Adapting to change: redefining employee utilization in construction projects through lessons learnt from COVID-19
| Date | 14 January 2025 |
| Pages | 193-216 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2023-0320 |
| Published date | 14 January 2025 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Muneeb Arshad,Muhammad Saleem Sumbal,Muhammad Naseer Akhtar,Shazia Nauman |
Adapting to change: redefining
employee utilization in construction
projects through lessons learnt from
COVID-19
Muneeb Arshad
Department of Management, Beacon Impex Pvt Ltd, Sahiwal, Pakistan
Muhammad Saleem Sumbal
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Muhammad Naseer Akhtar
Royal Docks School of Business and Law, University of East London,
London, UK, and
Shazia Nauman
Riphah International University – Lahore Campus, Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –The study aimsto understand the challenges of effective employee utilization in construction projects
during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in a developing country and to develop mitigation
strategies for post-pandemic workforce management.
Design/methodology/approach –Weused a qualitative research design to conduct semi-structured interviews
with elite informants of various construction firms and analyze the data using thematic analysis.
Findings –The results showed that numerous factors, including supply chain issues, inadequate worker
healthcare, ineffective knowledge management and job losses, have negatively impacted the construction
industry.The prominent outcomes of the study are a conceptual framework for effective workforce management
post-pandemic and beyond, including recommendations for managers and executives and future research.
Originality/value –The workforce management framework with knowledge management developed in this
study provides a new theoretical view of post-pandemic mitigation strategies through the theoretical lens of
dynamics capabilities and knowledge management. The findings cover industrial insights, particularly from the
stakeholders’ perspective, and provide a solid foundation for future research in this domain.
Keywords COVID-19, Construction industry, Employee utilization, Workforcemanagement
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) struck the entire world and ushered in anarchy
as one of the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century (Duan et al., 2021;Teng et al.,
2021). It was first reported in the city of Wuhan, PR China, and declared by the WorldHealth
Organization (WHO) as a pandemic (Wang et al., 2022;Anholon et al., 2021). According to
the WHO, over 200 million people were infected with COVID-19, and 4.25 million died as a
result. This pandemic significantly affected people’s daily lives and society (Bhatia, 2021).
Specifically, the economy had a severe impact during this COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all
countries faced recession and a steep economic decline because of this pandemic (Islam and
Habib, 2022;Ritter and Pedersen, 2020;Yao and Azma, 2022). Countries implemented
various methods to combat the virus’s transmission, including social distancing, which
required working from home, a travel ban and smart lockdowns, to name a few (Gamil and
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
193
This project is supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong under the Start-up fund
(Strategic Hiring Scheme) with Project ID: P0042641- BD5B.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 29 June 2023
Revised 9 April 2024
27 July 2024
2 December 2024
Accepted 2 December 2024
EmployeeRelations: The International
Journal
Vol.47 No. 1, 2025
pp.193-216
©Emerald Publishing Limited
e-ISSN:1758-7069
p-ISSN:0142-5455
DOI10.1108/ER-06-2023-0320
Alhagar, 2020).Except for the medical sector, health monitoring systems and food supplies, all
other business activities were halted (Hui et al., 2020), and the construction industry was one
of them (Garai and Ku, 2023).
The construction sector plays a critical role in a country’s political, societal and economic
development and contributes to the GDP of a country’s economy (Meng et al., 2021).
Investment in construction and real estate are the primary building blocks to uplift the GDP
growth (May, 2020). COVID-19 has affected various operational aspects of the construction
industry. For example, the trained labor shortage and significant changes in working
environments are a few challenges this sector faces (McAllister et al., 2022;Biswas et al.,
2021). Like other companies, the construction industry has also faced market disturbance and a
decrease in private and government investment because of uncertainty brought about by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Further, lockdowns and material and equipment shortages triggered the cancellation and
suspension of projects (El Korchi, 2022). The suppliers had closed their operations, making the
timely delivery of the required material impossible. Other issues include time, cost and
workers’ layoffs. Extensive development is evident in the construction industry, especially
after the pandemic, such as the adoption of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and
tools and concepts of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 (Sumbal and Amber, 2024;Khurshid et al., 2023;
Maqbool et al., 2023). The recent technological revolution has also been implemented in the
construction industry (Hanifa et al., 2023;Oluleye et al., 2023), though primarily evident in
developed economies.
Pakistan is a developing economy where the construction industry is pivotal in lowering
unemployment and developing an aggregate economy. It creates many employment
opportunities because of its link with around forty building materials industries. The
construction industry employs 7.61% of the workforce (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2019-
2020). In Pakistan, COVID-19 also wreaked havoc and severely impacted various industries
(Wariset al., 2020), including the construction sector. We have found studies on the impact of
COVID-19 on the construction industry (e.g. Parr et al., 2020;Hansen, 2020;Pirzadeh and
Lingard, 2021). However, these are primarily focused on developed economies and cover
variable aspects such as human travel behavior (Parr et al., 2020), the impact of lockdown on
stakeholders from a financial and psychological perspective (Hansen, 2020), viewpoints and
review papers to determine best practices and future directions in the construction industry, the
impact of teleworking on the well-being of managers in the construction industry (Pirzadeh
and Lingard, 2021) among others.
An important aspect to consider is that COVID-19 had a variable impact on various
geographical locations because of numerous factors, such as working environments, culture,
resources and the severity of the pandemic (Sumbal et al., 2024;Al-Mhdawi et al., 2022).
Hence, the role of context is vital, specifically when resource constraints are a big issue in
specific contexts, such as developing economies. Moreover, existing studies must cover a
holistic view concerning effective employee utilization at all levels, from laborers to top
management, and workforce management through effective knowledge management. The
construction sector in Pakistan employs almost 4.7 million workers, and thus, this sector has a
higher impact on the country’s economy.Thus, in this paper, we aim to examine the following
research questions in the context of Pakistan, a developing economy with various resource
constraints.
RQ1. What employee utilization challenges did the construction industry face during the
COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country context?
RQ2. What strategies could the construction industry adopt for effective employee
utilization post-pandemic in a developing country?
Through these research questions, we identify the risks brought by external factors to the
construction industry and provide various indicators and solutions to enterprises to cater to
ER
47,1
194
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