Finding great employees — and even good employees, for that matter — is challenging for the architecture, engineering, and construction business. There is a talent war going on with trying to recruit and retain talented employees. That means companies must to get creative about what they do to recruit these great employees. Employee recruitment and retention is important for growing firms and instrumental to the vitality of the firm.
Marketing plays a HUGE role in recruiting, because potential employees research you just like your prospects do. Having information online about your company culture, what it’s like to work for your firm, and the basic benefits package are all important to employees. The more the potential employee sees your transparency online, the more trust they are building with your firm… before you even realize they are researching you.
There are several ways to successfully market for recruiting great employees. This process takes time, dedication, and consistency, just like marketing does. Company culture (marketing) impacts your recruiting more than you probably realize. Eighty-four percent of candidates would consider leaving their current company if another company with an excellent reputation offered them a job. (https://www.glassdoor.com/) That’s a staggering statistic. Branding is extremely important when recruiting employees, so you must take great care of your reputation.
Being involved at the high schools, technical schools, colleges, and universities is also a long-term recruitment strategy. The involvement could include guest lecturing; attending industry career fairs, industry days, and career expos; and volunteering on the advisory board of the specific school (i.e. architecture, engineering, construction) at your alumni. As a firm, you probably have specific schools you’ve been successful at recruiting, so get involved at those schools. This will help build relationships with the deans and professors at the schools, so you can ask them what students to recruit for the positions you need in your firm. Again, this is a long-term marketing/recruiting strategy — it will take some time to develop these relationships and see the fruits of your labor.
As far as the benefits offered by firms, I have seen some offer flex time, working from home, and paid time off to volunteer. These are just a few of the ways employers are trying to recruit employees. The job market is very different today than it was just 10 or 15 years ago. Employees are requesting some out-of-the-box ideas, most of which typically won’t cost the firm much money to implement.
Some traditional places to recruit are high schools, technical colleges, universities, and colleges. It’s our responsibility as a whole to educate and inform high school and even middle school students about the architecture, engineering, and construction industry and the career opportunities it provides.
Ask for and listen to your current employees’ input, because they will have valuable ideas of how to recruit others to come work for your firm. Ask them why they like to work for your firm and use their testimonials on all your recruiting materials. You’ll need a variety of employee testimonials from draftsmen, laborers, superintendents, project managers, interior designers, project engineers, and skilled craftsmen. Let your employees recruit for you! Encourage your current employees to share information about your company through their connections, both in person and online. Having an incentive program for current employees who recruit new employees is also a successful strategy. Obviously, the new employee needs to stay a certain period of time before the current employee is compensated. As an example, one firm has different levels of incentives based on the position within the company. If a laborer is recruited, it’s $500; if it’s an executive position, it’s $5,000. Determine what this incentive would look like for your own firm.
Employers also provide reimbursement for education and training. Many already provide a stipend for technical college or university classes, so set up a program that will help your employees grow. Sending your employees to training is also recommended. This will prepare them for growth and advancement within your company, making them more efficient and productive. During training, they will learn new things that should be implemented in your firm. Ask the employee to share a summary and how they will implement ideas they learned in the training. For every conference or training I have attended that the firm paid for, I would write a 1-3 page summary of what I learned and what could benefit the company. Not everything I brought back to the management team and owner was implemented, but they at least knew they were generating ideas from the training they were paying for.
Create a digital campaign focused on employee recruitment. Gather your employee testimonials and stories and share throughout a recruiting campaign. Showcase 1-2 employees per month to focus on telling their individual stories and why they work for your firm. You can push this out through an email campaign, too. Consistency and reach are important. Through social media and Google AdWords, you can spend relatively little money to promote to your ideal candidate. Create hashtags (#careerswithnumarketing #lastingcareerswithnumarketing) for your campaign. Not only does this recruiting campaign help attract employees, it boosts employee morale through recognition.
Putting your employee recruiting strategy together is your first step. Once you have that plan, start consistently implementing it. Marketing and recruitment take time and patience but with consistency the results will come.
Nu marketing provides business strategy, marketing and business development plans, and employee recruiting and retaining strategies. Contact nu marketing today at 316-680-3097 or lindsay@numarketingllc.com. We look forward to working with your team.
