Hiring Considerations for the Construction Industry

As the available construction talent pool continues to shrink, more and more businesses are looking for ways to attract and retain top talent. This may lead many hiring managers to cut corners during their normal hiring process, however, doing so can cause rippling effects throughout the business.

Not only does cutting corners during your hiring process, cause you to have a revolving door of mediocre employees, but it is costly to continually go through the hiring process time and time again. It is to the benefit of you and your company to take some of the risk out of your hiring process, by implementing some of the following processes:

Assessments – assessments can provide you great insight into the employee before you even spend time interviewing the person. There are a variety of assessments that can be given – skills assessments, personality assessments, and aptitude assessments. An assessment can give you a glimpse into whether the candidate will be a good fit for your company both in skill and in cultural fit.
Interviews – while most businesses will conduct an interview, most do very informal interviews that do not really reveal much information about the potential employee. It is best to conduct a thorough interview, which includes questions that will showcase not only their skill level, but their behavior. Even if you ask all the right questions regarding their skills, if their behavior is not a cultural fit, you will be starting over again. Take the time to make sure that you have interview questions that allow you to evaluate their behavior too.
Background Checks – do not skip the background check! So many businesses are skipping this critical step in the hiring process today. Unfortunately, more than 70% of all resumes contain some piece of false information, and one bad hire can ruin your business.
Work Sample – it is easy for job candidates to claim they have the skills, but do they really? Do not be afraid to ask to see some samples of their work and craftsmanship. Most will have some images of work they have done, while others you can inquire about their work skills with a past employer.

One of the biggest problems that construction companies face today during their hiring process, is the lack of potential job candidates. Because of this lack of talent, many businesses forgo their normal routines and hire on the spot, afraid to lose yet another candidate. Unfortunately, this can cost your business thousands of dollars and still have no employees working. Don’t make these mistakes – implement the processes above into your hiring process.