Needed in 2025: 439,000 net new workers to meet the demands of increased spending in public sector construction. Thanks to shifts in the construction industry, the gap is less than it has been in previous years. The top challenge remains that there are simply not enough trained construction workers to fill every role, which means companies must adopt innovative strategies for construction worker hiring and training.
Construction firms at a glance:
- 59% are struggling with worker shortage
- 56% facing quality concerns among workers
- 78% see sourcing talent as a top challenge in today’s market
- 83% struggle to hire superintendents
- 81% struggle to source project managers and foremen
Without effective leadership to guide candidates, companies face further challenges in attracting and retaining new hires. The solution to sourcing new talent? Lead to train and train to lead.
Rethink who and how you hire. Hard skills and years of experience are very limited in today’s market. Lead instead with potential to learn. An adaptable, highly motivated, eager to learn candidate can be tailored into your ideal candidate. With the right training, that ideal candidate can also rise to leadership, preserving the cycle of great talent acquisition and critical knowledge in your workplace.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the 5 key traits for trainability in construction candidates, the 4 steps to maximize what you and your new hires gain from your training program, and the best tools to identify trainability in your talent pool.
Top 5 Traits that Show a Builder and a Grower
Construction candidates who want to build and grow themselves are eager to learn, take feedback well, and readily adapt to new challenges. When reviewing applications and conducting interviews, look for these five traits:
- A hunger for learning opportunities is the best sign of high trainability because that person wants to grow and know how to perform new tasks, whether basic ones or those relying on mechanical or technical training.
- Adaptability makes a candidate flexible, skilled at adjusting to new challenges and situations, and prepared to shift their approach based on feedback.
- Strong teamwork skills makes a candidate invaluable in completing labor-intensive projects that rely on many people communicating and working together like well-oiled gears.
- Attention to detail gives a candidate a leg up on problem-solving, ensuring that techniques are executed correctly the first time–and that any mistakes, if they are made, are quickly solved.
- Resilience makes a candidate well-suited to intense environments where physical risks are constantly present and high situational awareness is a must.
With up to 92% of people in today’s workforce eagerly seeking training from their employers, providing that training puts you ahead of the competition on attracting new hires.
4 Steps to Lay a Foundation for the Future
How can you maximize your candidates’ growth potential? The answer lies in a comprehensive approach to construction worker hiring and training. By focusing on developing your employees and training them to retain them, you create a workplace where they want to stay and where productivity thrives. Integrate new hires into a positive workplace culture that models safety, teamwork, and continuous learning with these four steps.
- Formalize onboarding and training. Save money by creating in-house training that follows lean construction principles and sticks to a clear budget. Standardized training provides consistent expectations and steady resources for questions.
- Emphasize and model safety. 60% of construction accidents happen within an employee’s first year on the job. Prioritizing and demonstrating safety as part of your training will drastically reduce the risk of accidents that cost money, time, and lives.
- Build mentorship between veterans and new hires. Mentorship is another cost-effective way to pass industry experience on to new hires. Mentoring bonds break the ice between new and old employees and immerse new hires more deeply into your trade and workplace.
- Keep upskilling current workers. Upskilling workers regularly keeps them on track as the industry grows, especially in terms of technique and technology, avoiding the expense of suddenly needing to overhaul your entire crew. The more you invest into employees, the more loyal they will be because their output matches your effort.
The Right Tools to Test for Trainability
Pre-employment tests are efficient, reliable tools because they can be automated to screen your pipeline for your top key traits. With pre-employment tests like personality tests, you can sort through high volumes of applications and save time on the front end of the hiring process.
- Cognitive aptitude tests highlight a candidate’s learning potential as well as critical thinking, numerical reasoning, and spatial reasoning. They show you how well a candidate might mentally perform in a given role.
- Situational judgement tests provide insights about how a candidate might handle a role’s common challenges and problem-solve. They are especially valuable for demonstrating an experienced candidate’s potential for success in an entry-level job.
- Culture fit tests show how well a candidate will fit into your workplace culture, perform as a teammate, interact with colleagues, and carry your values. They combine well with skills-based tests to provide well-rounded insights about a candidate.
Gaining data on a candidate’s trainability prepares you to deep-dive into their motivations, weaknesses, and goals when you interview them. Preparing yourself with pre-employment tests gives you more insight in interviews, allowing you better judgement and confidence when hiring.
Conclusion
Hiring quality construction talent remains a significant challenge, but prioritizing potential and trainability, alongside a strong strategy for construction worker hiring and training, empowers you to create your own ideal candidates. Seek resilient people who are adaptable, team- and detail-oriented, and eager to learn. Leverage pre-employment tests to maximize your ability to identify quality talent. Construct in-house, cost-conservative, quality-focused training that isn’t just one-and-done. The more you train your employees throughout their lifetimes with you, the more they’ll grow to serve your mission.
Ready to more effectively source quality candidates with potential by leveraging the benefits of pre-employment tests? HighMatch is the teammate you need. For more than 15 years we have helped diverse companies save time and money in hiring. HighMatch provides a robust, automated suite of hiring tools that help you make the most efficient hiring decisions. Our team of I/O psychologists respond to your unique needs by collaborating with your hiring managers to create personalized assessment solutions, empowering you to make faster, data-driven hiring decisions. Be more confident in your hiring choices–match with HighMatch.
Contact HighMatch today to modernize your hiring process, identify candidates with the greatest potential, and build a crew with people of potential–saving time, money, and frustration along the way.
