Chandler Woods | Member Profile

ChandlerWoods

Human resources, recruitment and consultancy agency providing high-quality talent management and people solutions to small and medium businesses.

What  does sustainability mean to ChandlerWoods? 

ChandlerWoods’ focus is on helping small to medium businesses develop into a viable long-term business through people practices that build a sustainable workforce for the future, rather than just implementing practices for here and now.

We see that it’s important that people can see a pathway for them to progress in their occupation and/or industry (e.g. Bricklayers – struggle to physically work for all of their lives).

In Australia, the Department of Jobs and Small Business has a growing list of professions with skill shortages. Many of these falls into the construction industry.

Since the GFC in 2007, investment in attracting and developing new people (Talent) into the construction industry has slowly grown but not at the pace the market requires. Coupled with a large part of the workforce (Baby Boomers) moving towards retirement, it creates pressures such as skills shortages where there are not enough skilled people to go around.

This inflates the cost for the Talent that is available creating a situation where retention of Talent becomes a challenge as competitors will pay more to secure a finite resource. (e.g. Cost of laying bricks has risen 67% over the last 5 years)

The solution is being able to attract people to these entry level roles into the construction industry and communicate there is flexibility in the workplace for them to transition to another role in the future where their experience and previous skills can add value and open new opportunities for them.

ChandlerWoods have extensive experience in developing programs and processes that help organisations and industry attract, retain and develop Talent.

Why did you become an ISCA member? 

ChandlerWoods were involved in drafting the credits for V2.0 Rating. From our HR and learning background we saw the opportunity of how the tool could help address the skills shortage challenges the construction industry is facing by the need to invest in people and people practices. We felt in order to drive Workforce Sustainability we needed to continue our association with ISCA as a member.

How have you benefited from being part of the IS Community? 

We have been able to have open conversations with organisations about sustainability from a people perspective and what impact it can have on their people by instilling a positive culture, ongoing learning, development, attraction and retention of their people.

We are starting to overcome the biggest obstacle we see, in getting companies to think about their people more strategically as a lot of construction companies think mostly from the perspective of what’s going to be beneficial in the immediate term. A big part of sustainability is shifting focus from short to long term goals, especially in human resourcing, the results from implementing sustainability measures won’t be fully visible in the short term.

What notable projects are you currently working on? 

We have been doing extensive work in the Services industry, helping small to medium business shift their HR processes to include sustainability people practices allowing them to continue their growth journey with a capable workforce driving that growth.

We do this by partnering with organisations to see what their main drivers or opportunities for growth, identifying people strategies that will drive long term sustainable business benefits with its workforce able to adapt to and be positioned to handle future work opportunities.

What does the future hold for ChandlerWoods? 

We see ourselves as a trusted partner for small to medium businesses. We can help improve workforce diversity in the construction industry and help address the issues around skills shortages and being able to retain and develop your best people.

In the construction industry there is a ticking timebomb where we have a lot of older workers from the baby boomer generation about to retire, with not enough new apprentices signing up to apprenticeships to fill that gap – which is especially large in NSW. There is not enough incentive for young people to move into the construction industry, so that’s why we want to put our focus on helping organisations to INVEST in attracting and building the capability they need to deliver their services rather than trying to BUY capability in an ever decreasing and competitive market.

By working closely with our customers, ChandlerWoods are helping to shape a sustainable workforce in Australia that can deliver on future opportunities.

If you think that ChandlerWoods can assist you then please contact Richard Brincat (Richard.Brincat@chandlerwoods.com.au) or visit www.chandlerwoods.com.au