Employer Articles for Employees

How Do You Hire the Right Person for Open Trade Labor Positions?

Skillwork

Construction workers checking checking blue print

If you’re a skilled labor employer, you need to know how to choose a good employee. Hiring the right employee will greatly benefit your organization by allowing you to keep production high and increase revenue.

However, not knowing how to hire the right person for the job can be costly—costing you money, time, safety, production, clients, etc.

Do you know how to hire quality employees?

Does your organization have a proper hiring process to find and vet candidates?

Are you looking for the best way to hire employees for trade jobs?

Given the current skilled labor shortage, employers all over the country need to relearn how to find the best employees. Those who change their hiring practices and learn how to hire the right employees in this shortage will benefit the most.

If you’re wondering, “What is the best way to hire employees in the trades in this shortage?” then keep reading.

In this article, we’re looking at the best way to recruit people in the skilled trades. We’ll share expert insight into trade labor recruiting and how to select the right employee the first time.

Read on to learn more about why working with a skilled trade staffing agency might be the best way to hire someone in the current worker shortage.

Why You Need to Know How To Select Employees

You may be wondering, “Why is employee selection criteria so important?” Or “Why do I need to know how to choose the right employee?”

Before we get into how to get the best employees, it’s important to know why finding and hiring the right employee is valuable.

The why behind choosing the best employees ultimately comes down to cost—a bad hire comes with higher costs than finding a good employee, even if finding the right employee may seem like it costs more upfront.

The Costs of Not Using the Right Staff Recruitment Process

When you have an open position (or many open positions) you need to fill them in order to keep production high and increase revenue. So, what do you do?

Most employers start looking for a new employee, either through an internal process, external recruiting agency, or a combination of the two.

But tell us if this sounds familiar to you:

You find a candidate who seems like a good fit
You hire them into the open position
A short time later, you realize they’re not a good fit
You have to let them go and start the hiring process over again

This cycle happens time after time if you don’t know how to choose the best employee, and it can cause you to incur costs, like:

Instead of taking the time to find someone who can genuinely add long-term value, you settle for a short-term option that ends up costing you dearly.

But when you know how to find great employees, you can find, vet, and hire skilled workers who can fill your positions and provide value to your organization. You can reap the benefits of higher production and increased revenue rather than deal with the consequences of a bad hire.

Now that you know why finding good staff is important, let’s dive into the question, “How do you hire the right person for a trade job?”

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How to Choose a Good Employee in the Trades

Implementing a proper hiring process is the key to hiring the right employees. Without the ability to properly find, vet, and hire skilled workers, finding good staff will be nearly impossible in the current labor shortage.

Here are some hiring process tips for those who want to know how to select the right employee.

Tip #1: Look at Resumes

One of the top tips to hire new employees is to look at the resumes yourself.

There might be software programs or automated ways to screen resumes, but it’s important to get your (or your staff’s) eyes on them.

For one, you know your company’s needs, values, and culture. A machine can provide some insight into who’s a potential fit, but only you can truly tell if the person seems to possess the intangibles you’re looking for.

Second, you know what skills and experience are needed for the job. By looking at the resumes yourself, you can see who already has the experience necessary to thrive in the position.

You’re not going to know everything about a candidate from their resume alone, but it does give you a good impression of who could be a good fit.

Tip #2: Pre-screen Candidates

Our second tip for how to hire quality employees is to perform a candidate pre-screening.

During the pre-screening, you can connect and engage with the candidates more personally. You can reach out to their previous employers and any of their references.

Following your resume screening with a candidate pre-screening step allows you to validate any potential hire’s experience, skills, certifications, etc. It helps you to narrow down your candidate pool even further.

Tip #3: Measure Personality and Aptitude

Another one of the best ways to hire someone who will add long-term value to your company is to measure their personality and aptitude.

By testing someone’s personality and aptitude, you get a better understanding of:

How they do the job
If they can do the job

These tests help you gauge if the person has the intangible skills to fit in at your company and handle the demands of the job.

Tip #4: Assess Candidate Skills

The fourth tip for how to choose the right employee is to offer a skills assessment.

With this step, you’re trying to answer the question, “Does the candidate possess the actual knowledge and skills necessary to fill the position?”

By having candidates answer questions or walk through job-specific scenarios, you’re ensuring that they can physically perform the roles and responsibilities required.

Even if someone’s resume shows they have the skills and experience for a position, it’s still a good idea to test them yourself.

Tip #5: Hold an In-person Interview

Now that you have a few possible hires, it’s critical to interview them to further verify:

Work history
Skills
Job-specific requirements

This step also allows you to gauge:

How the person interacts with others
Their personality
The candidate’s professionalism

Human interaction is a critical part of hiring the right employee and ensuring they’ll fit in with your company culture.

Tip #6: Perform a Final Review and Interview

The last of our hiring process tips is to perform a final review and interview of the candidates.

This step may seem redundant to the previous step, but it’s crucial.

You’ve taken the time to narrow down your possible hires, and you’re getting ready to select one or a few to join your organization. So, it’s valuable to spend a little more time finalizing your decision and talking to each candidate one last time.

If you still have questions for some of the candidates or want to address any final red flags, now is the time.

By the end of this process, you should be in a position to hire someone who’s a good fit and can provide long-term value for your organization.

This hiring process is a reliable way to find employees who provide long-term value to your company. However, many employees aren’t prepared to handle the hiring process themself and could benefit from experts who know how to find the best employees.

Expert Help Finding Good Staff in a Worker Shortage

The current skilled labor shortage has put many trade employers in a difficult position. Because they can’t find and hire the right employees, production is decreasing and they’re losing revenue.

Not knowing how to hire the right employee is costly for skilled labor employers, while knowing how to choose a good employee has great benefits.

Some of the costs that come from not knowing how to hire the right person for the job include:

Time and money
Unsafe work environments
Dissatisfied customers/clients
A toxic company culture
Increased worker stress

For those wondering “What is the best way to hire employees?”, some tips to hire new employees that you can follow are:

Look at resumes
Pre-screen candidates
Measure personality and aptitude
Assess candidate skills
Hold in-person interviews
Perform a final review and interview

And if you’re still unsure how to hire quality employees, then we’re here to help.

At Skillwork, we’re a skilled labor recruiting agency that knows how to get the best employees. Using our proprietary 8-step vetting process, we do all the leg work of finding and vetting candidates for employers in need of experienced workers. When you partner with us for skilled workers, you can expect to:

Grow your business
Improve your bottom line
Reduce Risk