Day Two of the 2015 LMCI Finishing Industries Forum

The Finishing Industries Forum (FIF) is annual event which features speakers, workshops and presentations on issues and data that drive the construction industry. This meeting gives IUPAT contractors, end-users and union leaders the opportunity to meet together to share best practices and find the solutions to expand our market share in our industries, while growing the IUPAT workforce at the same time.

The premier labor-management event continued on Tuesday, and it was all about how to recruit Millenials to the construction industry.  This group of men and women, who were born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, are coveted as the future of our industries and pose their own challenges in recruitment.  Dr. Rita Murray, a leading author on the subject of the successfully dealing with multiple generations in the workplace, gave some perspective on how different Millenials think and act from members of the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation X (early 1960s to early 1980s).

Following her was a panel of young leaders from IUPAT labor and management.  They offered their ideas on how to appeal to their generation and bring them into the their ideas on how to bring them into our industries.  As panel moderator Gregory Sizemore put it, "Construction is the last American Dream.  There just isn't another industry that lets you begin working with the tools to work your way up and own your own company." Sizemore is the executive vice president of the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT).

After the morning session, attendees participated in workshops that covered a variety of subjects important to business in the construction industry, including a legislative update on regulations newly in place and looming on the horizon, running an efficient billing system and the perils of contractors bid shopping.

The third and final day is Wednesday, December 9.  Visit www.LMCIonline.org for new details tomorrow.