Four reasons why women with computers can help the trades find good employees.
Dear men, if we greet our “crew” in the morning with a “Morning, lads” and plan today’s “manpower” for the site, we may already have made a crucial mistake.
There are surely many prejudices about women that are simply true, aren’t there? Women are worse drivers and women can’t do much with computers. So you might wonder why women at the computer should help the trades find good employees.
It is statistically proven that women cause significantly fewer car accidents on average. The argument that this is only because the car is usually registered in the man’s name has also been disproved (ACE accident statistics 2019). But what about women at the computer, and what does that have to do with the trades?
In one study, more than 9,000 trade businesses in Germany were asked about their activities (ZDH study 2017). It confirmed that women are clearly in the minority in the construction trades: on average there is only one woman for every seven men. Likewise, the people in management are predominantly (approx. 85%) male. But if you dig a little deeper into the figures, you find that women may well play a massive part in the progress of the trades:
Reason 1: The computer specialists in the construction trades are women!
The study says that on average there is only one woman for every seven men, but the “digital people” in the trades are clearly the women. Digging deeper into the study, you also find that more than 90% of computer work in the construction trades is done by women. So when it comes to computer work, there are nine women for every man. Even in the construction trades, more than 90% of commercial tasks are done with software on a computer, and “computer work” can clearly be counted as “digitization”. So the computer specialists in our industry are the women.
Reason 2: Working at the PC gives women more “power”.
Now that we know that 90% of the computer work in the trades is done by women, let’s look at what they actually do there.
One cliché is that the wife does her husband’s payroll and spends most of her working time on it. But here, too, let’s look at the facts. According to a 2018 digitization study by the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, more than 50% of trade businesses already use software solutions that offer far more than just “payroll”. So today you can do a lot with a computer in the trades.
30% plan to spend money on the topic in the next three years. Software companies offer more than payroll. Besides payroll, there is software for time tracking, resource management (finding and reserving tools), quotations, order processing, purchasing, customer service, stocktaking, site planning, staff scheduling and so on. This greatly widens the range of work of the “woman at the PC” and with it her importance to the business itself. Through the insight “she” gains this way, women’s power in the trades is growing.
Reason 3: Women influence men’s purchasing decisions.
Yes, it’s true: women are the secret decision-makers when it comes to money. In reason 3 we actually want to show you a cliché that the study even confirms. The woman at the computer is often a relative of the top dog (the managing director). In a considerable number of cases, the job is even done by the business owner’s wife. Is that the case with you too?
We also saw this confirmed in our conversations with many trade businesses. At some meetings, the business owner either didn’t want to come to the “digital appointment” at all without his wife or told us straight away that his wife decides on “computer stuff”.
So there is a connection between married women and men in a trade business. And now for the bombshell, men: in the 2018 Nielsen study “The Women of Tomorrow”, almost 6,500 women and their husbands in 21 countries were asked who makes the purchasing decision for investments. Result: in over 80% of cases, women are the ones who decide on the purchase. Even for “digital goods”, i.e. software too, women predominantly (62%) decide. Dear men, what’s your own experience at home? Could there be something to it? Do you think it’s any different in the business?
Reason 4: New software programs can help solve the staff shortage.
Besides the software programs mentioned in reason 2, today you can also recruit new employees with your website or platforms such as Facebook. With the option of running regional ads, online advertising is becoming increasingly important for tradespeople to find new workers and draw attention to their job offers. No offense, but if you take a look at trade businesses’ websites, you will find that a fair number of them look a little “wrinkly”.
To look good online, you need specialists who know how. Marketing, by the way, is mostly women’s business. A study by the GWA (the German association of communication agencies) of 530 small businesses in Germany showed that 62% of marketing staff are women – and the trend is rising. So if marketing becomes more important in the construction trades, for example to recruit new employees, the construction trades need female experts who know their way around it.
Dear women, in our view you may well have more on the ball than you sometimes give yourselves credit for. For the reasons above, your role in the trades is becoming even more important. Don’t be afraid of new possibilities at the computer – feel free to contact us and we will help you.
