COST OF CIVIL STAFF INCREASING

COST OF CIVIL STAFF INCREASES BY 40% IN SIX MONTHS

With the cost of civil staff soaring, what are successful contractors doing to build and retain their talent during a severe skills shortage?

The ‘new normal’ is unsustainable

At the 2022 CCF NSW Procurement conference, a long-time Member working with a NSW-based Contractor stated that they had seen wages for good project engineers soar from $160,000 to $220,000 per annum in the space of six months. This equates to a 40% increase in staff costs.

What can be considered more alarming is that these increases were universally agreed by attendees as being the norm. As a Civil Contractor, absorbing these costs is not sustainable. Salary increases like this eat into the profitability of your business. How are successful companies retaining staff?

When your team’s focus is purely on their pay packet, retaining staff becomes a challenge – particularly in times of a skills shortage, as is the case now. Seemingly, the only option for you to retain your team is to pay them more.

One of the most common questions we get asked here at the Institute of Civil Infrastructure (ICI) is, How are

other successful companies “keeping staff – what are they doing differently? Buying Don’t buy them. Bargain for them and build them loyalty never Imagine you are negotiating for works. a new hire, or you are talking to a current team member who is thinking of accepting a higherpaying job offer… imagine if you could change that conversation away from, “I’ll give you an additional $10K per year.” Imagine changing that to, “Yes, we pay market rates, but we also invest in a Professional Growth Plan to help advance your Civil career in the long-term.”

Expand your retention tools

ICI was created by CCF as a solution to a clear need

across Australia. Provision of civil specific, targeted, short, and low-cost professional development for leading hands to CEOs. ICI gives employers the tools they need to stop trying to ‘buy’ team members’ loyalty. We give you the ability to bargain; the ability to build a strong team – creating an emotional attachment to your organisation because you have invested in them. You didn’t just pay them a salary; you invested in them as a person. And that’s a powerful weapon when building a team.

That’s what we do at ICI. We give you the tools you need to attract, build and retain your teams. We focus on learning pathways, on personal recognition, and upskilling. The end result is, firstly, a team member who is more committed to you as an organisation, and secondly, a stronger team overall. ICI provides Civil-specific learning in Technical, People and Business Management for Civil Infrastructure Managers (Leading Hands to CEOs). All are 2 to 4-hour courses. All are live. All are delivered by experts in Civil. All are Australia-wide. The ICI was created by the CCF to provide learning programs, career pathways and staff retention tools. Find out more at iciaustralia.com/Employers or call 1300 424 287.

As CCF funded the development of ICI, Members receive a discount.