Fred Mills, co-founder of a YouTube construction channel with a million subscribers, tells Construction News how the industry can attract more talent.
The inability of construction to attract new skills has paralyzed the sector for years.
Today, in the midst of a global pandemic and an ever-nearer labor shortage, the challenge is more vital than ever. But how can the sector succeed in a wider population and convince others of a career in construction?
Mills is a former Osborne manager and the founder and CEO of YouTube’s structure channel The B1M, which has over a million subscribers. He created it in 2015 as a pastime after work.
“We had a pretty slow start and reached 10,000 subscribers in August 2017, then 100,000 in mid-2018. It was quite slow and difficult at first, but it took off.
In April, the YouTube channel reached one million subscribers. Mills attributes this to his project statement. “I love the structure and I need the overall total to like me too, and other people are in touch with that project,” he says.
An introductory video, titled ”This is The B1M”, features a voiceover that describes the structure as a domain that “is not smart to yell at itself, and is not smart to celebrate what it does, and many talented and more productive young people don’t even realize.”
“I’m looking to take this industry beyond professional websites and show other people how wonderful it is. We want to ask ourselves how we can bring more diversity to the sector and be much more proactive in that regard.”
Mills continues: “There is a lot of internal communication in the structure industry, and the way many other people communicate with each other in the sector has not presented itself in a way that can obviously be used through other people outdoors. The industry.
“I think other young people today don’t just need wages and jobs, they need anything that makes a difference in the world. I think the structure industry is the toughest industry that can do that. It affects the lives of each and every one, from the houses where you wake up with the infrastructure and buildings we use every day.”
Mills wants younger generations to find it less difficult to locate and perceive structure data through a format they know and entertain. He says: “If you want to make a difference in the world, you paint in this industry, but we can’t expect other people to move to open-structure sites and documents and documents to see it. We want to include this exciting and engaging content in your news feeds. »
The former purchasing manager likes to use giant assignments to get attention. Recent videos have featured the 80 million pound renovation of Big Ben in London, the $5 billion NFL SoFi stadium in Los Angeles and Norway’s $47 billion coastal highway, the largest infrastructure allocation in the country’s history.
In addition to profiling the projects, Mills interviews graduates to ask them how they have entered and gives them routes in the industry, with a video titled “Current Contract: The World’s Largest Industry”.
While defending the industry, as it deserves much more compliments and respect, Mills also works to solve its problems.
“We don’t doubt complexity, nor do we hesitate to problems,” he says. “We cover issues such as social housing and inequality, fitness and climate protection and change. It’s not that we’re reducing things, it’s just that we’re formulating them in a way that other people can see more clearly.
“I think other young people today don’t just need wages and jobs, they need anything that makes a difference in the world. I think the structure industry is the toughest industry that can do that.”
“People appreciate that we tell both sides of the stories we report, for example, we can communicate about very impressive, well-designed and incredibly thin skyscrapers in New York, but we also point out that they belong to millionaires who perpetuate inequality in the design center, and that gets a lot of public support.
“If we do something about climate replacement and construction, we wonder if it’s something to communicate or if it’s just a hoax, which doesn’t even surprise me anymore, it depresses me.”
Mills is confident that the public belief of the structure industry can be replaced by something more positive, however, he is convinced that some things also want to replace in the sector, and admits that there are less than favorable facets of the culture of the structure.
He says: “We communicate a lot, but we don’t walk much. We say that we need racial and sexual diversity and that we need many young people to come, but then we have the Construction Leadership Council and they are all white, they are not women either and I think they are all over 40 years old, it is not the kind of industry we should be.
When CN asks how lucrative the YouTube business is, Mills laughs and says, “If I had a pound for every time someone asked me how I make money, I probably would have made more money [than the B1M].”
The B1M is too small to be asked to register your cash and benefit accounts at Companies House, with an organization of only 8 other employees, adding Mills and 4 other freelancers working with the team.
Mills said, “When I started, I just did everything, whether it’s locating ideas, filming the videos and distributing them, so I was lucky enough to gather a team of other people around me to help me do all this work. Matrix »
It explains that it is generated through a combination of advertising earnings on YouTube, logo sponsorship and some conference bookings.
“It’s not as lucrative as you think,” Mills says. “We have been reinvesting cash every year since early 2015. Looks like we’re a business, but I’m very project-oriented. I mean it when I say that I need to fundamentally replace the way other people see this industry on this planet, and I think the goal of the project is what makes other people need to look.”
Although Mills’ company encourages young people to worry about a career in construction, they’re not the only ones watching their videos.
Mills said, “Actually, we were surprised, because you would think that the audience would be made up of all the young people who are interested in TikTok and Instagram, but it’s a genuine mix.”
Explains that the average viewer of The B1M content is 36, according to their YouTube analysis. “There’s a big recovery with younger views, but a lot of the older generation is also watching,” he says.
“I have videos in which young architects and engineers tell me what they attract in the industry, but I can also tell my parents what they attract.”