The construction industry is tied closely to the health of the economy and interest rates. As the economy grows, more things get built. And when more things are getting built, construction companies need to recruit more workers to get the job done.
Even in times of abundant growth, construction companies must combat an ongoing shortage of skilled labor. With a rapidly aging workforce, there are not enough younger employees replacing those retiring. To address this, talent acquisition teams must update traditional “old-school” recruiting strategies to attract and engage millennial and Gen Z candidates.
To find candidates in step with the peaks and valleys of the economy, construction companies are taking a more proactive approach to recruiting. Many teams are targeting younger generations through a renewed emphasis on campus recruiting and other early talent hiring events. By leveraging internships or apprenticeships to attract and train qualified workers, companies are hoping to bridge the skills gap and retain talent for years to come.
At Yello, we work with hundreds of recruiting teams every day — including several leading construction companies and approximately 100 of the Fortune 500. Here are some of the most common pain points reported by early talent recruiters at construction companies.
1. Difficulty attracting and hiring qualified candidates, combating a shortage of skilled labor.
Attracting top talent starts with a top-tier recruitment event experience. When your company heads to career fairs or hiring conferences, ensure you’re putting your best foot forward by engaging candidates before the event even starts. Leverage event pre-registration to drive attendees to your booth, then streamline check-in and follow-up to provide a candidate experience that stands out from the competition.
Solution: Pre-Event Registration & Marketing
Proactively showcase your brand with recruitment event marketing tools — including event promotion, pre-registration and personalized communications and follow-up.
- Events board & pre-registration pages
- Email and text campaigns
- Automated event reminders
- Personalized communication
Solution: Digital Event Check-In
Eliminate paper resumes with a mobile-friendly check-in portal to capture candidate data — then empower staff to review, evaluate and follow-up in real time.
- Digital resume and candidate profile capture
- Evaluate candidates in mobile recruiting app
- Instantly advance candidates to next steps
- Personalized candidate follow-up
One of the largest construction and engineering organizations in the U.S. recruits candidates in both the US and Mexico. They rely on Yello to manage their candidate emails and engagements in two different workflows — one with English email communications and one with Spanish email communications — easily creating a personalized, seamless experience for all candidates.
2. Outdated and inefficient recruiting processes that slow hiring and deter candidates.
When it comes to recruiting early talent, speed is critical — especially if candidates just met with multiple employers at a career fair or hiring event. To ensure you stay ahead of the competition at every step, leverage automated tools to keep candidates engaged throughout the process and drive top talent to next steps.
Solution: Application Workflows
Fill the gaps in your hiring process, extend the functionality of your ATS and easily advance candidates from hello to hire with automated, flexible workflow configurations.
- Personalized, automated engagements
- Assignable activities and reminders
- Evaluations and interview scheduling
- Applicant and submission tracking
A Fortune 500 contractor uses Workflows to track where candidates are in the pipeline as they share candidates across different recruiters and different teams. Prior to workflows they were manually updating candidate statuses to track this.
3. Inability to pipeline and anticipate future staffing needs based on the fast-changing highs and lows of the market.
When recruiting needs can change at any moment, robust candidate sourcing tools are critical for construction companies. Ensuring that recruiters have the tools to work proactively and cultivate forward-looking talent pools is key to success in this competitive field.
Solution: Candidate Sourcing
Yello’s streamlined, automated candidate sourcing software helps you pinpoint top talent outside of your candidate pool — then engage them with built-in pipelining, communication and activity tracking.
- Centralized job board search & imports
- Branded talent communities
- Personalized nurture campaigns
- Advanced candidate search and filters
“Yello is very effective in helping our team source candidates and share them with the business.”
“The team I work with recruits on various college campuses each semester, so it allows us to easily capture candidate information and share it with the hiring managers in an efficient manner.”
Matt V, UR Recruiter
Bottom Line: Recruiting Results
Ultimately, the construction companies experiencing the most success in attracting and hiring talent in the construction industry are those that understand the importance of modernizing their talent strategy with technology and proactive recruiting.
