Challenges Contractors Face When Hiring Skilled Tradespeople
As construction projects grow more complex and technology quickly advances, demand for specialized skilled tradespeople continues to rise.
At the same time, fewer young people are learning trade skill sets, leaving a widening gap as seasoned workers retire without replacements.
The shrinking labor pool and increasing need for specialized talent create more challenges for you as a contractor. Learn what each of these challenges means for your business and how you can overcome them.
Finding Qualified Candidates
You’ve been looking through the job seeker market, and even entry-level positions are difficult to come by. While the earning potential in construction is enough to attract applicants, many newcomers lack the basic experience needed for simple jobs, let alone the skilled ones.
Younger workers are making a beeline to favor careers in tech or modern industries, undervaluing the hands-on labor roles and opportunities available.
You’re spending valuable time and resources combing through applicants to find a couple that has the skills or work ethic to get the job done.
Don’t let labor issues slow down your project. Get skilled workers when and where you need them.
Skilled Labor Shortage
There is a shortage of experienced, highly-skilled tradespeople in the industry. These veterans of construction have dedicated their careers to refining their talent and delivering high-quality work at a faster pace than most.
You probably have projects you can’t complete with the specialized talent and expertise of a skilled tradesperson.
When you do find one, you’re forced into bidding wars with competitors and end up losing the small profit you were going to earn from the project, hoping for a better future.
Try leveraging an established project managing staffing agency that can connect you directly with seasoned, skilled tradespeople.
Managing Timelines And Budgets
Bringing on a new hire is never easy, but the process gets more difficult when you’re hiring a skilled tradesperson. Filling out paperwork, negotiating salary, and onboarding them with your current system can delay work phases or cause missed deadlines.
Even a slight time delay can impact your subcontractors, equipment rental times, and material deliveries.
As you compete for your skilled laborers in the open job market, rising compensation packages can threaten the small profit margin and your planned budget.
You need a reliable hiring process where tradespeople can onboard quickly and easily, allowing you to keep projects on track and within budget.
Managing Project Scope And Communication
New hires always have an adjustment period before seamlessly contributing to your team. They need to be onboarded and brought up to speed on systems and how you do things.
Trying to hire quickly to get someone on a project can lead to miscommunication of project details and create confusion and costly rework.
Less-qualified candidates can delay project deadlines and bring down the quality standards of your operation, causing dissatisfaction with clients and subcontractors.
Maintaining A Long-Term Relationship
When you do find a skilled tradesperson, you want to hold on to them for as long as possible. They don’t come by often, and their productivity is miles ahead of the rest of your crew.
The problem is these skilled tradespeople know their worth and your competitors are always trying to poach them away with higher pay and bigger opportunities.
While challenging to do in-house, working with a skilled trade staffing agency guarantees consistent access to the same skilled tradespeople who aren’t trying to use jobs to ladder up their own career.
Familiar With Local Compliance Laws
Each municipality has their own building codes and safety requirements. Non-compliant tradespeople who don’t fully understand or fail to comply with those regulations can expose your business to fines or huge rework costs.
Workers new to the area need weeks, if not months, to understand compliance fully and keep their exposure risks to a minimum.
The solution for contractors is to focus their hiring on locally experienced tradespeople with hired industry specialists. Hiring companies filter candidates to ensure they have proper compliance and regulation experience.
Tired of hiring headaches? Let Hire525 streamline the process and match you with proven tradespeople.
Onboarding And Integration
Even highly skilled tradespeople with years of experience need time to learn your company’s specific processes, equipment, safety standards, and workflow.
During this transitional period, your productivity might slow and temporarily disrupt your project timelines. It’s to be expected, but it affects your client satisfaction and expectations.
Using a hiring company can offset the downtime by pairing tradespeople with proven compatibility with existing teams and job requirements with your business.
Overcoming Hiring Challenges For Skilled Tradespeople
Each challenge you face when hiring skilled tradespeople puts your contracting business at risk of client dissatisfaction, missed deadlines, compliance fines, and compromised team dynamics.
Partnering with a specialized hiring platform, like Hire525, gives you immediate access to dozens of highly-skilled tradespeople with plenty of experience, so you finally get the help you need.
Don’t let labor issues slow down your project; ensure you have skilled workers exactly when and where you need them with Hire525.
