5 Hiring Tips for Contractors: Finding and Keeping Great People!

Tak­ing a clos­er look at your hir­ing strat­e­gy as we enter the win­ter months, maybe plan­ning ahead for spring? Good move!

I know that this is typ­i­cal­ly a sea­son when con­trac­tors back off of hir­ing a bit, espe­cial­ly with all the eco­nom­ic unknowns. It’d be nice to be able to pre­dict the future, but that’s not real­ly an option at this point… My best rec­om­men­da­tion is to stay opti­mistic and have a back­up plan, includ­ing a plan for hiring.

Ready for a few quick tips?

#1: Always be hiring

Even if you aren’t putting as many dol­lars behind paid ads or pro­mo­tions, still ALWAYS be hir­ing. Your web­site, Face­book, Indeed, yard signs, vehi­cle sig­nage… ​“Always hir­ing!” is a pos­i­tive mes­sage for clients, and can attract qual­i­ty can­di­dates who are look­ing for sta­ble work. 

#2: Don’t be afraid to ask customers

There’s a resur­gence of inter­est in the trades, and huge oppor­tu­ni­ties (plus earn­ing poten­tial) for moti­vat­ed indi­vid­u­als. Let your cus­tomers know that you have train­ing for young peo­ple look­ing to enter the work­force, and that you’d appre­ci­ate refer­rals from peo­ple who know you, your com­pa­ny, and your val­ues. What a great mes­sage to send to your client base, dou­bling as a pow­er­ful way to tap into a larg­er network. 

#3: Group inter­views! There’s pow­er in numbers

If I had a dol­lar for every time I’ve heard of clients deal­ing with no-shows, well, I’d have a whole lot of dol­lars. What a waste of time for you and your team too! I’d rec­om­mend block­ing off sev­er­al times per week when peo­ple can sign up for a group interview. 

#4: Con­sid­er remov­ing your online applications

If you like online appli­ca­tions and they’re work­ing, awe­some! But here’s an alter­na­tive idea, espe­cial­ly if you’re los­ing time weed­ing through junk applications. 

I have two teenage kids that I have encour­aged to NOT work for me but go and get a job with some­one else. One firm inter­viewed my 16-year-old with­out hav­ing him fill out a detailed appli­ca­tion, prob­a­bly because they’re look­ing for any able-bod­ied peo­ple who will show up! My son eas­i­ly made it through an inter­view. They then moved him right into an ori­en­ta­tion meet­ing where he’ll learn how the com­pa­ny works, what they do, etc. The final step is a for­mal application! 

At first it seemed fun­ny to wait until the end to pro­vide an appli­ca­tion, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the con­cept. I think it’s best to get peo­ple just to show up (group style) and share with them what you have to offer: train­ing, com­pen­sa­tion, vision, com­pa­ny cul­ture… Is there a per­son or two with­in the group that sticks out and seems like some­one who will fit your orga­ni­za­tion? Help them move on to the next round of hir­ing, weed­ing out the folks who aren’t a good fit. I think so much time is wast­ed on read­ing appli­ca­tions that are, most of the time, bogus and filled with fluff. 

5) Share your vision and culture

One thing I have seen this past year is a lot of new hires not stick­ing around for longer than a few days or weeks. One way to help com­bat this is to make sure these new recruits real­ly know more about your com­pa­ny. This is where you want to share your mis­sion, vision, and com­pa­ny cul­ture with them. I would also encour­age you to con­sid­er telling each new hire to talk to you (or the hir­ing man­ag­er) the first few weeks/​months of work­ing there and get a com­mit­ment that one does not up and quit. In oth­er words, have real­ly good com­mu­ni­ca­tion and make sure these folks feel man­age­ment is approach­able, they can be heard, and that you’re inter­est­ed in their success. 

I am a mar­ket­ing guy. I help con­trac­tors devel­op a mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy and then make sure we imple­ment it and get leads! The last few years, how­ev­er, I’ve learned a lot about hir­ing too, espe­cial­ly as I real­ized just how com­ple­men­tary hir­ing and mar­ket­ing real­ly are. There’s no sil­ver bul­let, but by devel­op­ing a pos­i­tive com­pa­ny cul­ture, shar­ing that cul­ture, and con­sis­tent­ly hir­ing, I’m sure you’ll find and keep great peo­ple. It’s a long game!