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Tarrsha Watkins has worked in the construction industry in Perth for years, but after having children she realised just how inaccessible blue-collar jobs were for anyone in need of flexible hours.
“You were on site at 6am, you got home at 6pm if you were lucky,” she said.
“The mentality was, ‘It is what it is’, and that was always the way I looked at it as well.
“Now I’ve had two children in the last two years, and it just became so obvious to me that I would never apply to do a blue-collar role – and that’s coming from someone who loves it.”
The experience led Watkins to think about other people who would feel excluded from the industry, including young people who may also be studying, and those who were retired but still wanted to work – just not at the same rate as they used to.
Watkins, who is the managing director at building firm Protek WA, set up a second enterprise called Indigo Commercial and posted two job adverts, one for each business, at the same time.
More than 2700 people applied for the job with Indigo Commercial, compared to 30 for Protek WA.
“I was getting hundreds of applications a day for Indigo, and I made a point of contacting more than a thousand and asking them why they applied because I had this other role, and it was the same wages, the same job, same everything – the only difference was flexible hours,” Watkins said.
“Everyone came back to me and told me it’s because this doesn’t exist normally.”
She was also told some applicants had been knocked back when approached their current employers asking about different hours, which led to them feeling ostracised for taking time off instead.
“Some businesses can’t comprehend it, but I think it’s the same as working from home,” Watkins said.
“There was a time when the perception was that if you weren’t at your desk, then you definitely weren’t doing anything worth anything, you were obviously slacking off, and we know now that’s not true.”
Supply constraints – including labour shortages – have been consistently linked to WA’s soaring house prices.
Responding to this month’s state budget, which saw $4.7 billion tipped into housing – $156.7 million of which was focused on building the state’s construction workforce – Master Builders WA chief executive Matt Moran said the state was experiencing both a critical skills shortage and a housing supply shortage.
“The state won’t be able to build enough homes to fix the housing crisis without growing the building and construction workforce,” he said.
A Housing Industry Australia survey in February also warned the nation’s regions faced particularly harsh workforce shortages, with 67 per cent of small builders struggling to find or keep skilled workers.
Watkins said burnout in the industry was high, which could be a contributor to the application numbers she saw.
“We’re trying to push for a five-day working week when the rest of the world is trying to get a four-day week,” she said.
“I’m hoping many workers who have left the industry due to burnout and difficulties with 12-hour shifts six to seven days per week will return.
“Just because someone can’t work 12 and 14-hour shifts, doesn’t mean they are not valuable on building sites.”
The most popular shift on offer have been the 7am until 2pm timeslot, but a standard 9am until 5pm is still on offer, as well as a 6am until 12pm, a 12pm until 6pm, and a 9am until 2pm.
“We keep saying ‘we need more people, oh my God, where are we going to get more people?’ Well, I’ve got nearly 3000 of them that just need something that looks a little bit different,” Watkins said.
Indigo Commercial is also pushing to offer a carpenter apprenticeship under the same flexible conditions, including pre-apprenticeships during school hours.
“If we can get people through an apprenticeship, let’s say in six years versus four, then in six years time we are delivering fully qualified tradespeople into the industry, rather than someone sitting there and going, ‘When my kids finish school, then I’ll start to think about what I want to do’,” Watkins said.
