SiteSummit: 4 critical workforce retention lessons

For general contractors and construction executives, the pressure on talent has reached a boiling point. International firms are aggressively moving into the Canadian market, frequently throwing massive salary offers and signing incentives at local talent to establish a foothold. In this environment, keeping your best people is no longer just an HR responsibility, it is a direct line item in project risk management.

The Talent 101 panel at SiteSummit in Toronto tackled this operational crunch head-on. Featuring Gordana Terkalas, Chief People Officer at Aecon Group, Daryl Cooper, President of Cooper Equipment Rentals, and Mallorie Brodie, CEO of Bridget, the discussion mapped out how construction companies need to adapt to protect their team chemistry and project delivery.

Here are the four core lessons from that conversation that every general contractor should take back to the office.

1. Stop negotiating with a ‘gun to Your head‘

The session opened with a scenario every executive dreads: a star employee walks into the office claiming a competitor just offered them a 15% raise and a brand-new truck. While the immediate instinct is to match the offer and protect the active project, the panelists strongly cautioned against reactive bidding wars.

Daryl Cooper advocated for a firm line against outside poaching.

“We don’t like to negotiate with a gun to our head,” Cooper said, explaining that maintaining the integrity of your salary structure matters more than a single reactive save. Breaking your internal compensation bands to retain one individual destroys equity across the field and deeply hurts morale among those who stayed.

Furthermore, over-indexing on the loudest flight risks heavily penalizes your most valuable asset, which is the quiet majority. Gordana Terkalas warned against paying what she calls a “loyalty tax,” where consistently steady, loyal performers are inadvertently left behind because an organization is too busy throwing money at employees who already have one foot out the door.

Instead of blowing up the budget for outliers, the focus should be on cultivating a deeper middle tier. Brodie shared a lesson from her father, a basketball coach, who intentionally sat his star players during tryouts to see what the next layer of talent, a group he called the “Nebs” (short for nebulous), actually looked like. Building an organization that invests heavily in this deep middle layer protects a company from ever being held hostage by a single superstar.

2. Mid-level PMs are your true turnover risk

While senior executives usually command the most attention, industry data reveals that the real retention crisis is happening in the middle of the workforce.

Brodie highlighted a striking statistic from Bridget’s benchmark data: across the construction industry, the attrition rate for intermediate Project Managers is four times higher than for senior PMs.

Intermediate PMs are the operational workhorses of the jobsite, yet they frequently face the highest rates of burnout due to brutal commute times and project allocations that ignore their personal career goals. To curb this specific risk, general contractors must establish clear, competency-based milestones so intermediate talent can track their upward progress, even when tied down to a lengthy project lifecycle.

Additionally, companies need to stop forcing great builders to become people managers just to earn a promotion. Cooper emphasized the importance of creating alternative, subject-matter expert tracks with wide compensation bands. This allows technical masters to advance financially without forcing them into a traditional corporate ladder they have no interest in climbing.

3. Watch for ‘invisible disengagement‘

In a fragmented industry where project teams are spread across distant jobsites, executives are often completely blind to employee dissatisfaction until a resignation letter lands on their desk. Relying on an outdated feedback loop, like a one-on-one meeting that consists of a “buffet lunch from three years ago,” no longer cuts it.

Leaders need to watch for behavioral warning signs in the field. Interestingly, Cooper noted that it is time to start worrying when your top performers stop complaining. True 1% talent naturally pushes for excellence and ruffles feathers to get things done; when they go quiet and stop fighting for better project execution, they have already checked out.

Terkalas agreed, noting that the ultimate red flag is a distinct shift in everyday behavior. When a naturally vocal, passionate leader stops contributing opinions in project meetings, stops solving complex problems, or stops showing up to optional company and industry events, they are actively phasing themselves out. Catching these signs requires structured, routine check-ins rather than reactive crisis management.

4. Outdated perks to retire

The traditional retention strategies of the past are losing their grip on a changing workforce. To attract and keep tomorrow’s construction leaders, companies need to look past old-school incentives.

Terkalas pointed out that corporate networking and perks must evolve past exclusive, alcohol-heavy, or golf-centric outings. Modern talent, including single parents and those supporting multi-generational families, values flexibility and genuine equity over outdated social clichés that appeal to a narrow demographic.

Brodie echoed this shift, noting that trendy corporate perks like “unlimited vacation” rarely drive real engagement in the physical world of construction. Instead, tomorrow’s leaders are looking for an environment that fosters a “builder mindset,” giving them the autonomy and tools to actively innovate and optimize how work gets done on the ground.

The bottom line

Winning the talent war isn’t about matching a competitor’s quick financial flex. Whether a company is managing infrastructure pipelines, scaling tech, or moving equipment fleets coast-to-coast, true retention is a proactive game. It requires building a grounded, transparent culture that grants genuine autonomy, values the deep bench, and invests in people long before they ever think about walking out the door.