Celebrating 25 years and looking to the future

Congratulations on your 25-year anniversary

New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year which is a remarkable achievement and testament to the hard work of members, Board members and office holders, and the dedicated staff of the association.

The industry has progressed in countless ways over this time, with technology having a major role in changing how we go about our work. Construction has become more specialised and many construction tasks such as foundations, framing, cladding, and lining are now contracted to specialist trades. Our standards of health and safety are significantly different – how many NZCB members now would expect their staff to walk around unprotected on the top plate of wall frames! – and we have significantly higher requirements for compliance across the board.

The most significant impacts on the industry have come from the economic conditions which drive demand for housing and house improvements. When NZCB was formed in 1998 the industry was barely recovering from the impact of the post 1987 market crash with a few good years before the next downturn which followed the Global Financial Crisis. Since 2012 the industry has been gripped by unprecedented growth in demand driven by housing shortages and historically low interest rates. The last few years have been a roller coaster of COVID lockdowns, material shortages and now a looming slowdown is predicted.

These economic cycles have had a tremendous toll on the industry. The sector has a higher-than-average rate of business failures, our mental health and suicide record is appalling, and we have long term skills shortages. Despite this the industry is building record numbers of houses, providing employment to around 10% of the workforce, has a record high number of apprentices and most of us in the industry would not work doing anything else!

So where are we headed over the next 25 years?

The industry has always been evolving, but the pace of change is accelerating, and we will need to make huge changes to meet the challenges we are facing in the future.

Climate change is upon us, just look at the number of serious weather events we have had over the last year. We need to significantly change the way we design and build to reduce our emissions adapt to the changing environment – higher temperatures, higher rainfall and more flood events, stronger winds, wildfires, and rising sea levels.

The way we work will also need to change. We need to reduce the amount of construction waste, we need to work more efficiently, and we are going to have to meet rising demand with less people to do the same amount of work. New Zealand has an aging population which is going to worsen as baby boomers retire and the pool of new entrants available starts to shrink because of lower birth rates since the early 2000s. Our aging population problem is shared by most of the developed world, and we are as likely to lose our skilled people overseas as we are to attract skilled immigrants.

It’s all about the people

The famous proverb – He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! (What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!) – has never been truer than now. The only way the industry (and the businesses it is made up of) can thrive and meet the changing needs of society is by investing in and focussing on our people. Decades of boom and bust cycles have fed a culture of short-term thinking and underinvestment in development of people, systems, and technology. The businesses that have bucked this trend stand out as shining examples and there are many within the ranks of NZCB. There is a strong leadership role for NZCB and member companies now and in coming years to ensure we can meet the changes which are inevitable, accepting them as opportunities rather than denying them or treating them as threats.

New Zealand Certified Builders and The Construction Sector Accord

The Construction Sector Accord has a vision of a thriving, fair and sustainable sector with six key mid-term goals.

Three of those goals are:

• more thriving people and organisations

• increased capabilities of leaders to drive change

• a more skilled and diverse workforce that is future ready.

We have heard from NZCB members that you see the association as your ears and voice, and that you want the direct input of member businesses included in discussions with government and the sector.

The Accord has several projects beginning to take shape in the People space including support for an International Marketing Campaign to attract skilled migrants, supporting work on a Construction Wellbeing Health and Safety Strategy, and improving Safety by Design. We have two large areas of work which are just taking shape under the headings of Workforce Development and Leadership for Change.

Our Workforce Development initiatives are intended to support the development, attraction, and retention of the workforce of tomorrow and will centre around two reports commissioned for the Accord:

• Construction Skills Strategy

• Construction Diversity Roadmap (you can read more about this at: www.constructionaccord.nz/news/news-stories/ diversity-and-inclusion/)

The recommendations from these reports fall into three main themes for improvement:

• What We Learn

• How We Learn

• How We Treat Each Other.

These themes are all inter-related, with the How We Treat Each Other theme reaching into every part of our sector and businesses.

The Accord is aware of a great number of initiatives already underway in this area, and we are compiling information on that activity to determine where there are gaps and how these can be filled. The Accord will work with NZCB and other key industry organisations to understand your needs and others and will provide support for initiatives that will have a broad impact. Improving practices in Diversity Equity and Inclusion is seen as a key component in this work and there is a useful tool developed as part of the Construction Diversity Roadmap freely available and designed to provide specific advice to business of different types and sizes.

The tools can be accessed at: www.simpleandengaging.com/ ConstructionDiversityRoadmap-tool.html

The Leadership for Change initiatives are intended to lift the capabilities of small, medium, and large business leaders to lead the changes needed to improve the performance and resilience of businesses and the sector. Leadership skills are essential for thriving businesses and the Accord is working on fit for purpose support services for leaders of businesses at various levels of maturity and size.

Get involved

Input from NZCB and members will be critical to ensure these projects fit the needs of the residential sector and concentrate on improvements which will have the greatest benefit to participants and the broader sector. We will be working on setting these services up over the next six months and aim to have them operational around the end of this year.

The Accord is also very aware of the need to support industry with issues and opportunities as they arise. The Accord played a pivotal role in the response to COVID-19 and is currently supporting industry and government in the response to the Auckland and other regional flooding events. This is an important part of the Accords purpose as a partnership of industry and government, and we are grateful for the support of NZCB in this role. We look forward to joining with NZCB to celebrate the achievements of the past 25 years and working together towards a thriving fair and sustainable construction industry.

If you would like to get in touch directly about getting involved or a general chat about what is going on, please email me: graham.burke@mbie.govt.nz.