Construction firms lack business management skills, says a report by the Construction Industry Training Board.
The report, based on contractors’ assessment of themselves, says construction firms do not have the skills needed to form long-lasting relationships with clients, and that they fail to communicate effectively with both their clients and their workforces.
For the report, Managing Profitable Construction: The Skills Profile, contractors were asked about their financial control, cost management, project planning, the carrying out of feasibility studies and how they identify future work.
The report says construction firms are less effective at identifying new business and managing feasibility studies than they are at financial and cost management.
A wider section of the industry, including clients, consultants and suppliers, were asked to identify likely changes in construction over the next three to five years and the skills needed to cope with those changes.
They said developments would be greatest in technology, construction techniques and globalisation. The ability to benefit from these changes will depend on strategic management skills, language knowledge and the ability to use IT – all areas where construction firms are weak.
Peter Lobban, chief executive of the CITB, said the report was commissioned to discover the present level of management skills in the industry. “We want to be sure we have done the diagnosis and can now do the cure,” said Lobban.
This cure will consist of expanded management training. Andrew Gibbons, director of Moores Rowland Management Solutions, which carried out the research for the CITB, said: “Firms need to focus training on weak areas. Highly skilled companies are better at getting and delivering the business and managing teams, so they are not wasting money and make more profit.”
