School, University of Westminster, London, with particular and extensive research expertise on construction labour and training in Europe. clarkel@wmin.ac.uk, Tel: 0044 (0) Structured abstract PurposeThe paper shows how internal and external labour markets operate in the construction sector, associated with different strategies taken by firms in recruiting and retaining particular groups of employees. It draws on research of the housebuilding sector which aims to discover how far firms develop human resource policies, recruitment and retention strategies, and training and development activities in response to skill shortages. MethodologyThe paper is based on: a questionnaire survey of skills shortages, recruitment and retention in housebuilding firms, drawn from databases of social and private housebuilders and a detailed investigation of firms. FindingsThe results show worsening skill shortages and hard-to-fill vacancies, particularly for site managers and tradespersons. These shortages are especially bad for housebuilding firms, above all those with higher levels of direct employment in the social housing sector. Despite this, firms rely for operative recruitment on traditional and informal methods and procedures, on experience -not qualifications -as the main criterion, and on 'poaching' -all symptomatic of a craft labour market. For managers, there is some evidence of retention measures, in particular through training and promotion, implying the development of internal labour markets. And for professionals there are indications of occupational labour markets with their dependence on institutionalised systems of training and qualifications. Value and implicationsThe paper shows that firms take little responsibility themselves for resolving skill shortages and establishing training needs, though national training policy is reactive and driven by employer demand. Obligatory skills certification and an institutionalised industrial training system would facilitate a move from this deadlocked situation, from craft to occupational labour markets.

This paper is about the qualitatively different nature of the labour process in the British construction industry compared with that in Germany. The rationale of the British system is based on controlling costs through overseeing contract relations, themselves circumscribing a range of narrow, clearly defined and priced tasks.The production process has become secondary and production expertise restricted.In contrast, in Germany cost aspects are incorporated into, rather than separated from, the production system, built on the interaction of capital and labour and on a high level of production expertise. Employment relations rather than contract relations predominate and circumscribe a set of skills drawn from the potential of the labour force and dependent on broad-based vocational education.The paper is based on a detailed investigation of social housebuilding projects in Britain and Germany. It is the first of two papers concerned with the overriding cost rationale of the British construction process at the expense of considerations of production. The effects of this is examined here in terms of the structure of expertise and skills within firms, the nature of the subcontracting and the 2 composition of the construction team. The paper shows the need for more and a qualitatively different constellation of skills, professional and operative, in Britain. It thus contributes to the debate on achieving a higher skills equilibrium (Crouch et al. 1999;Brown et al. 2001), expands transnational sector comparisons (Stewart 1994)

No abstract

Labour deployment on representative large-scale housing projects is analysed to reveal distinct differences between England, Germany, Scotland and Denmark. In the light of the debates on convergence/divergence of HRM systems and generally different production systems, the paper is apposite in demonstrating structural differences in the organisation of the construction process, their implications for efficiency and productivity, and their impact on employment and contract relations, innovation and skills.The effects of the overriding cost rationale of the British system are illustrated in terms of labour deployment and the efficiency and productivity of the site construction process. Labour deployment is based on the rationale of extensive subcontracting, with main contractors providing the management and cost function whilst their productive capacity rests on subcontracting supply chains. The main contractor has come to specialise in two areas, costing and the management of the process. Subcontractors provide all production personnel and thus the production knowledge for carrying out the work packages and stages. On the continent, in contrast, the economic rationale is different, as main contractors do not depend nearly as much on the production capacity of subcontracting.Abstract 183 words Main text excluding tables and references 5332