What are the Construction Recruitment Challenges?
It’s no secret that the construction industry is growing. With about 167,800 positions opening up each year for the next decade, the need to fill these positions is obvious. But with many still feeling the effects of the labor shortage and more employees pushing for remote work and flexible schedules, how to recruit these employees becomes challenging.
What’s clear is that typical recruitment techniques are not cutting it anymore. Employers looking to attract their ideal candidates (without breaking the bank) will need to step up their game.
The Usual Suspects
Many companies are still sticking with the status quo when it comes to hiring new employees. Strategies like utilizing a recruiter, posting a job listing, or meeting with referrals are useful – to a point.
Recruitment techniques are often costly and they don’t always work. Furthermore, paying a recruiter to find one person will typically cost you about 15-20% of the first year salary. That’s a lot of money on the line to find just one candidate.
Job listings are a dime a dozen. And with so many different job sites to post on, you may find yourself following the “post and pray” method where you upload a listing and just cross your fingers and hope the right candidate comes along. Again, not a very good use of time or money.
Referrals are good but can be hit or miss. Waiting around for a good referral to come in also eats away at valuable time – time that could have been spent pulling in the kind of talent you actually want to see.
So, what’s the solution?
Use Digital Technology to Attract Young Talent
More and more companies are creating recruitment campaigns through digital advertising to reach new talent. More specifically, companies are producing creative (mostly video) and are putting ad dollars behind it to reach thousands of potential candidates.
No middle-man, no strings attached, and plenty of additional benefits.
Typical recruitment strategies can’t always express everything they need in one job listing or a phone call, and are certainly not optimal for reaching lots of potential prospects. And with the sheer amount of job listings out there within the construction industry – it can be difficult to stand out.
That is why we find that video works best as it easily translates across platforms and audiences.
– Showcase company culture
– Outline the benefits of working at your construction firm
– Highlight the work itself in visual form
Given that 61% of companies post videos on their social accounts to engage with their target audience, this type of digital ad recruitment campaign is a no-brainer!
Benefits of Recruitment Campaigns using Digital Advertising
On top of reaching and attracting new talent, there are other benefits to running recruitment campaigns.
Namely…
The power of data. When you create digital ads – you gather demographic data on your audience to get a better idea of who is applying.
Then you can save the data and retarget them later or with a look-a-like audience, should the need arise again.
Data also shows which platforms are most effective for reaching top talent (LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc).
A repeatable process. After setting up and running one campaign – you can take it offline once positions are filled, and restart it again as needed.
No calling up the recruiter, no filling out new forms and listings – it simplifies everything.
Building brand awareness. By creating a digital ad campaign to attract new employees, you also reach new users altogether – building brand awareness at every stage.
This is essential as the need for remarketing and retargeting is becoming more and more necessary.
Summary – What are the Construction Recruitment Challenges?
While traditional recruitment tactics may get the job done (or, in this case – filled), digital advertising campaigns do all that and more.
It’s a much more strategic and data-backed method of recruiting top talent.
On top of that, the data gathered from digital ads helps with brand awareness and visibility – ultimately driving more people to your brand and inviting more top talent to apply.
By approaching recruitment strategically, you will find that ideal candidates may start to seek you out.
It will also pay off in the long run when it comes to employee retention.
(More on employee retention in our next article).
Ready to get started on content marketing for your AEC firm? Contact vnzoaec today to set up your discovery session.
