In those 15 years Lamers has seen the construction world change fast. \u201cEspecially in recent years, digitalisation and sustainability have become big topics. Although in my view construction is still a sector that lags behind a bit when it comes to digitalisation, especially in renovation. Sustainability, on the other hand, was only a few years ago a subject where many construction companies mainly ran into high costs. Since then a lot of people have come round and sustainability has become much more of a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trend that, to Lamers' dismay, is becoming an ever bigger issue in construction is the shortage of staff. \u201cEveryone knows it: there's a growing shortage of good people doing the actual work in construction.\u201d Lamers tries to tackle this problem in two ways. On the one hand by hiring in, on the other by training. And JobXion, a staffing agency in construction and engineering, plays a big role in both. <\/p>\n
Lamers explains how the partnership between the two companies came about. \u201cActually, we'd never used temporary workers in the past. But the financial crisis made us realise it's important to build up a flexible layer of staff so we can scale up and down quickly if needed. Right at that time JobXion called us, just like other staffing agencies called us from time to time.\u201d Yet this call was different. \u201cJobXion's approach was positive and inspired confidence, and we clicked straight away. That only got stronger when they quickly came up with a good candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relationship has grown ever since. \u201cJobXion know exactly what kind of people we're looking for. Whether we ask or not, they put forward high-quality professionals. Yes, even when we don't ask: if they've got someone they think would fit in with us, I get a call. In effect, we always have a vacancy open with them.\u201d That makes you curious about what kind of candidates Lamers Bouw is actually looking for. \u201cIn short, all-rounders who know how to get stuck in. Renovation work means you need to be able to put in the hours and do a bit of everything. On new builds and bigger renovation jobs, a carpenter might be asked to hang dozens of doors. But with us you need a lot more up your sleeve, from demolition to fitting skirting boards and everything in between. That's actually what makes the work appealing, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let's be honest, hiring in alone isn't always enough to solve the shortage. That's why training takes centre stage in Lamers' vision. \u201cWell-trained people are more important than ever. Not just because of the staff shortage, but also because of developments in construction. Take airtight construction of homes, one of the sustainable trends. That really requires specific skills, and there are lots of opportunities there for today's tradespeople.\u201d Lamers trains apprentices himself, but sees that the supply of young talent is sadly limited. \u201cSo you also have to rely on career changers,\u201d he says. The downside is that people who retrain later in life are expensive to take on as apprentices at a construction company. So his expectations of JobXion in this area are high. \u201cJobXion is developing a testing and training centre to train tradespeople in a targeted way and to retrain career changers. As far as I'm concerned, that's really spot on for our market!\u201d<\/p>\n