As the Construction Workforce Gets Younger, Consider These 6 Talent Strategies

According to Issue 3 of ADP Research’s Today at Work 2025 report, the median age of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC professionals has fallen by as much as five years since January 2020.

Comparatively, the age of US workers has remained relatively steady, falling by only one year.

The findings, based on an analysis of ADP payroll data, signal a demographic shift in the construction workforce that your business can account for when building a talent strategy that is optimized to keep your younger workers retained and engaged.

With that, consider these six talent strategies as construction gets younger.

Prioritize Skills Development

As younger, less-experienced construction workers replace their more-tenured colleagues who have spent decades honing their craft on countless job sites, ensuring the former have the skills they need to deliver quality work in a timely manner will be critical.

Putting a skills development program in place at your construction business should be a top talent priority.

To start, take a skills inventory. As your workforce demographics shift towards getting younger, what skills do your older workers have that will need to be replaced once they retire?

Do any of your existing workers have these skills? If so, great. If not, identify a few younger workers who would not only be a fit to take on those skills, but have also expressed an interest in acquiring those skills.

From here, it’s all about time and technology. Creating time for workers to learn and hone new skills can be incredibly tough. While learning new skills is important, jobs in the present still need to be completed and the bottom line still needs to be working.

This is where technology can be invaluable. Having the right HR and talent management technology can give your workers access to 24/7 training and education resources that enable them to learn new skills whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Ensure Mentorship is Happening

Related to skills development, mentorship at your construction business is essential to ensure the younger workforce has the skills and knowledge they need to keep your business successful.

Way before your older workers opt for retirement, there needs to be a talent program in place so their value institutional knowledge is not lost to the ages.

They’ve seen every unique situation on the job site and adopted accordingly so that projects get completed and clients stay happy. This type of experience cannot be hired for or taught, making it priceless to replace.

Institutional knowledge is one of your construction company’s greatest assets. Set up your crews so that older youngers are paired with younger ones and can share their wisdom. Have your older workers document the skills, experiences, and processes they feel are the most important to keep the business humming.

Be intentional about organizing crew meet-ups off-hours that can not only build chemistry and collaboration but also provide a platform for your most senior workers to mentor your most junior ones. 

Offer a Modular Benefits Program

Given the generational range at work—from Baby Boomers to Gen Z—your construction business needs to offer a similar range of benefits to meet the unique demands of a diverse workforce.

As your construction workforce gets younger, benefits that appeal to your older workers might not carry the same weight with their less-tenured colleagues.

For example, younger workers might place more value on financial wellness benefits that can help them with things like investing, saving, and budgeting for major life purchases. They also might want benefits for their mental health, in addition to things like student loan repayment assistance and pet insurance.

Offering a modular benefits program that enables workers to pick and choose benefits according to their unique life stage is a great strategy for the multi-generational workforce.

This way, your younger workers get the support they need, while your senior employees still have access to the benefits they need.

It’s a win-win that can help boost retention and engagement across your workforce.

Use Modern, Mobile Workforce Management Solutions

To help optimize your business for the younger construction workforce, leveraging modern, mobile workforce management solutions is an excellent lever to pull.

You want to provide your younger workers with an environment they are comfortable with: mobile, streamlined, and user-friendly. Being able to handle pay, time, HR and performance management from a single mobile solution is the work experience younger workers are expecting to receive.

It’s critical your construction business meets this expectation.

If they are bogged down with manual, paper-intensive processes, they are going to become disengaged and ready to look for new opportunities.

On the flip side, if they can use modern workforce management solutions from the moment they onboard, they’re going to have a more positive, frictionless experience that can build trust and loyalty.  

Emphasize Company Culture and Your Employee Value Proposition

A lot of younger workers, in part due to coming through the pandemic, want to work for a company that has a clear vision and commitment, in addition to having shared values.

They are placing more weight on employers who highlight what the company is all about at the end of the day, whether that’s donating to a certain charity or clearly outlining key organizational values.

As a construction business intent on recruiting and retaining younger workers, consider what those values and commitments are and how you display them externally.

During the recruitment process, make it clear to candidates. After hiring, plan events and activities that align to your organization’s values and offer employees the ability to actively contribute to the betterment of the world.

Younger workers want to feel like they are working towards something that is bigger than the job. If you can provide this type of culture at your construction business, they’re going to buy-in.

Stay Competitive on Pay

At the end of the day, it’s really about pay.

All workers, regardless of age, want to be competitively compensated according to their work, experience, and location.

As a construction business, having access to compensation and benefits benchmarking data can help keep you aware of market rates for wages and benefits so that you stay ahead of the competition for the best young talent.

Interestingly from that same ADP Research analysis, median wages for residential construction workers are about 10 percent higher than all other industries combined. Median annual pay for construction workers was about $58,000 in January 2020 and nearly $66,400 in June 2025, an increase of almost 15 percent. During the same time period, median pay for workers in all other industries combined increased by 16 percent, from a median of $52,000 to about $60,200.

On bonuses, ADP Research found in December 2024, the median construction bonus hit a record high of $1,232, more than 2.5 times the typical bonus awarded to other workers.

Whether it’s pay, culture, or skills development, now is the time for your construction business to evolve talent strategies, meet the demands of the younger workforce, and create a lasting, talent-driven culture that lifts engagement, productivity, and ultimately, the business.