Recruitment specialist Julie Bolitho has watched the building industry from the inside since she was sixteen. Her advice ahead of the 2032 demand surge is simple. Start growing your own people now.
Last updated: 16 June 2026
Most builders treat recruitment as something that happens when a seat falls empty. A supervisor resigns, a quote needs writing, an estimator walks out the door, and the scramble begins. Speaking to The Good Builder Podcast, recruitment and HR specialist Julie Bolitho made the case that this is exactly the wrong way around. The builders who come out ahead, she argues, are the ones treating their people as a long-term plan, not a last-minute fix.
Bolitho has spent close to three decades around the industry. She started at sixteen in a land surveying office, the only woman among a room of men, and went on to work across the Housing Industry Association, a trade college and apprenticeship programs before founding Dedicated Staffing Solutions, where she now handles both recruitment and human resources for building clients. That combination matters. She has seen the building business from the operational side and the people side, and she knows what a good hire actually looks like inside a builder, not just on paper.
Her central message is one the industry rarely hears put so plainly. Your staff are the most important asset in your business, and getting that right takes time and focus that most builders never give it.
“They’re the face of your business, they’re the face of your team, they’re the face of either success or toxicity potentially.”
Workforce planning is not HR jargon. It is risk management.
The part of the conversation most worth a builder’s attention was Bolitho’s view on what is coming. With the 2032 Brisbane Games on the horizon, demand for trades and for roles like estimators is already pushing up. Commercial builders are paying serious money for the people they need. Residential builders who wait until they are under the pump will be competing for talent that is not there.
Her advice is to build the pipeline now. Take on apprentices, trainees and cadets while there is still time to develop them, so they are ready to step into the seat by the time the pressure arrives. The idea is not charity. It is capacity planning.
“They’re studying, they’re learning, they’re earning with you. But by the time you need them to be in that seat powering on, you’ve mentored them with the best employees in your business.”
Bolitho pointed to a model she saw work well during her time at the HIA, where builders partnered to subsidise their best tradespeople to take apprentices on, with part of the apprentice’s hourly rate covered as they worked alongside a senior tradie on real jobs. The logic is straightforward. If tilers are hard to find, put apprentices next to your best tiler. In three or four years you have grown your own. Do the same with your best estimator, your best contracts administrator, your best drafter, and you are effectively replicating the people who already make your business work.
This reframes recruitment entirely. Instead of buying skills on a tight market, you are growing them inside the business and passing down knowledge before it walks out the door with a retiring tradesman. It is a point that connects directly to the wider workforce conversation, including how the industry treats the apprentices it already has.
It is also a reminder that keeping that pipeline strong starts with the basics, including paying apprentices correctly. As we covered in our look at new Fair Work Ombudsman data on apprentice pay, construction already employs more apprentices than any other sector in Australia. The opportunity is to be deliberate about how they are developed, not just how many are signed up.
Why she would back local trainees before reaching offshore
Bolitho is realistic about the trade shortage. The average bricklayer is now in their sixties, and there will simply not be enough of them. She acknowledges that some trades cannot be filled locally and that skilled migration has a place. But her preference is clear. Before reaching offshore, she would rather see Australian young people given a genuine trade or traineeship pathway first.
Part of that, she says, is changing the mindset that still treats leaving school for a trade as failure. For her generation, quitting school made you a dropout. The reality is the opposite. Young people who pick up a trade are building the country. She also rates models that let students try several trades through work experience before committing, so they find the trade they actually want to finish rather than the one they drifted into. Commitment, she argues, is what produces a tradesperson who stays.
Women in the industry are still underselling themselves
Three decades in, Bolitho still sees a gap that has nothing to do with skill. When she interviews for the same role, a male candidate will often state a salary expectation flatly. A female candidate will more often ask whether a lower figure might be possible. The same hesitation shows up when it comes to asking for what they need, whether that is finishing early on a Friday or working from home one day a week.
“Females need to back themselves in a little bit more.”
For builders, this is not only a fairness point. It is a hiring blind spot. Capable people who undersell themselves in an interview can be overlooked, and good operators get missed. Bolitho’s observation, drawn from years of building offices, was that the businesses that ran best were often quietly held together by a partner working in the background. The talent is there. The industry has not always been quick enough to recognise it or pay it properly.
