Back when there were 76 days until Construction Week I explained 5 Easy Ways to Celebrate Construction Week. Now that there are 62 days left until Construction Week 2017, are you ready to take your planning a step further?
The first thing to remember is that Construction Week is an awareness campaign designed to expose more individuals in our communities to the realities of construction as a safe, exciting and rewarding career option. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about the industry, and Construction Week is another way for us to join forces in order to educate people about the opportunities for great careers in construction. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the workforce and everything that they have built around us. The following ideas can be used to extend the reach of the Construction Week campaign.
Get a Statewide Proclamation
Iowa has proclaimed the first week in October as Construction Week, and proclamations have been submitted in Montana, South Dakota, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia, that we know of. We encourage others passionate about the construction industry across the nation to do the same by contacting local government. We have provided a sample cover letter that can be sent in requesting that the first week of October be proclaimed Construction Week, as well as a sample proclamation in the Construction Week online resources.
It is important to note that Construction Week is not something that ‘can’t be celebrated if it’s not proclaimed in your state.’ A proclamation just helps in giving it more media coverage. If your state has not submitted and you would like to get the process started, contact me and I would be happy to help!
Once you have gone through the process and have proclaimed Construction Week in your state, please forward a copy of your signed proclamation to me at tbowman@mbionline.com so that we can update the map to include your state!
CLICK HERE to view the video of the Construction Week proclamation signing in Iowa.
Contact local news outlets
I encourage, and will continue to push everyone to send in press releases and notices to their local news outlets about Construction Week. If a news channel receives 25 notices about Construction Week coming up, then the chance of a story being done on it is going to be pretty high. Then, when one network has coverage on it, you know other networks are going to take notice and want to run their own story.
We have created a couple sample articles and press releases in the resources center that you can use. You can use these articles as is, or you can pull text from here and there and create your own press releases, news coverage requests, articles, blog posts, social posts and so forth.
Get Involved with Local Schools
Alright – this is probably the most important part of the entire Construction Week campaign when you consider that the main goal is to educate students, parents, teachers and counselors about the opportunities for great careers in construction after high school graduation. As a contractor, think of Construction Week as a reminder to get involved with your local school districts, or even a reason to start a program for those of you that are not currently involved with local schools.
Contact local school counselors, or other contacts you may have, to see if they would be interested in having your company get involved with students to teach them about the opportunities in the construction industry. We have compiled a list of all Iowa high school AND middle school guidance counselors and have it available for download in the Construction Week resources section. The list is separated for middle schools and high schools and each list includes the name, phone number, mailing address and email address for each counselor. (There are a few that we weren’t able to get our hands on.) If you are not located in Iowa, hopefully you can work with your local building association to get a list of contacts like what we have created for contractors here in Iowa.
Here is a list of things you could offer a school in order to bring construction to life for students:
- Volunteer as a guest speaker in the classroom or after school program
- Participate in K-12 career fairs
- Offer mentoring
- Offer job site tours
- Invite a student or students on a job shadow
- Bring students to your office
- Donate extra building materials to a school program
- Place construction-related ads in school newsletters and/or at sporting events
If you are located in Iowa and would like more information on how to get involved with your local school district, register for a free webinar, Building Your Workforce Pipeline, which will be held on September 13, 2017 from 9:00 – 10:00 am. This webinar will provide tips for speaking to classrooms, how to get the most out of the BuildIowa.org website and how to maximize the tools that MBI has put together, as well as tips for effectively working with young people.
Shine the Spotlight on the Construction Industry
Last year, we (MBI) created a program to shine the spotlight on exceptional field workers from our member firms. It ended up being very successful, with our members appreciating that we were highlighting their companies and employees on our social media accounts and some of them even took the idea and ran with it, highlighting their own employees on their social sites (GREAT IDEA!). So, take this opportunity to recognize your staff on your website and/or social media!
Are you a service provider to the construction industry? This is a golden opportunity for you to THANK and HIGHLIGHT your customers that are from the construction industry!!
CLICK HERE for a brief ‘how-to’ on creating your own spotlight campaign.
Plan a Company Celebration
Begin planning for an employee appreciation activity, or multiple activities, to be held during Construction Week. Many companies hold safety luncheons and staff gatherings throughout the year, why not pair one of those with Construction Week (this saves on adding more money to your budget as well!). You could also distribute small employee appreciation gifts during Construction Week! Determine what you would like to do and set the date(s) and be sure to hold it open on everyone‘s calendars.
Ideas you could plan for are:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Afternoon break
- Company-wide training
- Company outing
- Distribute Construction Week t-shirts, hard hat stickers, coozies, etc. (purchased from the online store)
- Job site gift baskets full of treats
Become a Construction Week Champion
Are you ready to get involved in Construction Week? Become a Construction Week Champion so that you won’t miss a thing for Construction Week 2017! We are forwarding reminders and ideas out to all Construction Week Champions every Monday leading up to, and during, Construction Week. This will also aid MBI in knowing what you are planning for Construction Week so that we can be sure to follow and share what your company is doing on social media and in the news! If you would like to be added to the Construction Week Champion contact list, please email me – tbowman@mbionline.com.
Construction Week was created as a focused messaging campaign to complement other workforce development initiatives that are in place across the nation. I think that we all understand the WHY there is a need to have a Construction Week. You can kind of think of it as time to highlight the workforce development initiatives that you are already doing, when there is a larger audience paying attention.
These are just a few things that you can do to help promote the construction industry and Construction Week. Visit the Construction Week resources center for more ideas and downloads to help you plan for a successful Construction Week celebration! If you have any questions about Construction Week, please don’t hesitate to contact me – tbowman@mbionline.com.
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