PREPARING CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYERS FOR THE GEN-Z WORKFORCE: A CASE STUDY

The construction industry has been facing many challenges in the recent years such as labour shortage, aging workforce, productivity decline, and resistance to change. These challenges have pushed both practitioners and academicians to investigate and invest in new transformations that can alter the industry’s traditional business-as-usual model. To successfully address the challenges and create an industry that successfully adapts to and fits in the changing environment, construction employers must prioritize attracting, recruiting, and retaining the new workforce generation. Thus, it becomes important to understand the expectations that construction students are looking for in organizations after graduation. Such studies are still missing, notably on Generation-Z and the construction industry in USA. This paper attempts to fill the gap through providing the first case study on Gen-Z students graduating from of the state of Kentucky and wanting to join the construction industry. A total of 51 students were surveyed and asked to evaluate the importance of 27 factors when accepting a job offer, describe their ideal workplace, and elaborate on whether the COVID-19 pandemic shifted their perspective on the workplace. Findings of this paper can help construction employers in and around the state of Kentucky in preparing for the Generation-Z workforce.