Sub-Sight, construction and the recession

“Price or Loyalty?”

… is this the question being asked by building firms during these financially trying times?

It’s well documented that certain companies, or more correctly, certain people, just work well together. After all, there’s nobody as reliable as somebody with whom you’ve worked alongside for years. They’ve delivered time and time again on site after site and have never let you down. At the very least if you have been let down you’ve put processes in place to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

So, without doubt, when that kind of professional relationship is built between a contractor and a sub-contractor – and the same can be said to be true within any industry – it tends to last.

Now, just throw the small matter of a major economic downturn – one that very few people alive have seen the like of – into the mix. The pressure which this type of financial climate brings can be felt in many ways and the construction industry is, historically, one of the first to be hit by such a downturn.

Despite the calls by economists for us to spend our way out of the recession, and as people inevitably stop spending money, businesses are forced to cut costs. Plain and simple.

So, the completion of projects on or under budget is a major concern in these times. Costs are driven down at each stage of each project. Subbies feel the pinch. Some may go under. Some have. Those principal contractors which do not react quickly enough to the financial contraction may also suffer. Some may go under. Some have.

So what is the net result of all this? Many companies will survive this financial crisis. A number will not. And what happens to the business relationships enjoyed in the past when at least one of the parties no longer exists? It is as if it has never been. What happens to the fantastic camaraderie enjoyed on site when a contractor is forced to drop a subbie because of financial constraints placed upon them by the company which has just taken them over? It’s as if it never existed.

So the upshot is that principal contractors are being forced to find new sub-contractors. Building firms are being forced to take work outside their usual catchment areas. Subbies are having to find new contacts at main contractors in order to find work.

Networking within the building business – a normally important process within any industry – becomes vital to the survival of any company at times like these. This is where a concept such as Sub-Sight comes in.

Then why is this online directory different to any other and why can it really make a difference to the construction sector? The secret is really to be found within the organisation behind Sub-Sight, the Aspire Recruitment Group – one of the largest independent recruitment agencies in the south of England.

Having been recruiting for construction companies for around a decade, Aspire consultants are in contact with over a thousand contacts at principal contracting firms every week. Thus, the Sub-Sight concept is fuelled by some of the best relationships in any industry, not just in construction. As a trusted recruiting partner to many of the largest building and civil engineering firms in the UK, Aspire staff have been there to advise developers from outside the geographical area on local subbies on many occassions.

What Aspire have done in this instance is to put a more structured process behind this by launching an online construction supply chain mechanism at a time when the industry needs just such a networking tool. Sub-Sight aims to connect principal contractors with sub-contractors

If you represent a sub-contractor based in Beds, Bucks, Herts, Cambs, Northants, Oxfordshire or Warwickshire, and your company is not already on www.sub-sight.co.uk, then please click here to register your interest and find out more.

Alternatively, if you work for a principal contractor why not click here to register, for free, for your login to Sub-Sight.