The construction industry is at a tipping point, with the adoption of technology pulling innovative companies forward and helping them to remain competitive – while many of those not adopting digital transformation and avoiding change are falling behind.
But the reality is that it’s not as easy as choosing a digital tool and implementing it. Technology requires digital skills, and yet there is a knowledge gap in the industry.
Autodesk’s recent eBook, Constructing Tomorrow: Building a Dynamic Workforce for the Future, discusses this very topic. In the current landscape, the construction industry is facing significant hurdles, including skilled labour shortages and supply chain disruptions. These issues have only added to the industry’s chronic productivity problems, including inefficiencies, delays, and cost overruns in project execution.
According to Autodesk and Deloitte’s report, 2024 State of Digital Adoption in Construction, 42% of construction firms in Asia Pacific cited employees’ lack of digital skills as the main barrier to digital adoption.
Although these challenges persist, there are many opportunities now available. Businesses are investing in new technologies that provide opportunities for innovation and change – two things that have never been needed more in construction.
Technologies such as common data environments (CDEs) and cloud-based project management software have the potential to increase productivity, enhance competitiveness, deliver a significant return on investment, and ultimately increase profits.
But to realise these benefits, businesses will need to address the industry’s digital skills gap – a key barrier to technology adoption. Here’s five ways you can do so.
Implementing new technologies can change the hard wiring of an organisation, making it more agile, innovative and able to support transformation. In the past 50 years, so much progress has been made with technology – helping industries to enhance their productivity and output. But a slow uptake in technology means the construction industry consistently ranks poorly when it comes to productivity levels.
The inability to improve productivity performance is putting pressure on labour and capital inputs, leading to increasing construction costs and, in some cases, project delays. Businesses looking to improve efficiency are looking to technology adoption.
An example of this is Fredon, an engineering, installation, and maintenance solutions provider, who worked on Stage 3B of WestConnex, Australia’s largest infrastructure project. Using Autodesk Construction Cloud, Fredon saved up to 16 hours a day across their team due to gains in visibility and efficiency – time that was previously spent searching for information across different places.
One of the key solutions to the digital skills gap is to train your teams using methods such as educational partnerships. An example of this is the partnership between Autodesk and Singapore’s University of Social Sciences (USS). A partnership like this can help the workforce stay ahead of the latest trends and emerging technologies and be more adaptable, helping them to succeed in the field.
Through the partnership, students were equipped with the skills to identify bottlenecks and constraints in workflows and develop a digitalisation roadmap tailored to their organisations and work functions, helping students to get the knowledge they need for better project delivery and help achieve organisation transformation.
This type of training can provide opportunities for people to upskill and transition into new roles, as well as for those entering the workforce.
The industry is facing a diversity problem. A lack of female participation in the sector is a global issue. For instance, in Australia, construction is the most male-dominated industry with women making up just 12% of the workforce. This is creating a hindrance to the industry’s capacity for project efficiency because it’s impeding the ability to attract and retain a diverse and healthy workforce.
Digitalisation can help attract a diversity of talent and provide a broader range of skills required for transformation. Companies that are at the cutting edge of technology are also better positioned to attract the next generation of workers.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but when you level up your technology first and at the same time, take a diversified approach to your workforce, hiring people from different genders and backgrounds, you’ll start to attract the people who are skilled in using these platforms. This will help to close the digital skills gap in the industry, as well as creating better outcomes for your projects.
Successfully implementing new technologies means large-scale change and extensive product training. Partnering with the right technology provider will help you to get the best results.
Autodesk Construction Solutions APAC Manager, Customer Success, Thomas Bierbaum, said “Committing to using these tools is not a decision that a customer will make lightly, so it’s important for them that they have much more than a software vendor. They want a trusted, loyal advisor that listens to them and guides them through this journey of digitalisation.”
With the collaborative nature of the construction industry and multiple teams working across projects, technology providers that encourage collaboration can help push digital skills across the sector and move the industry forward together.
To learn more, check out all the findings in the full eBook Constructing Tomorrow: Building a Dynamic Workforce for the Future.
