For years, workforce conversations across the precast concrete industry have relied heavily on anecdotes and assumptions. While plant managers and company leaders often have a strong sense of what is happening inside their organizations, hard data that reflects employee experience across the industry has been limited.
That is beginning to change.
Through a free, member-only workforce survey initiative, NPCA is helping precast producers gain access to meaningful, actionable data about employee well-being, job satisfaction, motivation and retention—while also creating a clearer, industry-wide picture of today’s precast workforce.
A Clearer Picture of the Workforce
The Industry Workforce Satisfaction Survey is designed to measure how employees experience their jobs without overwhelming participants or revealing proprietary questions. Results are grouped into high-level categories that help companies understand whether employees have what they need to succeed, feel motivated to stay and see a future for themselves in the industry.
Key areas measured include:
- Well-being and tenure
- Job context and role fit
- Motivation and intent
- Growth and utilization
- Teams, management and overall satisfaction
Together, these sections provide a holistic view of the employee experience—one that goes beyond engagement scores to focus on practical, decision-ready insights.
“The goal is to help companies use research to make business decisions. Data shouldn’t just sit in a report — it should change how you operate,” said Christina Trexler, NPCA’s vice president of workforce innovation.
What the Data Is Showing
Early results from the combined surveys point to several encouraging trends for the precast industry.
Overall well-being scores are strong, with more than 90% of respondents reporting they are doing well. That level of well-being is notable in an industry often challenged by physically demanding work and competitive labor markets.
Motivation data also offers valuable insight. While performance incentives such as bonuses and time off remain important, employees ranked seeing the results of their work as nearly equal in importance. Opportunities for training and education closely followed, reinforcing the idea that employees want to grow, learn and see the impact of what they do every day.
“We’ve never really had statistics like this about the precast workforce before. Now we can actually see what employees are experiencing across the industry instead of relying on assumptions,” Trexler said.
Perhaps most striking, more than 95% of respondents indicated they want to grow with their current employer—suggesting that retention challenges may be less about employee loyalty and more about providing clear pathways for development.
Additionally, 87% of employees said they would recommend the precast industry to friends and family as a great place to work, a powerful statistic for an industry focused on workforce attraction.