How do you overcome the skilled labor gap in the construction industry? It is a delicate balancing act to hire and keep the right talent to fulfill the projects your company has in the future. Almost 40% of all United States employers say that they are having an incredibly hard time finding the right workers with the right skills.
Although this all sounds negative, it can actually be a positive thing for your company’s growth. Hiring new talent allows for new ideas, new skill-sets, and worker development. Every construction company basis it’s success on the projects that they complete, and every project succeeds because of the workers. This success can start before you even hire your staff.
The way the construction industry finds their new workers has had to change with the increase in technology. Gone are the days that you hire your workers sons and grandsons. While the new hiring process can seem overwhelming at times, engaging with the new recruits can be exhilarating.
This is an amazing time because there at least four generations working in the construction industry at the same time. Each generation communicates a bit differently and it is up to the person finding the new talent to make sure the right people are seeing the right ads for the openings.
Glassdoor’s Rise of Mobile Job Search survey shows that 9 out of 10 people looking for a job will use a mobile device of some kind. Over 60% of those people will look to social media as a way to find a job as well. If your company’s job postings aren’t in the right places online, they won’t be reaching the candidates you are looking for, and you will continue to have a difficult time putting together a great team.
A lot of people looking for a job in the construction industry will visit websites of the companies that they hope to interview with. It is vital that the career page on your website be the best it can possibly be. The job candidate needs to be able to not only apply online, they need to be able to upload their resume, saving both you and the candidate valuable time. In these modern technological times, it is also vital that your career page be mobile-ready for tablets or smartphones.
The world is becoming more mobile, with PCs and laptops becoming a thing of the past. Even though this is the trend under 14% of recruiting leaders state that they’ve invested anything into mobile recruiting. That obviously doesn’t make much sense when 50% of the people looking for jobs are doing it on mobile devices. This is an excellent opportunity for your construction company to differentiate itself from the pack.
A quick turn around of talent is extremely costly to your company. Managers need to learn how to connect with their new workers and help retain them. Many different ways are helpful, but offering training and certification in order to move workers up seems to work the best for leaders in the field. While all of this seems like a daunting task, there is wonderful software solutions out there to help. From recruitment to retirement, automated talent management solutions can help your company be the success you always knew it could be.