Back in April, the BMF announced its plans for a major long-term programme to put the Building Materials sector on the map and help its members grow, professionalise and tackle the skills shortage. Since then, we have been working with members to provide a fuller understanding of our plans and explain how they can get involved.
The Making a Material Difference campaign will shine a spotlight on our hidden gem of a sector, positioning it as an excellent area in which to build a career, with a complete programme devised with young people, career starters, their parents and influencers, as well as with career switchers from other industries in mind.
Why is this so important? It’s no secret that the construction industry as a whole is facing a skills crisis. In addition to the challenge of finding skilled workers for new technologies, we also face an ageing demographic of current workers who need to be replaced each year and trained to an equivalent level of knowledge.
Our sector has a further issue. It is virtually unknown by the man or woman in the street. People have a general idea of what construction involves. Few have any idea or understanding of building materials. So much so that many of those currently working in our sector seem to have fallen into to it, rather than actively choosing it as a career. Once in, however, they fall in love with building materials.
The sector awareness programme is all about helping BMF members to tackle this issue head on, and the engagement levels to date have been unprecedented. Almost 200 companies – around a fifth of our membership – have already appointed their own designated campaign owner to liaise with the BMF and ensure their company’s employer profile details are uploaded to the campaign website, bmcareers.com, before it goes live in September at the BMF Annual Members’ Conference.
Designated campaign owners will have full editing rights to their company’s content on the website and will be able to upload new videos, images and information to give the best impression of their business to those making career decisions.
Companies signed up to date include 17 of the top 20 UK merchants and 15 major suppliers, but we need every member to get involved to create a complete map of employers across the UK from day one as well as details of the many and varied career opportunities the sector offer.
A key pitch to the Gen Z audience is that a career in building materials means they are helping to shape the world around them. We are working with members to build awareness of the advancements and changes in the sector along with the great people culture that make compelling reasons to consider a career here.
The campaign features real life examples with people working in many different job roles from branch and sales to marketing and digital content, from engineering and sustainability to finance and investor relations talking about their experience and how they are making a material difference.
The website is an important hub to disseminate information and build the profile of our sector, but there are many more elements to the overall programme, including a Toolkit, marketing and HR assets that can be adapted and used in every business.
Don’t miss out. With the national launch of bmcareers.com just around the corner, we’d encourage all members to get with the programme in the coming weeks. To make sure your company is showcased and promoted to the broadest pool of talent for recruitment, please email jeremy.harris@bmf.org.uk and find out how your company – and your employees’ stories – can help build the profile of building materials.