(Second in a series)
By Mark Breslin

This month I would like to provide a lesson in demographic economics. I have no idea if such a thing exists but it certainly sounds important. Never-the-less, as you will hopefully agree, it still makes strategic and economic sense when applied to our business.

Demo-Econ Fact Number One: Our workforce is getting older and grayer day by day. 10,000 people in the U.S. are turning 60 every day. The Baby Boomers' retirement is about to explode on the workplace like never before. In five to ten years you won't know what hit you.

Demo-Econ Fact Number Two: Workforce shortages are already endemic in the U.S. Currently there are 160,000 jobs at car dealerships and mechanic facilities unfulfilled. The railroads are currently short 40,000+. The booming energy business cannot begin to round up enough workers to build the many new plants around the U.S. and Canada. The tip of the wave is already here.

Demo-Econ Fact Number Three: An immigrant workforce cannot be depended upon to backfill the need. Uncertainty with immigration laws and future regulatory actions is the status. Don't tell me that the dirty little secret of a significant undocumented workforce in our current industry is an exaggeration. Contractors might end up short every one of those workers with future employer restrictions and sanctions.

Demo-Econ Fact Number Four: Supply and demand will always dictate price.

And Finally D-E Fact Number Five: It is time for contractors to stop being apathetic, bull-headed, short-sighted and plan-ass-dumb about proactively utilizing apprenticeship. Why? Because they must Invest Now or Pay Later.

Currently we should be developing at least 200% more apprentices in most crafts. To meet current needs. To meet future journeyman attrition. To account for drop outs. To leverage the financial commitment already being made in apprenticeship development. Most contractors look at apprenticeship as a "mandatory requirement." Public works laws and union rules compel them to use the little bastards. Well let's just imagine a different approach then.

Let's just push the fast forward button on your Workforce Tivo forecast and see what happens.

Do nothing = Too few apprentices + increased Boomer journeyman / foreman attrition = increasing shortages of qualified personnel + increases in funding and construction = higher demand for hours worked on existing workforce = more OT necessary + absence of out-of-work status for workers = feeling of entitlement by union members = union politics requiring more money than the overall market will bear + difficulty of maintaining defined benefit pension plans = very difficult bargaining = additional costs, conflict and strife.

Getting proactive about apprenticeship takes looking a small way ahead. In a business full of contractor "firefighters" solving the crisis of the day, that can be very tough. Contractors need to start taking ownership of their own futures. One very smart contractor I know has already done the demographic profile of his entire company. He knows exactly when all of his best workers and supervisors are going to retire and is planning now.

He will be competitively positioned where others will have to beg, borrow or steal as the market will allow. On the other hand, apprenticeship is the key to unlocking that future for our industry. Billions of contractor dollars are going into these programs; what is their current return on investment? They have no damn idea.

This does not mean that the union is off the hook. Business managers need to also do their part and put aside worries about politics in order to increase apprentice indenture rates. Some Business Managers think short staffing the industry is a good way to keep their political environment stable. But in the long term it is a form of self-cannibalism. Keep cutting off a part of yourself to stay alive politically, and soon there is nothing left but the memory of how stupid you really were.

Now one thing I hear pretty regularly is that "the damn union sends me unqualified apprentices." DUH? Who really trains any apprentice? The union, at best, gets their hands on them for four to six weeks total hours per year. Who has them for the other 46 weeks? It is about our industry and our contractors engaging in a long term, highly focused, strategic process of replacing our most valuable commodity and competitive advantage. News flash for my contractor buddies: they don't manufacture them down at the union hall guys, you do.

And so the answers I would give to these contractors? Sponsor apprentices yourself. Handpicked little bastards are better than random ones. When they are dispatched take the time to give them something meaningful to do. When you get a good one, cultivate his or her work ethic and capability.

Talk to your foremen and superintendents about why it is important to treat them better than fecal matter. Match them up with mentors or at least a journeyman likely to pass on some good lessons. Visit the training centers. Get to know the curriculum and the supplemental training available to your journeymen as well. Figure out how to use the money you are paying. You have a financial opportunity to obtain a real and significant return.

Look, in the end it is a team effort. And I say with all the love and respect I can gather to my contractor brethren: it's up to you. You can Invest Now or Pay Later. Demographic economics. Remember, you heard it here first.

Mark Breslin is a trainer and author specializing in labor-management challenges and solutions. He is the author of the recently published Attitudes and Behaviors: Survival of the Fittest curriculum for apprentice training centers. The curriculum is now being used by union training centers, and has been established as standard course programming by other international unions and apprenticeship programs. Instructional material including books, CDs, workbooks, instructor guides and support media information is available at www.breslin.biz.