High demand and short supply for skilled work mean that you can have trouble filling job vacancies. How do you stand out or make your business more appealing? You can't just rely on traditional methods. This is treading water as the number of skilled workers falls further behind the demand. This is one area where getting ahead of the pack is an absolute must.
1. Get Involved in the Community
Every town holds events like summer fairs, craft fairs, or puts together job fairs. Make sure your business is involved. It's neither difficult nor expensive to sponsor a booth, an event, a local musician's appearance, or to run an ad in the program. Do more than one and the benefits can really add up.
If you want to take the next step, you can sponsor a youth sports team. This all creates awareness and positive opinion about your business. Skilled workers will remember to seek you out when they're looking for work, and they'll feel more comfortable with the idea of working for you. After all, you're involved in the community.
When you're at these events, make sure to talk to families. You never know when someone is looking for work, whether it's a semi-retired carpenter or a young electrician just taking their first jobs. Everyone knows someone and every community has skilled tradespeople; reach out to enough people and you expand your network.
2. Hold Family Events
Don't just look for town events. Hold your own. You can pay local skilled workers to teach a free class about their trade to kids. Parents love this because it gives them a break, and kids can learn about the trades. This can also help develop relationships with skilled workers you don't employ, and solidify relationships with the ones you do.
Do the work to advertise your event. Some of your unskilled workers won't mind earning a bit of extra cash posting flyers for your events at the schools, churches, and stores they go to.
Use social media, too. Don't be shy about advertising for your event. If you expect a lot of people, hire a food truck for a few hours. It's inexpensive and makes the event feel more professional.
3. Create Referral Programs
Every employee you have has both business and social networks that they can use. This doesn't mean every employee will be able to get you a candidate, but it does mean that as a group, your employees should be able to find good ones on a regular basis.
Employees don't work for free, though, and referrals to skilled workers can cost them. They may not want to risk a good contact they can use themselves, or they may not want to strain a friendship. Respect that getting you referrals is work, and create an incentive program.
This makes employees much more likely to refer you to qualified, skilled workers. Offer small bonuses when employees share your job postings on social media. Those bonuses can increase when they refer you someone who attends an event or interviews with you. If you hire someone, stack another bonus on top of that. You're not breaking the bank doing this, because that skilled worker immediately makes your business more valuable.
4. Use Staffing Agencies
A staffing agency is an easy way to expand your range. Many skilled workers who take various jobs or who only work part-time in their field use staffing agencies because it makes their work of job seeking very easy.
Best of all, these agencies get information about qualifications for you, and even handle the administrative on-boarding. Filling job vacancies is a matter for a full human resources department, which is something most construction businesses lack. If you can get one to provide services only as you need them, that's a huge benefit for you without having to take any risk.
