Top Tips to Hiring Quality Construction Workers
Top Tips to Hiring Quality Construction Workers
It is no secret that the construction industry has been struggling to recover from the over two million jobs lost in the recession. As jobs positions become available, how do employers ensure that they are hiring quality construction workers? Every employer knows that hiring the wrong employee can be detrimental to a company’s morale and project fluidity.
Table of Contents
Here are some top tips and tricks to hiring quality construction workers:
Check for necessary skills
The first thing to check for when looking at a candidate’s resume is to make sure that they have the skills or experience required to perform the job they are seeking. Without the necessary skills, employees will not be able to keep up with the rest of the construction workers. Necessary skills include not only technical skills but also other essential skills that are just as necessary to be successful.
These essential skills in construction can include:
- — Problem-solving skills
- — Quick decision making
- — Collaboration and communication
- — Planning and organizing
Remember, attitude is everything
Perhaps even more important than technical skills is a positive attitude and a good fit to the company’s mission. Even though basic construction skills are necessary, they should not be weighed more heavily than a positive attitude. Skills can be expanded, but an attitude that is out of line with the company’s mission will cause friction to company moral, and will negatively affect other construction employees.
Utilize internships/apprenticeships
A great way to ensure that you are hiring only the best construction workers is by implementing an internship or apprenticeship program. An apprenticeship program allows employers to “test-run” potential candidates before hiring them full-time. This allows the employer to see how well the apprentice adapts to the work and to see a fuller picture of his personality and skill-set. At the end of the apprenticeship, the employer has the option to hire the apprentice full-time, or to look elsewhere. One of the greatest benefits of internships and apprenticeships is that the employer has already done the heavy lifting as far as recruiting and training. This apprentice has already been discovered, interviewed, and trained, and should be ready to enter the company at full-speed.
Do your due diligence
The interview/hiring process is the employer’s one and only chance to properly vet the candidate before making a hiring decision. The employer must ensure that he is asking the right questions and giving the candidate an opportunity to showcase his skills. The employer should hold a preliminary interview over the phone before holding an in-person interview. This allows the employer to get an initial feel for the candidate and decide if it is worth expending resources to give him an in-person interview. The employer can also require that the candidate takes an online personality and skills assessment test to see how the candidate’s personality will fit in with the company culture and to ensure that he has necessary analytical skills needed to perform the job. The employer should also do his fair share of investigating by checking all references provided as well as seeking out some references that were not provided, such as project managers and foremen that have worked with the candidate. It is vital that all of this is performed before the hiring of any employee.
Implement employee referral benefits
A great way to seek out qualified candidates is to offer some incentive to existing employees for quality referrals. This means that instead of a single recruiter looking for new talent, you will have an entire workforce of recruiters. It has been proven that employees who are hired after an employee referral tend to stay at that job longer than an employee found by a traditional recruiter. This is partially due to the fact the existing employee tends to screen the candidate for personality and technical skills fit before recommending them for the job.
Seek out passion
Everybody can show up to work, get the job done, and go home, but it is often difficult to find an employee who is eager to come to work, who goes the extra mile while he is at work, and who does not go home until he has accomplished a full-days-work. The difference between the first employee and the second employee is passion. Passion can sometimes be hard to find, but if you as an employer are actively seeking it, it will be easy to recognize. Passion can be uncovered by asking the right questions in an interview regarding the candidate’s reasons for wanting the job at hand. Through proper vetting, the employer should be able to uncover if the candidate is truly passionate about the job he is interviewing for or if he is simply looking for any job that will hire him or something with better pay. If the employer is successful in hiring an employee with passion, there will be a noticeable difference in morale and overall productivity. Along with this, employees with a passion for what they do are less likely to switch jobs and have a higher job satisfaction.
Conclusion
The acquisition of high-quality employees does not happen automatically. The employer must make a conscious effort to effectively vet each candidate and encourage talent seeking among all employees. When proper hiring and recruiting efforts are implemented, a company can eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes along with hiring decisions.
Resources:
