Answering the existential threat of workforce shortage in the roofing industry

By Emma Peterson. 

Bringing in the next generation of roofing and construction talent depends on building a supportive network for them. 

Host Heidi J. Ellsworth met with Jackson Johns from National Roofing in Season 5, Episode 63 of Roofing Road Trips. Jackson is a member of the Western States Roofing Contractors Association (WSRCA), and during the 2023 Western Roofing Expo (WRE) was integral to their Young Professionals Round Table.  

This event was a response to what Jackson described as an “existential threat” to the roofing industry, which is how to keep enough labor in the industry. “Where are we going to get new blood? Where are we going to get younger people? How do we get them involved? How do we convince them that they want to be on the rooftop and not in an air-conditioned office?”  

Western States already creates amazing materials in older media formats such as, “Technical documents and legal bulletins and all of this business-related stuff,” Jackson shared. But these deliverables might need to come in a different format for a different generation. The suggested format? A podcast that Jackson hosts with Shane Wakerling, a business-owner in California and Rachel Garcia, a supplier. Coordinating their busy schedules was a challenge, but they found a little time to get together, and according to Jackson, “We discuss industry issues, discuss problems that we're having, interview some people, mostly just provide a good hang.” 

It was from this that they realized one way to find and retain the new generation in the roofing industry was to build a community for them. And that’s how the WRE Young Professionals Round Table was born. Jackson describes it as a place to ask the dumb questions and the taboo ones; emphasizing it as a space for the new generation of roofers to "take a moment where we can be vulnerable with each other and honest with each other.” Ultimately, he sees the solution to the workforce shortage in the industry as giving younger people a network of support.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about supporting the next generation in the industry.