"I Am Issuing a Challenge – Year 2!"

Last year at exactly this time, I issued a challenge to everyone reading this article. Now I am reissuing this challenge.

The terms of the challenge are straightforward and simple.

1.     New Undiscovered Talent

Firstly, I challenge each and every one of you to talk to one person, who is not currently in the construction industry, daily for an entire month, commencing on September 1, 2022.

There are no limits or parameters on who you can talk too, as long as that person is not currently from our industry.

2.     Potential Careers in Construction

Secondly, you must ask that person if they have ever considered a career in construction.

Strike up a conversion and discuss with them the potential possibilities that a career in construction has to offer. Don’t worry, you are not limited to the general contractor category.

You can highlight any aspect of a career in construction from the:

• Skilled trades,
• Supply chain: suppliers, manufacturers, distributors
• Supportive players: accountants, lawyers, insurance and bonding
• Opportunities in your own company and how amazing it is to work for you
• The only requirement is that it must be a career in construction.

3.     Exponential Distribution

Thirdly, you cannot speak to the same person daily and count that as progression.

You can definitely speak with someone you have had a previous encounter with, but only to reinforce and reiterate how amazing construction is, as well as how one can access a satisfying career in our industry.

The rule is that you must speak to new people each and every day, and missing a day of connecting with a new person does not disqualify you from this challenge. This simply means that you need to make up for that day on a future date.

So why the challenge? Let me break it down for you.

The construction industry is a fantastic place to work, but we do a terrible job of promoting ourselves. Since there isn’t a clear-cut option for students to access all of the careers in construction at the school level and due to an overwhelming emphasis being only placed on the trades, the general public really has no clue how amazing our industry is or how to access these careers. So, this is how we change that, through one person at a time. We need to become our best cheerleaders and sooner than later.

The number indicate that this type of person-to-person marketing will actually yield exponential results. Let me dissect the numbers:

OGCA Contractor Companies	200
10 Employees per contractor (Conservative Estimate)	2,000
Number of days for the challenge	30
Potential exposure for new entrants	60,000

In one month, we have directly communicated with 60,000 people who aren’t in construction, and that is keeping things conservative for our assumptions.

Continuing our assumption, let’s say that 10% are interested and continue talking with us and want to develop a role within the construction industry. That is 6,000 new potential employees within that first month! Now this is where the compounding happens. If assuming the initial 2,000 people continue this trend, then withing 16 months we have 100,000 new people into construction.

The rationale for this crazy scheme is simple. To truly communicate to someone about construction, it should be done on a one-to-one basis, since our industry is so encompassing, new entrants can’t see the forest through the trees. We need to guide them to a place where they have a satisfying career and we have the necessary people we need to keep construction thriving.

So, what do you win for participating? Easy, potential new employees as well as possibly attracting more people into construction.

You become a cheerleader and constant advocate for construction.

You take this simple plan and make it a movement wherein we change how construction is viewed by the general public and how people communicate about our industry.

So, I ask again… Are you up for the challenge?

Should anyone want to discuss how else to attract more people to our industry or if you require any assistance from the OGCA, please contact me directly at giovanni@ogca.ca or via phone at 905.671.3969.