One in 5 industry leaders considering pivoting

According to a recent survey of industry leaders in construction conducted by Madrigal Communications, 21% of respondents are considering pivoting to a different sector to find work. With 79% of respondents reportedly impacted to some degree by Covid19 and the subsequent lockdown measures, many are looking to find work wherever they can.

While the majority of respondents currently work in commercial and residential construction (60%), 58% believe that there is more opportunity to be found in infrastructure construction. This comes as no surprise in light of the NSW Government’s pledge at the end of 2019 of $87.2 billion over the next four years towards an infrastructure pipeline.

Director of Madrigal Communications, Tim Entwisle;

“The construction industry has weathered the storm of the coronavirus but some companies have done better than others. Education and residential construction are hardest hit with commercial building continuing but with a lot of projects being delayed..”

As private sector work has dried up and the economy takes a downturn, companies are switching their attention (or pivoting) towards government projects in a bid to win more work. 63% of respondents reported that they win most of their work in the private sector, yet 74% are currently preparing to bid for projects from the government’s infrastructure pipeline.

Participants were asked whether during the lockdown period they have been completing any procedures to prepare for the future, 56% of respondents said that they were preparing tender and marketing materials. Of those, 33% said that they were assessing company branding and messaging and 22% said that they were updating compliance and quality requirements. However, 44% of respondents had not done any of the aforementioned preparations, and none had reached out to suppliers.

Entwisle urges that businesses use this time to ‘line up their ducks’;

“Tender turnaround times can be short and the process always requires a lot of time and resources. It is often stressful. Some aspects of tendering, such as providing evidence of previous work, documenting or accrediting quality, safety and environmental management processes, making sure insurances are up to date, can be done in advance of the tender release.”

For more information on ways to improve your business (or pivoting to government contracts) in this period, read the following:

Line up your ducks—Is it time to work on your tendering?

E-tendering and government tenders NSW

How to write a tender proposal

 The statistics were derived by surveying a pool of 20 industry leaders in construction in June 2020.