'The risk manager must interface more broadly with human resources'

The key risks for the industry are in addressing change and opportunity in our markets. That includes, for example, increasing the prevalence of collaborative working, so the challenge is having staff who have the interpersonal skills to work collaboratively.

Then, there is the application of technology to construction, so increasing the capacity and utility of existing infrastructure.

Those are the key changes happening in our markets. The big risk is not being able to adapt – that is clearly a significant material risk, because if we don’t adapt to our markets we won’t be in business. We have to develop the capacity to address the issue successfully.

It’s all about human capital. It’s about recruiting the best people with the collaborative working skills, investment skills and technology skills.

Going forward, the risk manager must always liaise with the other functions in the business, but particularly interface more broadly with human resources. Lack of diversity is a challenge for us, the need to interface with sustainability and internal audit to get financial data accuracy, and some labour scarcity issues will develop in the medium term, which means addressing gender inequality right from the off.

Another issue is developing strategies to help people work longer. Employees can work longer through more sophisticated materials handling, so that they don’t have to carry heavy materials.

This article was first published in StrategicRISK’s Construction Report, published in association with Zurich. To download a copy of the full report, click here

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