Attracting (and keeping) professionals in the design and construction industry

/

Earlier this year, I was grateful to see several months of planning come to fruition at “What’s on TAP 2016,” a half-day event promoted across a record 14 associations in the Indiana design and construction community. As many of CE Solutions' clients and collaborators can attest, we are in the midst of a talent war in the architecture, engineering and construction community. With that in mind, the planning committee (which included CE Solutions' marketing coordinator, Travis Davis) focused this year’s event on the importance of finding and investing in great people.
 
In addition to enjoying a cast of amazing speakers, the committee presented the fourth annual TAP Lifetime Achievement Award to Karen Courtney, AIA, FSMPS, Chief Marketing Officer at Fanning Howey.
 
Below are just a few soundbites captured from the amazing speakers who spoke to our theme, “For Hire: People, Projects and Profit.”

  • “Instill a sense of purpose... As builders and designers, we make a huge difference in this world.” - Brent Darnell, Author, Speaker and Coach, Brent Darnell International
  • “It’s not about the projects. It’s easy to get into that it’s more about the next project, the design, the systems, the delivery mechanism, etc. It’s about people. And what you want to do is always focus on the people.” - Dr. Thomas Morrison, Vice President, Capital Planning & Facilities, Indiana University
  • “You are all talent acquisition people. Today’s talent acquisition job is a marketing job and it requires not just those of us in HR to do this work, but it means every one of us has to be a marketer. A brand ambassador.” -  David Llewellyn, Talent Acquisition & Development Manager, Kirby Risk
  • “The people strategy is equal to the business strategy... We’ve got to have an employee value proposition.” - Susan Pittman, Vice President, Talent & Organization Development, Luckett & Farley Architects & Engineers
  • “Marketing is one of the tactics to help share what’s great about your team.” - Josh Miles, Principal, MilesHerndon
  • “During my most impressionable age, no one talked about the field I loved… If you taught us how to be part of this hidden industry, there wouldn’t be an employee shortage." - Kathy Berryhill, Construction Management Student, Ball State University

You can find slides and links to most of the videos from most of the sessions on the Youtube.

Enjoy!
 
Holly Bolton, FSMPS, CPSM
Director of Marketing, CE Solutions