HR Planning In Construction Industry

Can anyone help with HR planning trends and practices in Construction Industry. We are looking for details on how HR in construction industry plans for manpower, identification of suitable employees, skill development, plan replacements etc.

Dear Vikrant,

Your query is half technical and half HR. Mere having HR knowledge is not sufficient to reply this query. Secondly, manpower will depend on what kind kind work your management would like to contract. Few construction companies totally depend on contractors. On the contrary, others oursource the core job and do the finishing on their own.

The manpower at the back end will depend on what kind of ratios your management would like to measure. To measure these ratios, you need to generate that kind of MIS. For this you require a manpower.

Just two days ago, I conducted training for one of the real estate companies. In the last twelve years they have handled six projects. Seventh one is in progress. Following are my observations:

a) They do not do post-project analysis hence past data is not available.

b) They did not make score card for the contractors. Hence they do not know who are good contractors and who are not so good.

c) Disputes are part and parcel of the contract. However, there are not records on the disputes with the contractors. Therefore, dispute on same subject may crop again.

d) They did not make score card for the suppliers. Hence they do not know who are good suppliers and who are not so good.

e) Purchase department does not have proper records on the negotiations with the suppliers. Hence what mistakes procurement professionals did in earlier projects could get repeated.

Your skill development, plan replacements etc. will depend on the above records. To maintain the records for the future, you need to have that kind of set up. However, most of the MDs of the construction are weary of increasing manpower. Indirectly their approach is penny wise but pound foolish.

For further discussion, feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Sir,
Thank you very much for the insight. Most of the points are really fair and gives an insight as to points to take care while planning.
Sir, do you have any details as how L&T and other big construction company plan.
Hopefully some more people would pitch in and guide.
Thanks again.

Dear Vikrant,
To do the manpower planning you just cannot rely on suggestions given on the forum. Manpower planning is always customised. It will differ from one civil project to another. Therefore, what L & T or some other big shot does is less relevant. Above all, who would like share these details on public forum? Possibly these details you may find in some magazine published for the construction industry. However, this is also a rarity.
The kind of information that you are asking is difficult to come by. This type of information paid consultants provide. If you are interested then I will recommend you best consultant who will do PMP based planning for your company. Manpower planning will be offshoot of the operations planning.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Dear Vikrant
Requirement of manpower will vary due to various factor, 1. Cliet's urgency 2. Duration of the Project as per contract. Requirement can be decided purely by the technical person. Moreover all will be on contract basis and the workmen turnover is always huge. As Dinesh says L&T's calculation is irrelevant. In construction industry HR can recruit only staff category not labour category. Workmen can be deployed purely based on networking. Assign someone to get contractor 's detail, can be collected from the market with that develop data bank, with this you can start deployment. Further action you can plan accordingly
Thanks,
Sureshkumar

Dear Vikrant,
The best way to identify the right man for the right job is screening the candidate through of Psychometric Assessment of Personality like BFSI or EPP6. Which can help you know the candidate and his / her strengths, weakness and motivation level.
If you need more info regarding the same you can mail or call on following ID and No.
Deepak Kumar
M:8527594011
dkumar@pctiltd.com