Barriers to employment faced by disadvantaged groups targeted by new social procurement policies

Social procurement is an increasingly popular mechanism used by construction clients to encourage the construction supply chain to contribute positively to the communities in which thery build. A major focus of social procurement is the creation of employment and training opportunities for people suffering disadvantage who are traditionally excluded from the construction workforce. Surprisingly, given the dominant role of subcontractors as employers in the construction industry, their perspective is largely absent from the emerging construction procurement debate. There are very few insights into the drivers and barriers that subcontractors face in complying new social procurement requirements, which limits the potential social value which the industry can create. To address this imbalance in social procurement research, a survey of seventy-one Australian construction subcontractors was undertaken to explore the barriers they face in integrating six disadvantaged groups into their workforces (indigenous people, people suffering disability, women, disengaged youth, migrants and refugees, ex-offenders). The results highlight different barriers for each group with the most significant common barriers being a lack of government support and incentives, the cost of training and workplace support and a perception that targeted cohorts are not able to work effectively in the construction industry. Subcontractors hire disadvantaged groups mainly for good corporate citizenship, higher innovation and creativity, reputation and workforce diversity. These findings provide a more balanced understanding of what has hitherto been a one-sided debate, a more nuanced understanding of the challenges involved in social procurement implementation and valuable insights for policy-makers into the formulation of effective social procurement policies.