Executive Search & Leadership Advisory

Accounting for 6 percent of global GDP, the Engineering, Construction, and Infrastructure industry strongly affects the economy and the environment. It serves almost all other industries, and therefore, is greatly influenced by market trends and dynamics. Some of the trends that continue to transform the way engineering and construction companies work include technological advancements, regulatory changes, and increasing awareness of climate change.

While most other industries have adapted to and reaped the benefits of technology advancements, the engineering and construction sector has remained hesitant about embracing new technologies. With projects getting bigger and more complex, the sector faces a critical challenge to increase productivity and ensure on-time, on-budget completion of projects with limited resources. To stay profitable, engineering and construction companies must employ new building materials and methods, implement lean project management techniques, and adopt  smart technologies that can help them overcome the productivity challenge.

Ensuring environmental sustainability remains another insurmountable challenge for the engineering and construction industry. The industry accounts for 25 to 40 percent of the total world’s carbon emissions and is the largest consumer of raw materials. As a result, it faces immense pressure to ensure efficient use of raw materials and improve environment-friendliness of construction processes. As concerns grow about the increasing incidence of natural disasters the construction industry must also focus on increasing the resilience of infrastructure against flood, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters by using new building materials and construction techniques.

Recent changes in health and safety requirements, environmental standards, and labor legislation is a major concern for the engineering and construction sector as well. Companies must restructure their construction processes to ensure compliance and avoid liability.

The surge in infrastructure spending that President Trump has pledged promises to be a boom for engineering and construction companies. To spur growth and investment in infrastructure, the government is partnering with the private sector and has reduced permitting time for projects from 10 years to 2 years. Regulations are also being slashed to accelerate the decision-making process and to encourage investment in infrastructure. While together these changes point towards the prospect of an expanding construction market, engineering and construction companies should understand that new opportunities bring new challenges.  This sector should work proactively to capture opportunities and be ready to work with the government on financing models that emphasize speed and flexibility.

At Allen Austin, we help construction and engineering companies hire talented individuals who can determine and reduce the impact of regulatory changes, technological advancements, and other factors on business performance. Our team brings a unique combination of industry professionals and executive search consultants with decades of experience of providing leadership development and executive search services to the construction and engineering sector.

As a leading retained executive search firm, Allen Austin strives to provide personalized recruitment solutions that have been designed keeping the unique objectives and needs of a business. Based on the unique objectives set by the client, we design an outcome-oriented recruitment strategy that’s focused on helping the client find the best executive-level talent for their company.