Multi-Skilled Craft Capabilities

Labor productivity, craft training, and the declining number of entrants into construction crafts present critical challenges for the construction industry. This research report examines the effect of various labor utilization strategies for a multi-skilled workforce. The work focused on analysis based on a single domestic, grass roots, open shop industrial construction project that had been previously benchmarked by CII. Primary benefits to muliskilled labor use were demonstrated with regard to total project cost and employment opportunities for craft workers. Data analyzed showed that multiskilled labor provides:

• A five percent total cost savings
• A 35 percent reduction in required workforce  
• A 47 percent increase in wage/annual earning potential for multiskilled workers

The analysis included four labor use strategies identified as: Dualskills, Four Crafts-A, Four Crafts-B, and Theoretical Maximum:

• Dualskills identified craft combinations with complementary workload so workers arrive on the project and remain longer by working on multiple tasks.
• Four Crafts-A was based on industry expert opinion that craft workers could be grouped into four multi-skilled work groups defined as civil/structural, general support workers, mechanical workers, and electrical workers.
• The Four Crafts-B strategy removes the helper-level workers from the original craft group and includes their work in the general support workers category. 
• The Theoretical Maximum strategy assumes only one class of worker on a project but divides all labor into three skill categories.

This strategy identifies a theoretical maximum multiskilling strategy as a relative measure of benefits achieved by the other three strategies included in the research. Multiskilling is a promising labor strategy that should be considered by companies as a potential competitive strategy.