Last month I watched a member of the Cumby Group, a company which offers solutions for the management of sub-contractors, discuss why she expects to see an increase in sub-contracting in the coming months. As I was listening I was considering just how many changes which we may see in the construction industry moving forward, following what has been an interesting year to say the least.
To those companies which have survived the last 12 months, the future is going to look very different and here are just some of the sweeping changes which we are going to see in consecution in particular.
Sub-Contracting
I will start where the Cumby Group spokesperson left off, in saying that we are certainly going to see a rise in the number of sub-contractors after the pandemic. A huge number of the workforce has been laid off and they are not going to be hired back into the positions where they were before, this is just to risky and expensive for the companies to do. As a result, once those projects come back, construction companies are going to have to work with sub-contractors so that they can still deliver on projects, without the need to spend the money on the workforce.
Different Projects
Even once the world has been vaccinated and is full reopened, we are not going to see the same level of grand scale projects which we saw pre-pandemic, at least not for some time. Even big projects which planners have in mind, will be done in such a way that the project will be chopped up and delivered in smaller pieces. Through this we are going to see a lot more uncertainty in the industry and that will result in tough decisions for both construction companies and workers.
Focus on Commercial
Given the economic challenges which so many are facing at the moment, big new residential projects are looking unlikely in the near future, which is likely to mean that there will be a push in commercial projects. Many companies therefore are likely to switch their focus and their efforts on securing projects within the commercial sphere rather than residentially. This will mean new challenges for companies who have made their name in residential work.
New Demands
Any projects within the residential property industry will be met with stricter challenges and new ideas as the customer focuses on different ways of living and different ways of building. Customer trends will change because of the pandemic and that is something which builders are also going to have to get used to. This sweeping change may be temporary or it may last a lot longer, but there is no doubt that property types and material use will be very different in the coming months and possibly in the coming years.
These are just some of the changes which we are expecting in construction in the near future.