Social procurement in the real world: How employment requirements unfold in construction projects

Social procurement and employment requirements, i.e. procurement criteria aimed at creating employment opportunities for long-term unemployed people such as immigrants, youths and disabled, are becoming increasingly popular in the construction sector.Many Swedish construction sector organizations hope that employment requirements will help mitigate problems such as unemployment, segregation and a construction sector desperate for more workers. However, the practical effects of these requirements on individual construction projects are unclear. Adopting a practice-based theoretical perspective of institutional logics and a qualitative research approach, 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with actors working on site in construction projects where employment requirements have been set. Thus, the interviewees have experience from practical effects from the requirements and also work on a daily basis with the people that have been employed through employment requirements. The results show that the integration of employment requirements and involvement of the unemployed in construction work are not as easy as hoped. The integration of employment requirements is hindered due to problems of: (1) coordination between central organizations and project organizations, (2) unclear demands from clients, (3) lack of trained or experienced people to hire, (4) government bureaucracy, and (5) lack of commitment from the actors working on the construction site where some feel that they do not have the time, knowledge or mandate to work with employment requirements properly.This paper contributes new theoretical and practical insights into a scarcely researched phenomenon. For managers, the paper concludes that there must be a person who works in a coordinating role between central organizations and project organizations, with good knowledge of both the labour market and the construction sector. Also, it is important that the central organizations anchor the purpose and goals of using employment requirements in the individual construction projects.