The construction industry is in trouble. Across North America, companies are struggling to fill roles quickly enough to replace aging workers. We’ve seen this coming for decades, yet our industry as a whole has done almost nothing to address it.
So how do we find enough hungry, smart, hard-working people to fill these roles?
The answer’s staring us in the face. We must tap into underrepresented talent: women, immigrants and workers from diverse backgrounds. My company, Prism Construction, is in Canada, and in British Columbia, non-white workers account for 9.1 percent of the construction workforce. Women represent only 14.6 percent.
Diverse teams perform better because they bring broader perspectives and fewer blind spots.
Meanwhile, Canada is welcoming record numbers of immigrants: 483,000 in 2024 alone, following 471,800 the year prior.
At Prism Construction, a company founded by an immigrant from Tanzania—my father Amin Rawji—in 1999, we know what’s possible when you open the door.
In 2018, we hired Reza Norozy, a seasoned construction professional newly arrived from the Middle East. His leadership was clear from day one. Within a year, he was our general manager. Today, he’s our COO.
Construction projects are more complex than ever. They require adaptive leaders, strong communicators and sharp problem-solvers. Diverse teams perform better because they bring broader perspectives and fewer blind spots.
In fact, research consistently shows that companies with diverse leadership outperform their peers in profitability, innovation and team satisfaction. When people from different backgrounds come together, they challenge assumptions and offer creative solutions—exactly what’s needed on today’s job sites.
Companies must implement bias-aware hiring, flexible apprenticeship pathways and training that equips leaders to support diverse teams.
When Reza arrived, we had systems in place: onboarding, mentorship and leadership development. Reza’s rise is one example. Today, more than 60 percent of our team identifies as non-white, and 20 percent are women. These numbers reflect intentional choices—and a belief that talent and drive matter more than background.
We also need to expand how we evaluate potential. Workers from underrepresented groups bring resilience, adaptability, multilingual communication and diverse problem-solving approaches—skills critical on today’s tech-enabled, collaborative job sites.
Great organizations meet people where they are—offering training that fits different learning styles and giving new hires the tools they need to succeed.
The construction industry has been slow to change but right now, speed matters. The labor crisis won’t fix itself and competing harder for the same talent pool is a short-term play. The long-term solution is expanding the pool itself.
Inclusive hiring is not about compliance. It’s how we future-proof construction. The talent exists. The opportunity is here. The only question is whether we’re ready to open the gate.
