With furlough now over and people returning to work, the construction sector is set to see a major recruitment drive post covid, which means as a business it’s time to get prepared. 

If ever there has been a time to focus and re-organise your workforce, it is now. 

As the construction sector has continued to move the UK economy out of the pandemic with work and projects maintained throughout the multiple lockdowns, there is a desperate need to hire the best talent in the industry. 

Follow these steps to help you prepare for the hiring boom, and ensure that you can capture the top talent for your company. 

Re-Organise Your Team 

Knowing who you need and the skills they have is essential in ensuring that your recruitment drive is fruitful. 

To begin with, take time to assess your current workforce and understand where the gaps are within your business. 

This may even mean doing some slight restructuring or upskilling of your current team to make way for new team members who can help to scale and accelerate the projects you have coming in. 

As the recruitment drive across all companies will be competitive, it’s really important to make sure you’re being considerate about exactly who you need to hire for your company. 

Update Your Training 

It’s no good going on a major recruitment push if your business is just not ready for the new candidates. Poor onboarding experiences lead to dissatisfied workers and a slow uptake on project work. 

As well as getting your onboarding perfected, it’s also highly beneficial to be prepared for any training your new candidates may need to take in order to get working. 

Training in any industry is vital to the success of a candidate, but even more so in the construction and trade industry. 

Your new recruit needs to be ready and up to scratch as soon as possible, and having a clear training plan in place will ensure a smooth onboarding and a much quicker role fulfilment. 

Get down to the real details of their training and onboarding. What do they need to learn about the company? What skills do they need to quickly pick up to be an active team member? 

Consider Temp Workers 

If time and budget is still a consideration for your business and you’re nervous about hiring full-time workers, then it may be wise to consider temporary workers for key projects. 

Again, as before, it’s essential you consider exactly the people you need so that you can be quick off the mark to hire these workers. 

Temp workers may be in higher demand post covid as many companies look to manage costs and only hire when new projects land. 

With a cost-conscious mind in play, you want to ensure that you talk to a specialist recruiter, such as ourselves at Marshall Recruitment, who have decades of experience working in recruitment for the construction sector, and can guide you in finding the workers you need.  

Create A Great Package 

The competition for top construction talent is going to be hot. Especially for key trades that are currently in short supply here in the UK. 

Creating a competitive employment package is one way to ensure that you come across as a preferred employer to prospective candidates. 

As well as a competitive salary, it’s also good to look at other benefits that you could include for employees. This may include a company-wide gym membership, bonus schemes, or even health insurance. 

The better your package, the more likely you are going to attract the very best in the industry. 

Build Company Ambassadors

Some companies don’t have a recruitment problem or don’t need to go searching for new candidates because they’ve created such a demand for a role in their company they have an endless list of people to choose from. 

While company culture is still a new idea in the construction sector, the more you create a great place to work, the more your existing team will talk about how much they love working for your company. And guess what, word spreads. 

Building a positive place to work is much more than making it fun, it’s also about building a company that continues to be somewhere people want to work. 

In an industry that’s never been more desperate to attract talent, creating a positive workplace culture and making ambassadors of your existing team may just be the golden strategy you need.