be their smile.

New research published by TINYpulse in their 2015 Best Industry Ranking Report shows that construction professionals are the happiest employees in the workforce. Based on surveys conducted across 30,000 employees, the construction industry rose to the top of the list of happiest employees, even above industries such as consumer products, technology and finance.

There’s no doubt that the commercial and industrial construction markets have bounced back from the recession. Average hourly wages have increased 2.2% over the last year and job creation in the construction industry over the past 12 months has been the fastest since 1999. More jobs and higher salaries will always make people happy – but according the report from TINYpulse, other organizational and environmental factors are driving construction’s high levels of employee satisfaction.  The two major reasons that employees gave for being happy at work:

1.  Satisfaction with colleagues

2.  Satisfaction with the nature of one’s job and projects

Looking at the other end of the spectrum also provides some clues as to why construction workers are the happiest. When examining the individual responses from workers in the manufacturing industry, the industry with the least happy employees on the list, “Lack of tools and resources to complete job” and “Little opportunity for professional growth,” were two of the top five reasons for dissatisfaction.

Digging further into the data collected from the TINYpulse employee surveys, lack of professional growth opportunities is a problem across many industries. A recent report on Employee Engagement and Organizational Culture surveyed more than 200,000 employees from more than 500 organizations and found the following:

“66% of all employees do not see strong opportunities for professional growth in their current role. Faced with unclear promotion path and limited opportunities for mentorship and training, employees are uncertain about what lies ahead of them.”

As an industry, construction has displayed a commitment to workforce training and skill development that few others can match.  As we’ve mentioned many times here before, construction is also one of the few industries where, with the right training, job experience and commitment, an employee can start their career in a craft training program and grow to be a company owner.

With continued commitment to providing industry-recognized training for in-demand careers, the future of the construction industry will be all smiles.