Time is not on our side
The short supply of labour in the industry couldn’t have come at a worse time for Poland as the economy – as well as the construction sector – expands and EU funds for infrastructural and environmental projects finally starts to pour in. The problem now faced by companies is not a lack of orders, but too many, as they can no longer rely on the availability of the personnel required to execute these contracts. And furthermore, increases in salaries have become inevitable as companies strive to recruit the workers they need and keep the ones they already have. In the last 18 months, salaries for labourers and skilled workers have increased by around 25 pct – way above the inflation rate.
A shortage of labour may seem surprising in a country with official unemployment levels of 17 pct. This figure, however, is often dismissed as not giving a true picture of the reality in Poland, in that it fails to take account of those people working in the country’s substantial grey economy. One problem that Con Murphy, the managing director of Irish engineering and project management firm PM Group Polska, points to is the relative lack of mobility of the Polish workforce, even from regions suffering from high unemployment: “Poles are not as mobile as you would want them to be – they don’t want to uproot and go to other cities and locations where the work is.” The situation has even prompted PM Group to launch an advertising campaign in Ireland with the aim of encouraging migrant Polish workers to come back to their homeland to work for PM Group. It remains to be seen how effective this approach will be, but for those who are homesick or disenchanted with what they have found in Ireland or the UK, or who have simply come to the end of their contracts, it could prove to be an attractive proposal.
Where the situation is particularly beginning to hurt is with skilled and semi-skilled workers, such as steel fixers and form workers. These have become vitally important to the construction industry as standards set by FIDIC (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) now have to be met for EU projects. Companies are finding that attracting and keeping hold of this type of personnel is the main challenge.
It is typically young and newly graduated engineers and specialists who are going abroad for work, but there are historical reasons behind the shortages of this kind of personnel. The recession in the industry of a few years back led to the closure of many of the vocational colleges that had educated people up to the level of construction specialist. The perception arose that this industry could not guarantee a stable career, and so school-leavers started to prefer diplomas and degrees relevant for work in other sectors of the economy. The response of firms such as Strabag, for example, to the inadequacies of the current education system, has been to set up their own in-house academies for training personnel. But again, it would seem that the only effective way to remedy the situation is through the government increasing the availability of construction qualifications. But even if such a policy is adopted, it will take some time for the effects to be felt – and this may be time that the industry doesn’t have, with the large number of EU contracts coming Poland’s way.
Mid-managers staying put
so much lower in Poland, it makes much less sense.”
Correction period
