Remote-Digital-Working in Construction — Becoming “talent-light.”
When you hear the words, talent-light, real-time demand for talent, or gig economy, the first thing that should come to mind should be synonymous with an article authored by my friend and colleague, Marvin Johnson: Remote Expert Gig Economy Network | LinkedIn.
Within the Engineering and Construction (E&C) industry, over the last few years — Digitalisation, Digital Integration, Digital Planning, Digital Design, and Digital Construction has held the promise of increased productivity, reduced TIC, and shortened project schedules — the demand for next-level talent on projects in the E&C industry is at an all-time high.
An unprecedented realisation that Digital Transformation and adoption of bleeding-edge automation in the E&C industry has fuelled this demand in organisations, many of whom are working with old-business-models, don’t have digital-native incumbent workers and are located outside of talent-centres for these skills. And the COVID-19 pandemic only seems to be speeding this trend up, making it challenging for companies to get world-class talent to both stay a full-time employee (incumbent) and become a full-time employee (new hire).
Today, most E&C companies that hire just-in-time, world-class, digital-native workers are doing it on an ad hoc basis. They’re just beginning to grapple with what it means to be a company that works this way — the goal for these companies should be to achieve strategic fluidity — regarding remote-digital-working, real-time demand for talent, or the gig economy.
As the E&C industry becomes more digitally mature, there is a growing phenomenon where most organisations want the same type of “talent”. Most of these “talent” are motivated in working on areas of their interest regarding the tasks, and the moral purpose of the work. Digital-natives don’t want to work on the most critical project that their manager or supervisor has. They want to work on something that engages their skills, that requires the best, and it causes them to learn new things.
We should be looking to help upskill the more malleable managers to become leaders, in navigating this new digital-value-delivery environment effectively, and that it won’t be easy. However, with expert support, and the right kinds of organisational processes, guide rails and the like, that they should be able to do it successfully.
The imminent and ongoing requirements for digital skills to match E&C organisations’ workforce capabilities with their strategic needs (and commitment to their customers), combined with the fact that the half-life of these skills in a digital economy is shortening, makes it abundantly clear there’s a real need for fluid on-demand, skilled, and digitally savvy professionals. These skills can either be obtained by outsourcing specialist work to digital-native integrators like DCW or delving into a gig-type-economy for talent.
In closing
E&C companies need to have a good understanding of the capabilities (skill and will) available within their organisations’ talent-pool today.
And I do think that to manage across all of the possible business models and mechanisms for accessing and managing talent, a higher skill-level amongst the incumbent managerial workforce(s) needs to be more effective.
Note: this article can be extrapolated beyond the E&C industry. However, since E&C is my domain of expertise, I have focused on this industry — DA.