Recruiting can be a time-consuming and expensive task, especially in the construction industry. Construction is a hands-on, person to person profession and with each job comes a different set of problems, obstacles, and scope of work. With that in mind, recruitment is one of the most difficult challenges to overcome as a business owner.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, industries and occupations related to health care, personal care, and construction are projected to have the fastest job growth between 2010 and 2020. Employment of construction workers is expected to grow 22 percent, adding about 1.4 million new jobs over this period. Since jobs in construction are projected to grow faster than the overall jobs growth in the U.S., this means that construction business owners will be challenged in the area of hiring and retention.
Hiring additional staff members to meet the explosive growth of the decade is vital, but deciding how to attract construction workers for your business can be confusing. Let’s examine some tips that will help you find and keep the top talent.
Tips on How to Attract Construction Workers
Become an Employer of Choice
How can you make your business stand-out from the competition? It all comes down to reputation. Recruits are more likely to want to work for you if they feel a connection to your business. Make sure your company has a reputation as an excellent place to work. You can accomplish this is several ways:
- Be certain that your corporate culture is well defined on your website (and if you don’t have one yet, what are you waiting for?).
- Update your social media accounts frequently to demonstrate why your business is a great place to work. Pro tip: Share photos and video of company outings or employee promotions.
- Build a recruitment, training, and career development program based on your needs. This not only helps establish a well-defined recruitment process but also builds confidence amongst your current and future employees.
- Provide a healthy work-life balance for your employees to showcase one of the many benefits for working at your company.
- Employee feedback is also critical. Consider implementing a company-wide survey so that you can identify areas of improvement.
All of these things go a long way to building up your reputation as an employer of choice.
Find the Top Talent
Where can you go to find candidates for field positions? You can start with traditional recruitment channels like high schools and referrals. Young people of high school age have been a traditional source of recruits for construction field positions, however, some construction firms have felt a need to find other conduits to help fill their field positions since interest in a career in construction has waned amongst the high school demographic.
Word of mouth has long been the strongest source for finding recruits. Hard-working employees often recruit friends and family members for open positions. Though these traditional routes have worked in the past, recruitment levels have been dropping in recent years.
Emerging Recruitment Channels
Construction business owners have gotten much savvier when it comes to recruitment. If you’re having trouble finding top talent by traditional means, you might want to consider more modern avenues of recruitment. One way to attract new employees, particularly young recruits, is to take your job postings to social media. Social media networks have become key channels for reaching new talent. Networks to try include Facebook and LinkedIn.
Another emerging recruitment channel that’s gotten a lot of traction over the past decade is community colleges. Most two-year colleges have trades/vocational programs that teach students the basics. Once recruited, these employees can come into a new job with a solid entry-level amount of experience.
Focus on Retention
Once you’ve found new construction superstars, it’s time to shift your focus to keeping them onboard. One of the biggest issues that construction business owners face is employee retention, but there are things that you can do to make sure that your newly found talent sticks with you for the long haul.
- Develop a formal mentoring program – This can be a simple or complex as you’d like. To realize success, the employees on the team must be driven to succeed. By pairing new employees with seasoned and skilled role models, you’re not only investing in the employee but also your business.
- Establish performance and career goals – Working with your new employees to identify performance metrics will give them a goal to work towards. You can also discuss with your employees opportunities for growth. Empowering your talent with the ability to take on additional responsibilities and creating a clear path to promotion will encourage them to stick around.
- Offer incentives – Another popular way to keep the new employees you’ve successfully recruited is to offer incentives. These incentives can include bonuses, additional vacation time, flexible scheduling, and continuing education opportunities.
Choosing the Right Equipment
Now that you’ve found the best talent for your construction business, it’s time to purchase the best equipment for your work truck or van. Adrian Steel offers the best in cargo management solutions for any vocation. We’ve put together some great ideas for full-service packages that include shelving, bins, partitions, and other useful items. Contact us online or find a distributor near you to get started today!
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