The Contractor's Challenge - Finding Talent

In a Depressed Economy, it's Still Hard to Find Great Employees

In a tough times, you might think finding the right employees would be easy. Qualified candidates ready to work hard and appreciative of any opportunity should be lining up outside your door, right?

As we all know from experience, nothing could be further from the truth. No matter the pile of resumes or the crowd of hopeful applicants, hiring someone who proves themselves an asset to your business is as challenging as ever.

The right mix of motivation and qualification can be difficult to find, and many in the HVAC industry would be happy to simply pick up a few more competent, drug free employees.

According to The US Department Labor, upwards of 1 million new jobs will be created by the construction industry over the next decade. For the most part, these jobs cannot be outsourced, and that means the competition for talent will continue to heat up.

Hiring from Outside the Industry

One worthwhile strategy is proving itself in practice – hiring from outside the industry. Too often companies weight experience so heavily they miss the critical qualifications of ability and aptitude. Keep in mind that it’s often easier to teach new skills than it is to un-teach bad habits and outmoded approaches.

Adam Gloss, Vice President of Bel Red Energy Solutions, an HVAC company in the Seattle area has written an article about the success his company experienced in hiring outside the typical HVAC labor pool.

The news is not just that the strategy worked, but that the results in terms of sales and service improvements were amazing. For them, focusing on trait profiles, trainability, and contribution potential far outweighed the value of specific experience.

Read Adam’s article “Hiring from Outside of the HVAC Industry – The Pool Is Deep,” on the Air Conditioning Contractors of America website www.ACCA.org.

Working with Innovative Hiring Services

One key hurdle to hiring good people is that you simply don’t have the time or experience to do it well. Like any task, the evaluation of job candidates takes a certain amount of practice and skill to get right, and unless your 12 hour a day job is finding people and filling vacant positions, you may not be as good at it as you think.

That means turning to experts whose job is servicing your hiring needs. One source in the HVAC and M.E.P. industries is BirdDog (www.BirdDogHire.com), a niche job board solutions service whose goal is to turn panicked hiring to planned hiring.

While the team at BirdDog can assist with emergency hiring, their “always on recruiting” methodology helps companies proactively build a candidate pipeline of local talent.

BirdDog customers include contractors, manufacturers, wholesalers, facility managers, service organizations, and executive search firms within these industries.

On the BirdDog website (BNP Architecture, Engineering, Construction Career Center page) you’ll find a series of downloadable articles, including white papers on:

• Diversity
• The Truth about OFCCP Compliance
• Writing an Effective Job Posting
• Always On Recruiting

No matter how big or small your project:  

ZEN Industries provides all or part of your HVAC needs.  HVAC ductwork manufactured according to your schedule, meeting 3rd Edition 2005 SMACNA standards.  Contact Drew McCaffrey - Sales & Estimating at 877-600-0274.   

Contact ZEN Industries today.

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