Life Stressors of Mechanical Contracting Supervisory Personnel

Abstract

Retention of high quality management personnel is a priority for all companies in the construction industry, including mechanical contracting companies. Over the past several years there has been a decrease in managers in the construction industry, and firms that fail to retain these employees will be left with an understaffed workforce, which will hinder their ability to be competitive in the marketplace. In order to aid in retention efforts, mechanical contracting firms need to focus their attention on the factors that affect burnout, which leads to turnover of their management personnel. The majority of the research in the construction industry has focused on work related stress. There have been studies on life stressors in general and there are several tools available to measure these stressors, but no studies have been done on life stressors on mechanical contracting supervisors. Life stressors were identified using the LISRES-A survey for mechanical contracting supervisors. The results showed that these supervisors had well above-average levels of stress in regards to their children. The results suggest that contracting firms should tailor their employee assistance programs (EAPs) to help combat this stressor. By doing this, mechanical contracting firms can combat burnout and help retain their management personnel.

Keywords:

• burnout
• EAPs
• life stressors
• management
• retention