How to Recruit Good Employees for Your Construction Business

With the ongoing intake of construction workers, most companies are trying to come up with criteria to get good employees, especially since there is a shortage of qualified individuals in this industry. The reputation of your company is critical as it reflects your culture in terms of the quality of the work and the level of professionalism. One of the known popular ways of getting good employees is hiring those with a white card. White cards ensure that the workers have the proper training required to work in a construction job. Construction workers can take a white card course in Canberra or any city near them with an accredited institution. However, aside from the white card, there are other things you need to look at before hiring your employees. 

1. Referral Program

Every good employee likely knows someone who is currently looking for a job and is just as good. Rewarding your employees for pointing talent your way is recommended. You could offer cash rewards or some sort of incentives to encourage them to recommend qualified candidates. You could offer the new employees a trial period like probation to see what their work is like. 

If you are looking for other good sources, your friends and family are a good go-to. Alternatively, you could consult various subcontractors and other companies you are in business with. This is an especially good strategy since they are likely to recommend an experienced person in the industry. 

Professional social media sites such as LinkedIn and Slack should also not be ignored. They are great for reaching out to connections and letting them know that there is a hiring process going on. 

2. Leasing Labor

Some companies have labor to spare, which means that you can get the needed help from them. It comes with the advantage of knowing they are reputable and from a good source. Because you are reaching out to a company that is in the same field as you, you are likely to find experienced workers on hourly rates instead of fixed monthly salaries. 

A good example is if you want a drywall company and ask them for an hourly rate, they wouldn’t mind as long as you are okay with the added fee. Should they have a worker who works for $35/ hour, they would charge you $40/ hour to make the $5 profit. Because of the simplicity and ease of the work, this labor system is quite popular in the world of small contractors. 

3. Don’t Expect the Ideal Candidate

Whenever you are out there looking for the ideal candidate, you might be hoping for someone who will walk in with all the experience and educational qualifications you require. This may, however, not always be the case. In most instances, you will likely run into candidates with the skills you require but lacking in experience, or having the needed experience but not the educational level or lacking in skill set. 

In such instances, it is important to remember that you could always train an individual with the passion and ethics to grow and improve. You’re better off with an employee who has less experience but shows up every day ready to learn and undertake the daily business than an employee with the necessary experience but lacks discipline and doesn’t deliver on deadlines. 

4. Contact Vocational Schools

It is no secret that everyone wants the best talent they can find; however, that at times requires you to dig deep and search for them. A popular strategy used by recruiters is going for them before they go into the market. This might mean reaching out directly to the schools they are in and seeing if you can contact the graduates. It is a known fact that graduates are much easier to develop as a result of their training. This strategy is especially useful for technical jobs that require highly trained workers who are scarce in the market. 

5. Use the Right Agencies

Recruitment agencies are great when you don’t have the time to interview a lot of candidates, especially when doing mass hiring. However, you shouldn’t just hire any agency or the job. You need one that specializes in the construction industry and has a reputation for helping construction companies find the right people for the job. These kinds of agencies will most likely have CVs of potential candidates in their records or know a lot of people with the right experience to fill your positions. As a safe bet, you must go looking for labor specifically only through construction-related organizations and keep off general job posting sites and agencies because of their unpredictability. 

6. Track Your Workers

Many contractors neglect this tip, but the person you are looking for could already be under your nose. The guys you have as your subcontractors and pieceworkers are great options for your projects. The only thing you have to do here is keep track of their contact information and reach out to them when you need them. What most people in your shoes would do is create a master list of all your subcontractors so you can contact them easily when needed. 

7. Keep Recruiting

Do you have an upcoming project in the following weeks? Are you preparing or setting guidelines for a project that is coming up next year? Whether you are planning on starting a project soon or in the future, you should always be on the lookout for potential employees.  It is always good to have people in mind, a list of candidates who are ready for the job rather than start from scratch when you need them. That list of potential employees can also come in handy in other situations, for instance, when you need someone to cover for a sick employee or when they leave suddenly.  

The Takeaway

The construction workforce is ever-evolving, and because of that, you want to remain as competitive as possible. This might mean getting the best quality of workers in the market. You might have to pay them a little bit more to secure them for the long term. However, retaining your employees saves your company from lost productivity or costly hiring and training processes.