The Skills for Productivity project measures which skills drive productivity within the construction industry, and whether higher skills make a major or a minor difference to productivity levels.

The initial findings (based on consultation with employers and reported in August 2004) suggest that there is nothing that will guarantee the productivity of a company.

Directors and managers agree that if there is the right flow of materials and labour on to a site and if that labour is correctly motivated then performance will increase. In skills terms, job programming, design and communication appear to be critical to success.

The barriers to improvement mainly exist in the supply chain’s inability to act as a virtual company and ensure the correct flow of labour and materials to meet the client requirements.

Underlying this “supply chain failure” are problems of poor planning, insufficient design time, client variations and time spent making good previous work.

Labour supply also plays a key role, with “Better training, better skills, and better labour flow” being cited by the majority of construction directors as the key to improved productivity.

As far as getting more out of the existing workforce, site managers state “motivation, competence and timely delivery” as the three things that really make a difference between an effective and an ineffective team.

The skills solutions suggested by the consultation include;

• People management - communication with the workforce and the wider supply chain
• Leadership - the ability to create an environment where the workforce and supply chain are suitably motivated and engaged
• Construction management - the ability to programme and schedule work and materials to ensure that nobody is waiting for materials, labour or the previous operation
• Business management - the ability to develop and implement strategies for productivity.

The next phase of this research is the development of a benchmarking tool that can be field-tested in the industry.