Building with Purpose

Construction's labor shortage is not a leader's problem... It is a leadership problem.

Every excuse is on the table: not enough young people in the trades, boomers retiring out, immigration policy, the expectation of college. All real. None of it explains why the competition has enough workers and you don't. The truth is, if workers' loyalty goes no further than a number on the pay stub, then the only reason a worker leaves is a bigger number somewhere else. A company that competes purely on wages hasn't built loyalty. It has rented a worker's attention, one pay period at a time.

Building with Purpose argues that the labor shortage is, at its core, an identity issue, and the firms who solve it aren't the ones who pay the most. Instead, they are the ones who have become an employer of choice - the organizations people seek, not the ones people leave.

Drawing on over two decades of construction experience at every level, construction leadership consultant Kevin J. Juliano lays out four pillars that separate the companies that will outlast this shortage from the ones that won't: purpose, currency beyond wages, culture, and visible leadership. Part diagnosis, part playbook, this book gives construction leaders a clear-eyed look at why their best people leave, why their open positions stay open, and what it actually takes to fix it. It does not happen with another recruiting campaign, but with a different kind of company.