Maintaining qualified construction workers for construction firms can be a major challenge. Demand can shift suddenly, and you need workers with the right skills as soon as new projects arise. Failure to have a team ready can mean losing out on a major contract. So, you cannot afford to be unprepared. However, this is easier said than done.
Many in the construction industry turn to staffing agencies to find construction workers and avoid a complex hiring process or navigating frustrating job boards.
Steps to Finding Top Construction Workers
Finding skilled construction workers for your projects can be difficult if you try to do it alone. There are many steps involved, each of which requires expertise and resources for proper handling. Whether for your full-time employees or temporary support, you’ll have to go through these steps to understand how to find construction workers.
Assessing Actual Worker Needs
The first step to fulfilling your needs is to define them. You need to know what you’re looking for in terms of the number of construction professionals and the specific skill sets for different roles. These factors will depend on the scope, scale, and nature of the project at hand, and they can vary widely.
If your company has significant experience handling the specific type of project you have coming up, you may already have a good idea of how many and what kind of workers you need. You can base your estimates on past experience and possibly even scale those numbers to large projects effectively.
However, if you’re working on a type or scale of project you haven’t handled before, then estimating worker needs can become much more challenging. You may not be able to anticipate the specific skills and qualifications that the job will entail. It can also be difficult to find skilled workers to finish your project within the deadline. Having too few can mean going over schedule, while hiring too many can substantially increase your costs.
Building Relationships with Trade Schools and Industry Organizations
In terms of building your core team, local trade schools and industry organizations are great resources when you’re looking to hire construction workers. You’ll find plenty of opportunities to take apprentice-level workers on board to fill out your team and hopefully develop them into exceptional workers over time. The steady stream of students and graduates eager for work is an excellent resource.
Many industry organizations can also help you with hiring construction workers at the journeymen-level. They likely maintain a network of professionals with different skills and qualifications. However, a good construction worker will likely have high expectations in terms of compensation, long-term commitment, and career advancement opportunities.
If you’re in need of experienced workers for short-term projects or on short notice, these two resources may fail you. While it’s important to focus on building your workforce, don’t overlook the importance of having an alternative solution on hand when you need to scale rapidly.
Developing a Comprehensive Recruitment Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes that construction company managers can make is leaving recruitment construction jobs up to chance. You don’t want to find yourself scrambling to hire in a hurry or dealing with unqualified workers whose performance doesn’t match their supposed experience. You need to develop a strategy to bring in workers and ensure they’re the right fit for your team.
Various general job boards are an excellent way to cast a wide net. You’ll find yourself sorting through plenty of irrelevant resumes as well, but you will also find plenty of dependable workers. You can save yourself some time and effort by tightening your search with industry-specific or niche job boards. Today, advertising openings on social media are also an effective recruitment method.
Depending on the scale of your company, you may consider investing in targeted outreach campaigns. Paid advertising can help you generate high-quality leads for skilled workers for your company. You can also consider an employee referral program that will incentivize your current employees to recommend you as a good potential employer to their colleagues elsewhere.
Partnering with a Reputable Staffing Agency
There’s plenty you can do to find reliable employees on your own. However, there are also benefits to working with a staffing agency to find construction workers. You could find yourself saving a lot of time and money related to hiring and onboarding. You’ll also have peace of mind knowing that your workers have been thoroughly vetted and can deliver what you’re looking for.
This is particularly true when you’re supplementing your team for a specific project. Taking the time and effort to hire temporary employees isn’t always worth it. Instead, you can pay one simple rate to a staffing agency and have them handle all the details. You’ll have access to experienced workers without having to worry about worker’s comp, unemployment, and other premiums.
You can also be sure that the skilled workers you need are available when you need them. If you have a new project coming up, you might not have time to find a new employee with the required specific skills or qualifications. The broad pools of workers maintained by construction staffing agencies solve this problem.
Ensuring Worker Quality and Reliability
Simply finding construction workers isn’t enough. You also need to be sure that the workers you choose have the specific skills and qualifications your project calls for and that they’ll be reliable for your worksite. Unfortunately, vetting workers isn’t always easy.
Depending on the role you’re hiring for, there may be specific certifications or licenses you’ll have to check. This is an important first step to weed out any workers who simply aren’t suitable. From there, you’ll have to consider their experience and make sure that they provide verifiable references. Ideally, you’ll be able to double-check the contact online to verify that they really work for that company.
This is one area where going with a top construction staffing agency like Tradesmen International can really make a difference. We have the resources and expertise to thoroughly vet and background check all our workers. On top of verifying references, we also implement skills testing to ensure that they can deliver the results you expect from workers of their experience level.
Retaining Construction Workers
Once you have found a worker who checks all the boxes, you’re going to face stiff competition holding onto them. A reliable and skilled worker will have plenty of opportunities from your competitors, and you need to make it worth their while to stay. In many cases, that simply means paying more. However, you could also find yourself pressured to provide additional benefits to remain competitive.
There are also less tangible elements of worker retention. While compensation is important, workers also want to feel a sense of fulfillment and progression in their work. This can mean providing opportunities to develop new skills or certifications. However, not all construction companies have the scale or range of projects to provide that experience.
Trusting your staffing needs to Tradesmen International takes care of all of this for you. Our workers are all full-time Tradesmen International employees, and we handle all benefits and premiums. With a broad pool of workers available, your projects will have access to the workers you need, even if any individual worker might move on. We provide opportunities for our workers that keep them engaged in their careers. So, they always put their best foot forward on your construction projects.
Find Construction Workers With Tradesmen International
Are you in need of construction workers for an upcoming project, sudden change of plans, or seasonal demand? Let the professionals at Tradesmen International handle all the details and provide skilled workers for your projects without the hassle. Forget about hiring, onboarding, and other challenges, and get the skilled labor you need when you need it by reaching out to Tradesmen International today.