Money Talks

It was no surprise to read the recent article under the label titled “Workforce Solutions” without encountering any mention of the financial aspect in matters concerning the engineering workforce (ENR 5/21-28 p. 133). It is very rare to see any allusion to the role of financial rewards in the frequently published articles sounding the alarm on the apparent difficulties engineering firms face in obtaining and maintaining talented staff.

The great majority of editorials and commentaries on this subject are full of buzzwords and generalities such as the ones found in your article, as well as ideas about attracting school children going down to almost the kindergarten level, telling them how interesting a career in technology would be rather than telling them how prosperous they would become with such a career.

The article quotes a professor stating “We’ve failed to attract people to our profession,” without giving the core reason for it: The most effective appeal is the prospect of a prosperous future. If the profession truly is unable to attract people in the quantities that it desires, the fundamental reason is that it ranks at the bottom of professions in terms of financial compensation. The fact that is totally ignored is that, in our society, economic well-being is the most critical factor in any decision-making, even by kids.

Ruben Manuelyan, P.E.
New York City

Taking Down BIM Barriers

 The promise of building information modeling (BIM) may be the sort of accelerant that transforms an industry. BIM squares nicely with various diverse trends. Like a genie released from a bottle, BIM is here.

Ms. Gonchar points to changes in relationships between members of a project team as a barrier to adopting BIM in “Transformative Tools Start To Take Hold” (ENR 4/23 p. 84). There are two elements to this barrier. The power and autonomy of individual disciplines is transformed when information is shared, which threatens to force changes in intellectual ownership.

However, it would be unfortunate if our unrestrained tort system claimed another victim. BIM makes sense, especially in a world that struggles with inequities (and scarcity) of materials.  The American system of jurisprudence is adversarial and often antithetical to innovations like BIM. As BIM becomes more widely accepted, the construction industry has an opportunity to apply its principles to helping lawmakers craft legislation that will address the landscape of distributive processes and shared risk.

Len Cruz
Associate
Kimmel & Associates
Construction Owners Division
Asheville, N.C.