Why is recruiting so damned difficult? You've landed that big job, but now you don't have the crews to do the job, and so the rush to find people begins.

Where do you source them? How do you filter the right candidates? How will you find time to recruit and train? They've signed the contract, but now you have doubts about whether they will perform the job without having to be handheld the entire time.

It's a contractor's worst nightmare.

Recruitment remains one of the biggest challenges facing the construction industry. A recent study by the Arizona State University found that 90 percent of U.S. roofing contractors faced labor shortages over the past year.

We hear a lot about how “the labor market is suffering right now,” or “there’s a shortage of qualified labor.” Maybe those things are true, or, at the risk of providing an unpopular opinion, maybe those are also excuses?

How then do some companies attract and hire such a high calibre of workers?

There are two main reasons I see where contractors fail: they either don't invest enough time and money into recruiting; or they haven't fine-tuned their hiring skills and processes (and feel under the gun to hire, so anyone will do)!

If you haven’t choked on your coffee yet thinking, “we don't do that,” take a quick look at how much you spent on recruiting and hiring over the past few years, and how many times you were left scrambling at the last-minute trying to find someone.

Attracting rockstar talent requires similar skills to going in search of your customer. You need to:

● Know exactly who you’re looking for
 
● Know where they are and how to grab their attention
 
● Connect with them and tell them about your company values
 
● Sell them on why working for you is a no-brainer
 
● Assess whether or not they are the right cultural fit before making a final commitment
 
Outdoor retailer Patagonia is a perfect example of a company that has nailed the recruitment process. They actually have a waiting list of people who want to join! Why? Because the culture they have created to take care of their people, customers, and the planet appeals to their target staffing audience. Early on in the business, Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, determined that it costs $50,000 to replace an employee in lost productivity, headhunter fees, and training. So yea, that wasn't going to happen. He set about to create a happy and productive workforce by “hiring the people you trust, who are passionate about their job, passionate about what they’re doing. [The ones you can just] leave alone, and they’ll get the job done.”


But not everyone has access to a talent acquisition team. For most small businesses, recruitment falls into your hands, the owner, or a member of your family.

So how do you go about attracting and hiring great staff, when you're juggling so many other balls?

Here are my five top tips to recruiting rockstar talent:

1. Take some time out of the office to think about what your ideal candidate would look like. Creating a profile to better understand what you are looking narrows it down – and alerts you to the red flags. What characteristics fit in with your team? What skills do they need? What don't you want?

2. Create a job posting that outlines what your ideal candidate would be looking for, not what you’re looking for. It has to grab their attention among the countless other roofing ads on places like Indeed, Craigslist, Facebook, etc. An ad that starts with, “Looking to get nailed? Are you a roofer who wants to feel empowered?” That will attract far more eyeballs than, “Skilled Roofer Wanted for physically demanding work.” It doesn't have to be that in your face of course, but you get the idea. The more creative, the better.

3. Prescreen. This will save you so much time in the long-run. A conversation call will eliminate the duds. You can tell a lot about someone by asking simple questions like: What about your current or past experience makes you a great fit for this role? What type of work environment do you prefer? What appealed to you about our company? If they have potential, it's time to sell to them to ensure they want to turn up for the next interview!

4: The behavioural interview. This will be either face-to-face (post COVID of course) or over Zoom/Skype etc. This is usually an hour and is a chance to dig deeper. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of examples online of suitable questions that will help you better gauge the candidate. Remember, their past behaviour shows you your future results. The best candidates will interview you as much as you interview them.

5: The onboarding process. It's not a done deal yet. New hires are leaving companies within their first six months at an alarming rate: In fact, 17% leave in the first week. Why? Because they feel neglected, overwhelmed, underappreciated, and underqualified. Take a little extra time to train someone during their first few months and you will reap the benefits in the long run.

A sample of the BTA Ideal Candidate Profile tool that we’ll be sharing along with other templates in our webinar: Attract & Hire Rockstar Staff; the #1 Challenge in Roofing register here.

Ultimately the goal is to not only attract rockstar staff, but keep them. In the words of BTA member and the winner of BTA's 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year, Nestor Tarango of Solar Energy Works (who managed to fill 20 roles within a short period): “Hiring is easy on the labor side when you have built a good reputation as it gives you good labor pool. It's a dream when you have a waiting list to come onboard.”


To learn more and gain access to plug-and-play templates, sign up for our Attract & Hire Rockstar Staff; the #1 Challenge in Roofing webinar on March 4: https://www.btacademy.com/wsrcarecruit/