It is rather hard to find good workers these days.
In addition to the fact that interest in the trades has declined recently, the 2008 crisis prompted many business owners to retire early, meaning that their experience could not be passed on to the next generation of tradespeople.
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However, there is still hope.
We’ll cover eight strategies in this post that you may utilize to develop a skilled workforce in the modern era:
1. Hire through current employment sites.
Though this advice may seem obvious, a lot of contractors overlook the fact that current construction sites are among the finest locations to locate workers.
You can get greater confidence in the experience workers claim compared to an online applicant by visiting active projects to obtain a close-up look at their skills and work ethic.
In actuality, this hiring procedure isn’t too challenging. An employee can be tasked with visiting nearby construction sites, obtaining the contact details of supervisors, and investigating if any teams are willing to take on more projects.
2. Monitor each employee individually
One piece of advice that contractors tend to overlook is the possibility that many of the talented people you may discover out there are already employed by your companies.
It’s also a wonderful idea to maintain track of the contact information of the individual laborers who work for your pieceworkers and subcontractors since they are excellent sources of labor for your own firm.
3. Look for “small groups” or pieceworkers in your area.
There are plenty of independent crews and pieceworkers available for freelance employment.
The only issue is that there may be some “gray” areas with the IRS because a lot of these 1099 workers rely on crews of illegal workers.
Notwithstanding their legal status, many of these crews have excellent work ethics and are proficient in their professions, which makes them a highly sought-after workforce resource for construction firms around the nation. In spite of making up just 3.2% of the US population, illegal immigrants account for 13% of the workforce in the construction industry, according to the Center for American Progress.
Given the current labor scarcity, it appears that more businesses are realizing the benefits of using freelancers; thus, if you’re short-staffed, these teams provide a high-quality, less expensive alternative.
4. “Lease” workers from related businesses
Numerous businesses have excess labor available, which you may take use of. You may locate numerous organizations that are eager to give labor on an hourly basis by contacting those in comparable fields to your own.
For instance, most drywall and concrete businesses will be pleased to supply you labor at an additional cost if you contact them and request an hourly rate. Therefore, they will charge you $35 per hour if they have a spare concrete worker who makes $30 per hour, making $5 per hour only by giving labor. If you run the numbers with a staff of only ten full-time employees, that firm might bring in $2000 every week.
Smaller contractors love this labor method since it’s so practical and easy to use. Although employees hired on a contract basis from another business may not be as dependable as an internal team, this tactic is nonetheless beneficial for organizations with a shortage of personnel due to its ease of usage.
5. Look for Carpenters on Craigslist
If an in-house team doesn’t sound like a good fit for you right now, Craigslist may be a terrific source for hiring independent contractors—you just have to go through a lot of poor ones to find the good ones.
6. Get in touch with nearby technical or trade colleges.
Although they don’t put much effort into finding it, many contractors seek great personnel. Making direct contact with trade schools to find out how you may connect with recent grads is a straightforward but powerful tactic.
Naturally, due to their formal training, trade school graduates tend to be easier to develop and demand higher compensation, which contractors must be willing to meet in order to stay competitive. That gets me to our last piece of advice, which is this:
7. Offer top compensation and seek for seasoned employees
Because of workforce turnover, securing quality might appear nearly unattainable in current labor scarcity. The rate at which employees quit your company is known as labor turnover, and it has increased dramatically in the construction industry in recent years.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the yearly turnover rate for construction workers in 2021 was close to 30%. Construction is one of the most uncertain businesses in terms of employment, with an average worker turnover rate of about 18% across all industries.
In an industry where employees switch jobs often, it’s critical to offer competitive compensation if you hope to retain top talent over the long haul. Regretfully, the primary means by which contractors may draw in and retain outstanding talent in today’s workforce is by offering wages that are above average.