How To Recruit The Best Staff In The Recession

In the current economic climate recruiting staff in the housebuilding industry sounds like the easiest job in the world. The recession has left thousands of experienced staff redundant and on the job market. As a recruiter you can have your pick and, with the competition for jobs, not break the bank on salary. Surely you only have to let it be known that you might be looking to appoint and you will enjoy a deluge of quality applicants. Right? That depends.

It depends on which area of your business you are looking to recruit in, how attractive your company is as an employer and how high you set the bar for your appointment.

Let’s look at these three areas in isolation:

Where are you looking to recruit in your business?

Certain disciplines are enjoying much greater demand than others. Approximately 50% of all housebuilding jobs are sales related. Good sales negotiators are now gainfully employed and if they are in the market for a change of employer are choosing between two or three offers. Site Managers are also back in demand meaning you will have to work harder to attract the best candidates to your job. Other departments are much easier to recruit for. Technical and Commercial appointments are still thin on the ground and there remains plenty of quality candidates looking for a position, for example

How attractive is your company as an employer?

This can be as simple as how well you pay your staff. Are your terms and conditions competitive? The very strongest performers have not only kept their jobs throughout the recession but enjoyed pay rises and bonuses too. If you want to recruit the very best don’t expect the recession to allow you to do it on a shoestring.

There are, of course, other factors which influence a potential employee’s perception of your company. Staff turnover is always a key area. Most builders shed lots of staff during 2008 and 2009 but does your company hire and fire anyway? In such a tight knit industry it doesn’t take long for word to get around that you have a high staff turnover. If this describes your company, it is time to ask why? Are you recruiting the right people in the first instance? If not, do you need to improve your selection process? Are you giving new employees the right support to succeed? Are your managers well equipped to bring out the best in staff?

How high is the bar?

Everyone wants to recruit the best staff but how realistic is this for your company? It becomes a simple equation: if you want to set the bar high you need to think about what you are offering return.

Firstly, the best candidates are probably working at a competitor who will be reluctant to let them go. In short, you are going to have to make a material improvement to their salary package to tempt them away. Secondly, regardless of salary, are you a sufficiently attractive employer to lure the very best? Thirdly, you may well need the assistance of a headhunter to identify the talent you are after, so be prepared for a recruitment fee.

So what if you can’t or don’t want to meet all three criteria? There are still lots of experienced candidates out there looking for new positions who can do a very good job for your company. You need to connect with them through one of four methods:

Direct Approach – Maybe you or a colleague knows of someone who would be a good fit for your position.

Use a recruitment consultant – Recruiters databases have swelled enormously over the past three years and they should be able to put a decent shortlist together in a short time frame for you to interview. Downward pressure on fees during the recession has reduced the cost of using a recruiter and you have the benefit of the initial screening of candidates.

Advertise in the Press – Building, Estates Gazette, Housebuilder and Showhouse are all industry journals carrying recruitment advertising. Regional newspapers are also a viable option.

Online advertising – This is the fastest growing of the four methods listed. Advertising costs tend to be very low compared to traditional media and the jobs are quick and easy to post. There are two specialist sites for the housebuilding industry.

In summary, don’t be complacent if you are looking to employ. Think carefully about how much competition there is for the type of person you are looking to appoint. Then decide how high you want to set the bar. You can then make a logical choice about method of recruitment.