Resilience through people: Why culture is key to a successful construction sector

With many experiencing a project pipeline that’s been merely a trickle, it’s been harder than ever to stay optimistic and invest strategically. But business leaders with the foresight to build people resilience now will be ready to profit as that pipeline begins to flow freely again. 

Human resources and company culture are areas where the construction sector often falls short. The boom-and-bust cycle of the industry means workers are in short supply during busy periods and left with too little work when the market goes quiet. This can leave workers feeling anxious and uncertain. 

Investing in people isn’t optional. It’s essential for retention, mental wellbeing, and long-term success. Research consistently shows that businesses with a strong culture outperform peers in productivity and staff retention. In construction, where skilled labour is already scarce, culture can be the difference between keeping your best people and losing them to competitors.

This is the ideal time to upskill our construction workforce

The 2025 Construction Industry Report by Teletrac Navman and Civil Contractors NZ shows the civil construction sector needs more skilled workers, more investment in leadership and more apprenticeships:

• Despite the industry being in a downturn, 12% of businesses said that skill shortage and availability of workers was a major challenge
• Half of respondents said they’d hire today if the right skills were available
• Only 46% of businesses have staff on apprenticeships
• While 89% of large businesses are training for leadership, only 33% of small businesses are doing the same
• Machine operators, supervisors, and experienced field workers were the most in-demand skillsets
• 24% of businesses said they did not have the right resources to train and mentor new staff

With some skills already in low supply, and the low point of the boom-and-bust cycle behind us, it’s never been more important to look after your skilled workers. New Zealand has lost a significant number of construction workers to Australia due to better pay, more stable job opportunities, and a slowdown in NZ’s construction sector. Those people will not be easy to replace when New Zealand needs to scale its construction sector up in 2026 and beyond. 

Higher pay, more hours, and better job security are luring people across the Tasman, and those factors are undeniably attractive. But Aotearoa has lifestyle advantages that Australia can’t match. Our workplace culture is more relaxed, and anyone who enjoys outdoor living can have a fabulous quality of life. Employers need to make sure their workers get the chance to make the most of New Zealand. People are much less likely to emigrate if they feel valued at work, with a bright future in their company, while also having enough time and energy to enjoy their leisure and family time.

Invest time, not just money, in having a positive staff culture 

How can you create a positive company culture if your business is struggling? If you’re experiencing an insufficient pipeline of work, it’s a big ask to spend time and resource on training and culture. 

Yet this is the perfect time to make your business a preferred employer. It might not even take much cash. Instead, the major investment might be time: 

• showing your employees they are valued and important to the success of your business
• creating more certainty and flexibility around working hours
• taking on apprentices or training leadership skills.

In many cases, upskilling your team will boost your business’s ability to win jobs and retain clients, as well as potentially improving productivity. Even small things, like an effective induction process help give productivity a bump by getting new team members working at full capacity sooner. 

Apprentices do take time to train, but their pay is subsidised by the government, and they can make fantastic employees once fully qualified. 

Certainty is harder to guarantee for subcontractors, but even small commitments like prioritising regular communication and fair treatment can help to build trust. Collaboration on upskilling may not suit every business, but exploring shared training opportunities can strengthen relationships.

Mitigating the risk of training people who then leave

There is always a risk that you train up good people and then they leave, and higher pay elsewhere is a strong pull. But culture still matters. People who feel respected, paid fairly and see a future with your business are less likely to jump ship. 

One approach to mitigate this risk is to design a training system where your business pays for relevant formal courses, but the employee agrees to stay with the business for a year after the course is completed, for example. This type of agreement is common in other industries, and it might be useful for the construction sector, too. 

You can also work toward long-term strategies that support a positive staff culture. These might include: 

• building a long-term workforce strategy by aligning hiring and training with infrastructure pipelines
• profit-sharing or bonus schemes to give key staff a stake in the business’s success
• partnering with schools and trade programmes to attract young talent
• using technology to support culture, by leveraging tools that improve safety, communication, and engagement, not just productivity
• pushing for industry-wide change, faster consents, and better collaboration with government.

By working together, leaders can make the construction sector a better place to work and a more resilient industry. 

Mental wellbeing: a non-negotiable priority

A better work culture would also support improved mental wellbeing for employees. Construction faces one of the highest mental wellbeing risks in Aotearoa. Workers are nine times more likely to die by suicide than by a workplace accident. Mental wellbeing must be treated with the same urgency as physical safety. Investing in mental wellbeing saves lives and improves productivity.

The 2025 Well-being Survey conducted by Mates in Construction shows:

• every week, more than one construction worker dies by suicide
• male construction workers have nearly twice the suicide rate of other men (19.7 vs 10.6 per 100,000)
• almost one in five workers reported suicidal thoughts from March to June 2025 
• nearly half the workforce lives with physical or mental health issues, double the national average.

Get ready as the project pipeline continues to improve

Times remain challenging for construction, and we aren’t yet seeing a clear lift in projects or profits across the sector. While diggers aren’t back on every site yet, conversations now feel more positive than they have for some time. Much of the optimism is coming from consultants and planners, with signs of a stronger pipeline and more tenders in play, but this hasn’t fully flowed through to those doing the digging and building.

Right now, businesses need to focus on their people. Train them, motivate them, and make sure you’re winning their loyalty. With the right people and processes in place, you’ll be able to scale up more efficiently once the industry starts surging ahead again.