Having over 20 years of construction staffing, along with education, volunteer service and work experience in the construction industry, weeding through resumes is still challenging. I often say; some of the best candidates have the worst resumes and some of the best resumes are masking the worst employees. It always amazes me when a company wants someone within their organization to eliminate candidates for a role they know little or nothing about. It would be like me asking my accountant to staff for a crane operator position. When staffing for your organization what role should HR play?
Our team has worked with many excellent HR professionals over the years. What puts them in the excellent category when it comes to construction? They know their capabilities and industry knowledge. They understand that they are most valuable connecting the best qualified hiring managers (The Executive and team the person works with) and the best resources to find viable candidates for the hiring manager and team to interview. They recognize that they should not be the person interviewing for team chemistry, skill or qualification beyond general organizational fit and compensation structure. They often are involved in structuring the process, and training their internal team on what process to follow to protect the company and eliminate risk in the hiring process. They do not assume that all staffing agencies are all about the fees, and they do not assume that the hiring managers within their organization may make the wrong hire. They mediate the process in a non-biased, trusting manner. If they see any of the parties facing challenges, they offer counsel and direction toward finding and onboarding the right hire.
The HR leader should help outline and direct the following:
Who will be responsible for sourcing and where will you source candidates?
Who will contract the agreements with outside sources? ie; job boards, staffing and recruitment firms, employee referral etc..
Who is best suited to short list those candidates? How will this process be done?
Who is best qualified to interview the candidates for skill, attitude, aptitude, etc.? What will the process look like?
Who will send out rejections and who will prepare offer letters? Who will present?
Who will manage the new hire compliance and paperwork?
Who will outline the onboarding program and who will be part of that team?
Often over the years, Construction Executives have not been allowed to have say within the hiring process due to a HR professional has convinced their boss they are better qualified to hands-on manage the process. Usually this is approved by a notion that money will be saved or past mistakes won’t happen. Not only does this devalue the Executive and often cause them to want to leave, it also will alienate the top specialty recruiters from working with that organization and also prevent the top candidates from applying. Why? The top professionals are not ruled by the past or the bottom dollar, but relationship, budget, accountability and buy-in.
A shout out to the top HR Professionals that we have worked with over the years that are confident in themselves, the processes they implement and administer and trust others to work directly together within the parameters for hiring success.
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