The construction industry faces a distinct set of HR challenges uniquely shaped by fluctuating labor needs and a largely mobile workforce, demanding project timelines, and coordination among multiple entities and contractors. This article highlights just a sample of HR-related issues often seen in the industry.
Hiring
Employers often struggle with finding available workers—from unskilled workers to skilled trades people who are qualified and able to meet pre-employment requirements, including drug testing. High turnover results in a pattern of constantly seeking new hires, managing benefit eligibility, building employee engagement, maintaining documentation, ensuring proper safety and skills training, and managing increased accident risk due to lack of a cohesive safety culture and site-specific knowledge.
Workers’ compensation
Injuries at the workplace are an ongoing concern in the construction industry, and reducing their occurrence requires vigilant safety-related training and staying on top of OSHA requirements. An aging workforce may also lead to more injuries, making proactive safety practices even more crucial.
Classification
Misclassifying a worker can lead to legal risk and financial penalties in areas including compensation, benefits, taxes, and workers’ compensation. The use of subcontractors adds another layer of complexity; companies must be clear about who is responsible for training, conduct, compliance requirements, and proper documentation.
Leave and time off
As with all industries, employee leave is a challenge in construction. Employees may be entitled to a variety of leave programs, and yet that leave has a direct impact on project schedules. In order to avoid costly legal mistakes, managers and supervisors must understand the kinds of leave employees that may be entitled to—including vacation, sick, PTO, earned paid leave, FMLA, paid FMLA and more —is because construction companies often operate across state lines, they also have to ensure compliance with varying state requirements. This is one of the most complex areas of legal compliance and also one of the most often violated.
Workplace conflict
Construction sites often bring together people of different cultural and educational backgrounds, which can lead to workplace conflict. Training on proper workplace behavior is, in some situations, required by state and/or federal law, and is also imperative to reduce the potential for discrimination or harassment claims. This can also include incorporating leased/temporary employees in your workforce, which can raise issues of workplace cohesiveness.
Anne-Marie Storey is a Labor & Employment attorney at Bernstein Shur who brings more than two decades of experience helping Maine employers tackle the most challenging human resources and workplace issues with confidence. Bernstein Shur’s Construction Law Team works with its Employment Law Team to ensure that its construction-based clients have access to knowledge, training and implementation of proper employment practices. Contact us for more information, specific consultations, trainings and more.