Improving construction workforce entry by examining construction equipment operators' employment practices

The construction industry faces persistent workforce shortages, especially in specialized roles such as construction equipment operators (EOs), where participation from certain demographic groups remains low (only 2.52% of females). Although new technologies' emergence in construction, like teleoperation, offer opportunities to expand the talent pipeline, without a fair recruitment process, the industry risks missing the chance to broaden participation and address labor shortages. Therefore, examining whether current construction recruitment includes factors potentially influencing female participation is necessary but underexplored in previous studies. This study examines current recruitment practices for EOs, starting from job postings, job interviews, and evaluation to the ranking process. Specifically, through content analysis of job postings, gendered languages, and implicit preferences are identified (high physical demands, overtime work, and so on) that might make construction lose attraction for broader applicants. A survey is used to identify influencing factors in remaining procedures through binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that companies that prioritize standardized applicant evaluation and ranking methods and professional references tend to report broader representation among their equipment operators. Using objective metrics, such as completed task numbers, to evaluate postrecruitment performance supports broader workforce participation by emphasizing measurable outputs over subjective assessments. Incorporating peer evaluations from the same task group can further contribute to more balanced workforce representation because diverse perspectives mitigate individual biases. However, during recruitment, although companies perceive evaluating applicants' skills and experience via objective measures to demonstrate fairness, actually, this strategy can inadvertently disadvantage female equipment operators. This effect is likely linked to long-term patterns in the industry, where task assignments and resource access have not been equally distributed, thereby limiting opportunities for all individuals to develop comparable experience. Additionally, teleoperation is commonly believed to support workforce entry by reducing physical demands and enabling remote operation. These findings provide clear directions for further improving workforce entry in construction industry.