The construction industry is by far one of the largest sectors in the UK, providing around 3 million jobs across the country. The construction and engineering sectors are continuing to recover from the 2008 recession and the recruitment of staff in the industry is expected to reach 7% over the next few years. Recruitment is a very time consuming process, and more often than not is very costly. However, with residential and commercial property demands gradually increasing due to longevity of life, higher birth rates and influx of immigration, more and more construction workers are required to complete projects. Finding candidates by using external agencies that specialize in certain industries such as construction recruitment, means that costs of advertising and time pre-screening potential candidates is instantly reduced. This is important in the construction industry in particular as most projects have strict deadlines to adhere to.
The best recruiters will have an extensive knowledge of specialist industries such as construction work, meaning they should know the available talent, where they are, salary rates, career expectations and available skill-sets. This information is key to finding the right candidates for construction companies. Recruitment firms have many networks to help connect a business to candidates with a range of skills and experiences, who would normally be off the radar of an in-house team or hiring manager. Also, construction work isn’t always a full-time job, and a lot of temporary or short-term projects arise in the industry. Through specialist construction recruitment firms, companies gain short term access to the key strategic skills that they require from a candidate to be suitable for a job role. Talent shortages have been hindering growth over the last few years, so adopting the help of recruitment firms offers the opportunity to bring in qualified and experienced help at short notice.
Different construction sites and different projects require different levels of experience, education and more. For example, some low-skilled jobs do not require a degree, but more technical and administrative work such as a maintenance engineer will require a degree level or higher qualification. Qualifications such as an NVQ ranging from level 3-7 or a NEBOSH qualification in health and safety are recommended, and recruitment agencies often have access to candidates who have those qualifications. In-house recruitment may not know of candidates who have this and rely on the applications rather than sourcing candidates.
A lot of money and time goes into in-house recruiting and if there’s not a dedicated team who have that as their sole job, a lot of time can quickly disappear from simply hiring candidates. Firstly, a lot of money goes into advertising and building a brand that will attract potential employees. Also, a lot of research has to go into the current industry trends, the ever-shifting pay scales and competitor activity in order to attract the best possible candidates to their company. Once the applications begin to come in, a lot of time will go into filtering through them as a vast majority will be inadequate for the job role. After this, they then have to go through the interviewing process and any other pre-employment checks, which is often an extremely time-consuming process. Partnering up with a recruitment firm will help dramatically to reduce costs and save the company time.
Talent acquisition is high on the agenda of most organizations which means that companies, even those with in-house recruitment, often seek the advice and resources of construction recruitment agencies to gain access to some of most talented candidates in the industry. Using recruitment agencies saves a company time and money, whilst still gaining access to potential employees that have the right talent and skills for the job. Specialist recruitment agencies are also perfect for hiring short term/temporary employees at short notice to complete specific projects.
