Chapter Spotlight: Oregon-Columbia Chapter - Electronic Campaign Targets Construction’s Next Generation

By Linda Scronce-Johnson Marketing/Membership Director AGC Oregon-Columbia Chapter With a serious workforce shortage looming and growing frustration with the inability to reach young people with strong messages about the positive career potential of construction, AGC’s Oregon-Columbia Chapter has taken an innovative approach to attracting the next generation’s most creative problem-solvers. “The misleading myths of construction are impacting the industry’s ability to attract the best and the brightest of our young people to construction,” says Todd Hess, 2008 Oregon-Columbia Chapter president and chair of the chapter’s image task force, “and with almost 50 percent of the construction workforce destined to retire in less than 10 years, improving the image of the industry has become a major initiative of the Oregon-Columbia Chapter.” The chapter has made a three-year funding commitment to develop an electronic outreach campaign designed to combat the negative myths of construction, provide useful career information packaged in a style young people can relate to, and set up a simple “craigslist model” approach for connecting Oregon-Columbia Chapter member contractors with qualified potential employees. At the center of the campaign is http://www.GetConstructive.com, an innovative website that sports a demolition game, salary information, and practical information about getting started in a construction career, all presented in a style designed to make young people feel good about choosing a future in construction. The GetConstructive campaign is based on research that carefully identified the demographic and psychological profile of the individuals who would most likely succeed — and find personal satisfaction — in construction. To those involved in the construction industry, it will come as no surprise that the ideal construction employee has strong math and communication skills, enjoys problem solving, is a team player with a strong work ethic, and enjoys the outdoors. The research also revealed that a number of young people — and the adults who influence them — hold a number of outdated stereotypes and misperceptions about construction, frequently viewing the industry as seasonal, low-skilled, and dangerous — a job of last resort. Focus group research conducted by the Oregon-Columbia Chapter showed that young people with unfavorable impressions of construction changed their minds when they heard the facts about actual pay scale, benefits, working conditions, and earn-while-you-learn apprenticeship opportunities. The pride that comes from building something tangible was one of the strongest benefit messages to young people, according to the research. Thus, busting the negative myths of construction by providing factual information became the centerpiece of the GetConstructive campaign. The next critical element in the campaign’s development was to understand how young people communicate and find information. In the 18- to 29-year-old demographic, the research was clear: it’s all about electronic social networking. Young people no longer read newspapers, watch television news, or listen to the radio. Advertising on those traditional media no longer dependably reaches the demographic, and, in the limited cases that it does, the message lacks credibility. The trend away from traditional media has grown exponentially in just the past five years. The Oregon-Columbia Chapter launched its website in October 2008, and during the next two months conducted an electronic outreach campaign that placed electronic ads on a portfolio of Web sites carefully selected to reflect the personal interests and psychological profile of ideal candidates for construction careers. The results were positive. During the two-month period, individuals were exposed to the ads more than 10 million times (impressions), and roughly 7,000 times they “clicked through” to see the Web site. Those who visited GetConstructive.com spent an average of one minute on the site, and the section they most frequently visited was a “Who’s Hiring” tab (that was unfortunately still under construction at the time). The beauty of the electronic outreach was the ability it afforded to quickly correct and optimize the placement and content of the ads through the ability to track which ads were working, and to follow and reconnect with Web visitors through improved ads. Electronic outreach provided an immediate learn-as-you-go method for improving the effectiveness of the campaign. Now, in year two, the Oregon-Columbia Chapter and its image task force are focusing efforts on next steps in the campaign:       • Designing a craigslist-type hiring page that will  match chapter  members with job  candidates;       • Developing electronic kiosks and booth graphics that can be taken to job and career fairs to entice           young people to interact with the Web site;       • Creating an “influencer” campaign that will use more traditional communication strategies for reaching         parents, teachers, counselors, coaches, and youth leaders with the same positive messages about         construction. In year three, it is likely that a great deal of the chapter’s efforts will turn to public relations efforts — a personal touch to balance the high tech — by nurturing bloggers, online mentors who will be available to respond to questions from interested Web visitors, and more outreach with influencers. The chapter is currently talking with West Coast AGC chapters to expand the GetConstructive.com information. Sound research, a carefully designed positioning strategy, and cutting-edge electronic communications are the components on which the campaign is based, but there is an intangible element that plays into the feel of the campaign as well: The effort is being led by a group of people who truly love what they do, contractors who are willing to listen and learn to truly communicate with young people — and have a good time while they do it. Their enjoyment of their own career choice has inspired the Web designers, the advertising agency, the parents, and young people who have helped develop and test the messages. But don’t expect any of the image task force members to take themselves too seriously as they pursue this effort. Todd Hess says that what they’re doing is pretty simple, actually: “We’re just looking for young people who understand the Pythagorean Theorem and aren’t afraid to use it.”