Construction and engineering – Early Talent

Because competition is fierce when it comes to acquiring top talent, we want to provide you with a few early talent recruitment ideas.

The construction and engineering industry is a broad sector that affects the world you see around you.

Key growth areas have been recently noticed within the Manufacturing (43%), Construction (43%) and Engineering (33%) industries. With this in mind, it is vital that when it comes to recruiting within these sectors that your attraction strategy is second to none.

Your well thought through recruitment process really will help you to fight off the competition when it comes to competing for top talent in construction and engineering. Here are just a few of our early talent recruitment ideas to help you improve your recruitment process.

Employer branding

What does your employer brand say about you? The first thing that a candidate will do is jump straight to your website, this needs to wow them from the off. You don’t see the likes of Vinci and Laing O’Rourke with half-hearted attempts at website design with bad links and damaged pages. Your site should be no exception either.

Following this, your website and social media accounts need to be well connected and if you’re still dubious that social media has an effect on recruitment then you are already 10 steps behind your savvy competitors.

Did you now there are 3 BILLION internet users worldwide and last year 76% of those seeing jobs found their new positions through Facebook?… Yes you read that right… Facebook – start updating your profile now! And don’t forget to consider pay per click campaigns that run on Facebook- these can be hugely useful.

In 2012, Employer Brand International launched the ‘Certificate Employer Brand Leadership’ to build leadership ability between different brands. Companies are now using a range of metrics to measure the ROI of their employer brand projects. From social media, career website development, to recruitment branding and induction programmes. These all need to be considered to increase brand promotion- an effective employer branding strategy could have long term improvements in the long run.

Engagement is key!

Engaged employees stay longer – you know how intensive recruitment can be! Why go through the process over and over again when you can get your engagement strategy sorted and retain your employees rather than losing out? With companies like Glassdoor becoming more popular by the day, the last thing you want is an unhappy employee voicing their opinions for all to see as this could deter the next wave of geniuses knocking on your recruitment door…

Engagement should happen from the moment your employees walk through the door and continue indefinitely. From incentives such as employee benefits, company values and career progression this helps employees to understand where they sit within your organisation. Are you aware that employee engagement also affects the mind-set of people within your organisation? Engaged employees truly believe they can make a difference within their workplace, teamed with the skills and abilities they possess they are more confident and willing to contribute, they see the change and want to make it.

Do you have extra schemes within your company that your employees can be a part of? Do you take part in webinars and conferences for extra training and learning and development for your staff? Within the construction industry, 3D modelling technology is increasingly used to give engineers a better understanding of projects – paid training days to educate new employees of key equipment is a way of attracting applicants to your organisation. Furthermore, CSR is becoming a greater focus to help keep the environment safe from the over usage of energy and carbon emissions. This shows that your organisation is doing its part to help out with sustainability, this will be an attractive quality for many applicants and will allow them to give back to the environment and regenerate local areas.

Diversity

Industry stereotypes can often deter individuals applying for roles which society would class as ‘unsuitable’. The construction and engineering world is largely male dominated. However, it is important to increase female participation within the industry. This will not only help to fight the skills shortage, but also to help enrich creativity and insight, without which, business development rates could see a decrease.

Matchtech recently sponsored the ‘Engineer of the Year’ at this year’s Women in Construction Awards (WICA). Here’s an insight from a female engineer:

“You leave behind something that will be used and hopefully admired, by members of the public. We get to use our creativity and innovation, work as a part of a team, travel, earn good money and learn new skills.”

This kind of information should be showcased, it’s a great testimonial for the industry and is an example of how women can act as ambassadors for construction and engineering in order to attract more women in to the industry.

Additionally, particularly within the engineering sector new schemes have been put in place to attract graduates, with attractive pay packages and progression routes. Recent graduates are also buddied up with consultants to give them on the job training and often giving them high responsibility from the off so once fully trained they are able to juggle several projects simultaneously.

Values based recruitment

Values-based recruitment is an approach that focuses on the values of applicants and can be defined as a set of guiding principles that influence our judgement, behaviour and the decisions we make.

It is vital that, as well as holding the correct qualifications for the role, employee values are also a high consideration. Within the engineering and construction world, communication, interpersonal skills and the ability to work well in a team are important. With many projects requiring planning, organisation and often many changes – the aptitude to work with a client and explain the task in hand is a key component of successful development.

Competing for top talent in construction and engineering is really about your position in the industry. Make your business and your role attractive! In order to fight off the competition, you have to implement innovative recruitment methods that really help you stand apart.

We hope that our early talent recruitment ideas help you to recruit top talent!

For access to our library of free ebooks click here. For more information on how Cohesion can help with the recruitment of your workers and for more early talent recruitment ideas, contact us here.