How to recruit in construction

How to recruit in construction

Years of recruiting people for our clients, as well as recruiting the members of our construction team and our office team constantly reassures us in thinking that following a thorough recruitment process is the key to find good people.

What does a ‘good recruitment’ mean, and how much does it cost? As the cliche is saying, you will not find out until you make a bad one.

Following a few simple principles will help you understand what to focus on, when you look for a new addition to your team.

1. You need to know who you want…

You could be perfertly clear with yourself about who you need, but it means nothing unless you communicate it properly to the potential candidates. Creating and showcasing a clear job description with the outside world is one of the key elements In finding the right candidate.

Split your description onto the following sections:
– What is required from the candidate
– Skills qualification and personal attributes section
– What you offer

2. Look within your inner circle first.

Take an easy step. The first place you should look is your close circle. Ask around. You might be surprised finding out that the person you know is currently looking for a job. Perhaps your friends can reccomend somebody who has already done a good job for them. Do not be afraid to use this as your first option. We also ask our current operatives for the recommendation of the their friends.
It is a good first step but does not always guarantee a success straight away due to a limited audience.

3. Look in the right place 

In this aspect, similarly to many other aspects of a business, It is a “numbers game”. In this instance it means that the bigger the number of people you reach and go through, the more chance there is, to find a right one.

4. Professional platforms

There are professional platforms like indeed, Cv library or monster, which are great if you are in hunt for the trades. They are not free. You should also bear in mind, that only a limited number of good construction specialists upload their CV ‘s on then.
First of all, The best workers never look for a job, but “the job looks for them”.
Most of good construction specialists, don’t neccesarly have great computer skills or ability to create a professional Cv.
This does not mean they are not good at what they do therefore you might end up with nothing, or find a good worker after a long search.

There is very little chance to find good labourers on the professional candidates pooIs, with some exceptions. If you find such profiles, there is a high chance you deal with a student who looks for some extra money to top up their budget. This could be a good short term solution, but If you look for a permanent member of the team you could be disappointed. Students came to work on construction sites short term.

Other, very good pools of candidates which you can explore are all social media platforms.
I will only cover the main ones for construction.

5. Social media

Linkedin is a good place to look for a management level. Managers are normally well educated and they have got no problem with creating good cv. Also they know where their potential employers go for hunt. It is also a professional platform where you need to be able to communicate in the right manner. It is generally not very popular unless you are a high level construction specialist.

Facebook is the place where nearly half of the world population go. It is good to reach big numbers of people but the information comes unnoticed if you do not do it in the right way.

You absolutely have to spend time and follow certain principals in order to find somebody good on facebook.

Look in the specific trades and topic groups
Have a good filters to weed out the time wasters.
Because Facebook is a social platform, in most cases it says very little about a candidate’s professional attributes. It is almost like shouting out what you need and waiting for people to respond. The rest of hard work still has to be done.

6. Quality is the key

If principles go in order this would be the first one to look at. The hardest and one of the most important secrets of recruitment is finding a good quality candidates.
How can you test the quality your future employee?
Asking the actual worker about their abilities and expecting a honest answer is highly naive. Going one step further, the worst workers would normally be talking and talking about how good they are.
Not too many people undersell when they are desperate to get a job.
Therefore the best solution to check a quality of your candidate is to speak to somebody who can vouch for them.

If your candidate was recommended by someone you can trust, than you are on the winning position.
If your candidate was found in any of the candidates’ pools you need to ask their past employers for the references.
The more references you have the more credible they are.

7. Good direct communication

If you think you will always have people phoning you asking for a job after receiving your message or seeing your post or job advert, you are badly mistaken. Use the platform to start the conversation, but aim for taking their phone number so you can have a phone conversation with them. Construction people do not often have time to text, and a phone conversation is the only solution to close the deal.

8. Gut feeling

It is perfect to be right at first place, but If you are not do not beat yourself to it.
Sometimes a positive vibe from the candidate could be a deal sealing point. Therefore do not be afraid to try. You can always follow the principles that applies mainly to the construction sector recruitment.
Hire carefully and dismiss quickly.

A lot of companies try to recruit in house with intention to make some savings. In reality they pay double for their mistake by not making it right at first place.

At Emplink we recruit for our clients and our sites for years. Out success ratio is high therefore using us can save you time and money