UMCA Contractor Survey Results

This summer, UMCA asked contractors to tell us what was important, and what they wanted the organization to focus on. Almost 30 people replied, from 15 companies. Here are some of the answers.

Q: Please rate the following industry issues at the level of importance to you:

  1. Quality Labor 
  2. Q2 Industry IssuesGrow Market 
  3. Safety 
  4. Technology
  5. Collective Business Development 
  6. Outreach to Members
  7. Politics

Finding and creating the high quality employee that benefits a project, other employees and the bottom line was top of the list. Growing the market to capture more work ranked a close second. Hand-in-hand with that was No. 5 on the list: Evolving collective bargaining into collective business development with the union.

Promoting safety – even enough to make it part of the industry’s brand – rounded out the top three. Keeping up to date with technological innovations rated No. 4, and showed up as a priority in several other survey questions.

 

Q: How closely do you engage with your key field personnel?

Quite a bit, according to contractors, saying their input is integral to project planning. On the flip, no one answered that key field personnel didn’t add beneficial insight to a project.

Engaging with key personnel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: When it comes to technology in my business, I feel I am:

  1. In the Middle & Want to Learn More
  2. TechnologyFalling Behind
  3. Using the Right Level
  4. On the Cutting Edge

A whopping 82% of the answering membership felt they had something to learn about using technology. Less than 4 percent called the level of technology being used now as “the right amount”, and almost 14 percent felt they were on the cutting edge of using technology in the workplace.

 

Q: What educational topics would you find most valuable next year?

In order of preference, members said:

  1. Field Productivity
  2. Technology
  3. Project Management
  4. Safety
  5. Legal

Technology rates high again, only surpassed by the ever-present need for the best possible productivity on a project. All these topics will show up in future UMCA professional development classes, according to the recent board retreat results. Read more about that here.