AI has made resumes look identical. Here is what that means for hiring.
One of the more practical warnings from the conversation was about artificial intelligence. Bolitho is now regularly seeing cover letters from three different candidates for the same job that read almost identically, because each has dropped the job ad into an AI tool and asked it to write the letter. The same happens with resumes tailored to the ad.
It sounds efficient. The problem shows up in the room. When she drills into the detail of a polished, AI-written resume, some candidates look back blankly, as if reading someone else’s document. The takeaway for builders doing their own hiring is blunt. If you are not focused, you will miss it, and you will hire the resume rather than the person.
Her process leans on the things AI cannot fake. Behavioural interviewing, body language, and a social media check that flags the gap between a resume claiming five years here and three years there, and a LinkedIn profile showing a string of short stints. For anyone working in the industry, that is a quiet argument for keeping an honest, professional profile, even if you rarely post. Recruiters are looking.
The hire that hurts most often comes from the heart
Bolitho was direct about one of the most common ways builders come unstuck. Hiring family and friends. She has had clients say their biggest mistake was bringing on a best friend’s son, only to discover the problems their mate had never mentioned. Nepotism in business, she says, is not a great thing, and she sees it happen a lot. The line she hears most from builders about to do it anyway is that this time will be different. It rarely is.
The fix is not to avoid people you know. It is leadership. Bolitho describes the kind of leader builders should want to be as someone with the warmth to support a team and the firmness to have the hard conversation when a mate takes liberties. A boss who buys the beers but cowers in the corner when things get tough is not leading. Encouragingly, she says she is seeing more builders grow into this, often because they have brought in a coach or mentor who pushed them to think bigger and stand proud of what they have built.
“A good builder is somebody that embraces change and looks at market trends so that they’re not just set in stone and stuck back in 1970.”
Asked what makes a good builder, Bolitho returned to people. Someone who embraces change, who has the entrepreneurial sense to see the value in looking after their team, and who knows when to step up, when to step aside, and when to give someone a hug. It is a people business, and the businesses that treat it that way are the ones that last.
THE GOOD BUILDER TAKE
The shortage is not coming. It is already here, and 2032 will sharpen it. The builders who treat that as someone else’s problem will be bidding against everyone else for the same scarce people in five years’ time.
The cheaper, slower, more reliable path is the one Bolitho describes. Put a trainee next to your best operator now. Pay your apprentices correctly. Keep the knowledge in the building before it retires. Recruitment is not a task you do when a seat empties. It is a plan you start before you need it.
Listen to the full conversation with Julie Bolitho on The Good Builder Podcast, and if you are thinking about your own workforce plan, get in touch with the team.
This article is general in nature and reflects views shared on The Good Builder Podcast. It is not professional HR, employment or migration advice. Builders should seek advice specific to their own circumstances before making employment decisions.
Your Question Answered:
What is workforce planning in construction?
Workforce planning is the practice of forecasting the staff and trades a building business will need and developing those people in advance, often through apprentices, trainees and cadets, rather than recruiting reactively when a role falls vacant.
How can builders prepare for the trade shortage before 2032?
Recruitment specialist Julie Bolitho recommends taking on apprentices and trainees now and pairing them with your best tradespeople, so they are skilled and ready to step into key roles by the time demand from the Brisbane 2032 Games peaks.
Is it a good idea to hire family or friends in a building business?
Bolitho warns that hiring family and friends is one of the most common ways builders come unstuck, because personal loyalty can override professional judgement. Clear leadership and the willingness to have hard conversations are essential if it is done at all.
How is AI affecting construction job applications?
AI tools are producing near-identical cover letters and tailored resumes, which can mask a candidate’s true experience. Bolitho relies on behavioural interviewing, body language and social media checks to verify whether an applicant matches their application.
Why do women in construction often earn less?
Bolitho observes that female candidates frequently state lower salary expectations and are less likely to ask for what they need in interviews, which can lead to capable people being underpaid or overlooked. She encourages women to back themselves more firmly.
0 Comments