Diversification is usually discussed as a business-development decision.

By Troy Clark, MSC Safety Solutions

A contractor sees opportunity in a new market segment. Commercial work may be slowing while another sector is growing. Data centers, industrial projects, or work tied to an existing customer can create new opportunities. Leadership sees a path to new revenue, better margins, or a more balanced backlog.

That opportunity can be legitimate, but diversification also raises a workforce question that is often overlooked.

Can your workforce actually follow you into that new market?

Winning work and being ready to perform it are two very different things.

A company can have the financial capacity to pursue the work, an estimating team capable of pricing it, leadership that understands the opportunity, and much of the equipment needed to get started. Field readiness is a separate issue.

The requirements can change quickly from one market to another. Documentation may become more detailed. Owner procedures can be more restrictive. Scheduling, coordination, and sequencing may require a level of discipline the company has not needed on previous projects. The work itself can introduce unfamiliar equipment or qualification requirements.

What worked well on one type of project may not transfer as easily as people think.

The Estimating Department Can Diversify Faster Than the Workforce

It is relatively easy to identify a new market, price a project, and sign a contract. Developing the workforce to perform that work takes longer.

A supervisor with 15 years of success on commercial projects can still face a learning curve on a large industrial project. Experience on one type of crane does not automatically prepare an operator for another simply because the operator holds a certification. Even familiar work can feel different when the owner expects a different planning process, more documentation, or tighter coordination before the task begins.

Consider a foreman who has spent years running productive commercial crews. That experience still matters when the company moves into data center work, but the environment may require more detailed preplanning, stricter access controls, different turnover expectations, and closer coordination with multiple trades. The foreman has not suddenly become inexperienced. The work has changed around the experience they already have.

The strongest contractors recognize that experience is specific.

Good people can grow into new markets, but that growth has to be intentional.

Every Market Demands Different Competencies

Construction experience is valuable, but it is not interchangeable.

A field employee who understands one system can learn another. Experienced supervisors often adapt well when given enough exposure and support. Years in the industry also bring judgment that cannot be replaced by a short class.

The problem comes when a company assumes past success automatically covers the new work.

A contractor entering a different market needs to understand what its people will be expected to know, demonstrate, and perform differently. That might include equipment operation, lifting activities, electrical systems, confined spaces, specialized access, permitting, owner procedures, documentation, or quality controls.

The leadership environment can change too.

Some projects allow considerable flexibility in how work is executed. Others operate under processes where planning, coordination, documentation, and verification are expected before work begins. A supervisor who is highly effective in one environment can struggle when those expectations change.

The same is true for crews. A worker may know how to perform the physical task but still be unfamiliar with how that task is planned, documented, inspected, or released in the new market.

That is why workforce development belongs in the diversification conversation before the first project starts.

Start With a Capability Assessment

Leadership should look beyond résumés and training cards when evaluating readiness for a new market.

The useful question is not simply whether employees have experience. It is whether they have the right experience for the work the company is pursuing.

That requires looking at the people who will actually execute the work and the systems supporting them. Relevant field experience matters, but so does demonstrated skill. Supervisors need enough familiarity with the market to understand what will be expected of their crews. Leadership should also identify qualification requirements the company has not dealt with before and determine whether current planning, safety, quality, and documentation systems will hold up in the new environment.

There is another business issue here that deserves attention: whether the company can support the new work without weakening the projects it already performs well.

A contractor may have five supervisors capable of making the move, but if all five are pulled from strong existing projects, the diversification effort can create problems somewhere else. The same applies to operators, project managers, and highly skilled craft employees.

A capability assessment can expose those gaps while there is still time to decide how to address them.

Sometimes the workforce is closer to being ready than expected. In other cases, the assessment shows that the company needs more preparation before committing to the work.

Either answer is useful when it comes early.

Diversification Does Not Require Starting Over

Most companies do not need to replace their workforce simply because they enter a new market.

They need to understand where development is required.

An experienced foreman moving into a different project-delivery environment may benefit from time alongside someone who already understands that type of work. An operator assigned to unfamiliar equipment may need additional seat time followed by field evaluation. A crew taking on a new process may need practical training before being expected to perform independently.

Those are different development needs, and they should be treated that way.

Training can introduce knowledge and expectations. Competency shows up when the employee can perform the work correctly under actual field conditions.

That distinction matters when diversification introduces unfamiliar equipment, different work methods, or higher-risk activities.

A certificate can tell a company that someone completed a course. It cannot always tell the company how that person will perform when the lift is complex, the schedule is tight, the work area is congested, and several trades are depending on the task being done correctly.

That is where practical evaluation has value.

Workforce development should close the gap between what an employee has been taught and what the employee can actually demonstrate on the job.

Accidental Diversification Can Be the Most Dangerous Kind

Sometimes diversification happens without a formal strategy.

A long-term customer asks a contractor to take on a different type of project. The job goes reasonably well, and another opportunity follows. Over time, a meaningful portion of the company’s backlog shifts into a market it never deliberately prepared to enter.

The estimating department diversified before the workforce did.

The problems are not always obvious at first. Supervisors may be delivering the work while still learning the environment. Employees encounter procedures they have not worked under before. Existing systems get modified as projects develop instead of being designed around the new market in advance.

Capability gaps can also lead to reactive hiring or last-minute training. That usually costs more and gives leadership fewer options.

The company may still complete the work, but the effort often requires more management attention than expected. Productivity can suffer. Quality issues become harder to control. Supervisors spend time solving problems that better preparation could have prevented.

By the time leadership recognizes what happened, the company may already be committed to several projects in the new market.

Workforce Development Belongs in Strategic Planning

If leadership is considering entering a new market next year, workforce planning should begin before the first proposal is submitted.

The company needs a clear picture of the skills the market will require and which existing employees can realistically grow into those roles. Supervisors who may lead the work should be evaluated early enough to give them meaningful exposure before they are carrying the full responsibility of the project.

Some gaps may require outside hiring. Others can be addressed internally through mentoring, field evaluation, equipment time, or targeted development.

The timing matters.

Trying to develop people after the project has started means the customer, schedule, and production demands are already applying pressure. Development becomes one more problem the project team has to manage.

Done earlier, it becomes part of the business plan.

That preparation affects far more than safety. A capable workforce influences quality, productivity, planning, and the likelihood that the company can perform the work profitably.

Winning the First Project Is Only the Beginning

Diversification can reduce dependence on one type of work and create new opportunities for growth. It can also strengthen customer relationships when a contractor is able to follow a client into new markets.

But the organization still has to deliver what it sells.

That requires more than a good estimate and a signed contract. It requires people who understand the work, supervisors who can lead it, and systems that support the way the new market operates.

Before entering a new market, contractors should give workforce capability the same level of attention they give market opportunity. Long-term success depends on whether the people performing the work are prepared for what comes next.

About the author: 

Troy Clark leads MSC Safety Solutions and its family of companies, including Colorado Crane Operator School, Crane Qualified, MSC Workforce Development, and Prolevari. He writes and speaks on leadership and workforce development, sharing a philosophy shaped by decades in construction safety: Safety is a Byproduct of Workforce Development. Troy’s work centers on building safer job sites by building stronger people.