The Construction Hiring Alliance You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Story by Gemma Beasley / May 1, 2024

Every construction leader is tasked with finding and attracting talent to support your company’s growth. The trouble is, you’re supposed to do this while juggling a million other priorities. The skilled labor shortage has made hiring an increasingly daunting challenge, leaving many feeling frustrated and powerless.

One often overlooked solution is to forge a closer partnership between your internal talent acquisition team and your external recruiting partners. By aligning these two key functions, you can develop a more targeted, effective candidate attraction strategy that taps into a wider pool of qualified talent.

It may not sound revolutionary, but this collaborative approach has proven immensely successful for construction firms struggling to fill critical roles. Unfortunately, many companies make the mistake of playing their in-house and external hiring teams against each other in a failed effort to “save money.” They view the agency recruiter as a necessary evil – a cost center to be minimized rather than a strategic partner to empower.

This mindset only serves to widen the disconnect between your talent needs and the recruiter’s efforts. Rather than fostering true collaboration, it breeds mistrust and resentment on both sides. The end result is a hiring process that is far less effective than it could be.

Let’s explore how you can reframe this dynamic and unlock the true power of a recruiting partnership.

The Disconnect in Construction Recruiting

As the hiring manager, you rely heavily on your recruiting partners to handle the heavy lifting of sourcing and managing candidates. But all too often, a disconnect emerges between your specific needs and the recruiter’s efforts. They may be struggling to find the right fit, while you’re left wondering why the roles remain unfilled.

This disconnect can be attributed to a few common factors:

• Lack of deep understanding: Your recruiting partners may not have a nuanced grasp of your company culture, job requirements, and long-term hiring goals.
• Siloed approaches: The in-house talent team and external recruiters may be operating independently, without aligning on strategies and sharing key insights.
• Changing market dynamics: The skilled labor shortage is a moving target, requiring agile adaptation that some recruiting models struggle to achieve.

Bridging the Gap Through Collaboration

The solution lies in breaking down those silos and forging a true partnership between your internal and external hiring teams. By combining the market expertise of the recruiters with the insider knowledge of your in-house professionals, you can develop a targeted, effective candidate attraction strategy.

This collaborative approach has proven successful for construction firms like our client, who was struggling to fill project manager roles despite their best efforts. Together with their the talent team, we:

• Held in-depth strategy sessions to deeply understand the unique requirements of the roles and the company’s long-term hiring needs.
• Developed a multi-pronged outreach campaign, leveraging the recruiter’s industry connections and the in-house team’s cultural insights.
• Continuously refined their approach based on real-time feedback and key performance metrics.

The results spoke for themselves. Within just a few weeks, the collaborative dream team had identified several highly-qualified candidates – several of whom accepted offers to join the team. The hiring manager was thrilled, and we solidified our position as a valuable strategic partner.

Keys to a Successful Recruiting Partnership

So, what’s the secret to this kind of fruitful collaboration? It really comes down to a few key elements:

• Open communication: Both the in-house talent team and the external recruiters must be willing to share insights, provide feedback, and stay aligned on priorities.
• Shared accountability: By aligning on key metrics and holding each other responsible for results, you can drive continuous improvement in your hiring process.
• Genuine commitment: Forging a successful recruiting partnership requires a mutual investment of time and effort from all parties involved.

In an industry as dynamic and competitive as construction, your ability to attract and retain top talent can truly make or break your company’s success. By embracing a collaborative hiring model that harnesses the unique strengths of both your internal and external teams, you can unlock a whole new level of hiring power – and deliver the results your business needs to thrive.

At Hudson Cooper Search, we’ve supported many internal TA teams through the tricky terrain that is the enduring construction skills shortage. Our insight and connections can help at every step, positioning your brand to attract today’s displaced talent.

Need an extra set of experienced hands on deck? Let’s have a conversation.

Categories: Hiring Insights

Tags: Candidate attraction, construction, Hiring trends, succession planning