When you are the owner of a construction business your goal is to grow and scale-up over time. A lot of companies, when trying to expand, go out and do the hard work of winning contracts, but then they hit a roadblock when they can’t find the right people to fulfil those contracts. This has become more of an issue when you take into account the serious skills shortage we are facing here in the UK. It can be very frustrating when you have a bank of work but no one to deliver it. It can affect your reputation, it can be stressful and ultimately it can cost you a lot of money too.
So what is the answer to this problem? How can we attract the best tradespeople to work for us and help us to grow and scale as companies?
In my experience as a business owner and then also business coach, I have realised that there are three main frustrations when trying to find skilled workers:
- There is a skills shortage with not as many people going into trades
- It can look too expensive for you and your business to hire the best
- If you do manage to hire a great tradesperson, they then get a better offer and they leave after you have invested time and energy into them
Is there a solution?
I have developed a strategy that works, to both find and attract talented tradespeople. To solve the three problems mentioned above we want and need three things.
We want to be able to attract the best talent, we want to make a profit even if they seem expensive, and we want our staff to be loyal. If we can do these three things then we will have a solution. So here are the three keys I have discovered to help you bring the best tradespeople into your company, and also to encourage them to stay.
Key 1: Attract the best talent
To attract the best talent, we first need to make our company appealing. No one wants to work for an unappealing company and if our website or online profile does not look professional it can put people off. So have a look at your website and online presence through the view of a potential tradesperson. Look at company culture and ask yourself: Would I want to go and work with this company?
You need to be able to appeal to them psychologically. When you are advertising, think about what problems your target audience may be having, and what your solution is. Maybe they want to work only 4 days, so you could offer flexible hours or an early finish on a Friday. They could be sick and tired of being self-employed, so you could offer them to come and work for an established company that will take away the hassle. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential tradespeople and get thinking about how you can target your dream team.
Key 2: Still make a profit
There is a famous saying that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. This is the same when you are thinking about your staff, and if you want the best you are going to be paying a higher rate. So how can you still make a profit? Reframe your offer. Think about reframing what you are offering potential tradespeople internally and externally. Internally when you are pitching their salary, offer creative alternatives. Flexi hours, commissions when hit targets, company van, or other benefits can mean that day rate could come down and not cost as much.
It is just as important as a business to reframe externally. When pricing work you need to let the client know that you have the best talent working for you. This is not cheap but means they will have the best service and result. You should also be crunching those numbers. Potentially look at bonus schemes for completed work on time. Offer out work on price. Understand what your gross profit margins are and as long as you can maintain them by maybe upping prices, you can offer some exciting incentives that will attract the right quality of tradespeople to work on the tools.
Key 3: Make sure our staff is loyal
Once you have the best tradespeople working for you, you want to be able to keep them. The first thing you can do to keep loyalty is training. When you speak to most people they will say that what they want is to see forward progression in their career. Could you train them up? Send them on courses? Teach them other skills? Upskill? Training often gets neglected but it is the prime thing that will inspire loyalty.
Lastly, you want to reward your staff to maximise loyalty and show how you appreciate them. If it’s a really good member of staff this could be in shares of your company. It doesn’t always have to be such a big gesture though, and even letting people go home early if a job gets finished on time or having a crate of beers on a Friday afternoon can go a long way to showing appreciation.
Doing these three things will attract the best talent for you and your company, meaning you can grow and scale up attracting bigger jobs. Would you like to learn more about how you can grow your construction business to £1,000,000++ of annual sales? Join me on the Win Big Clients course and I can help you scale your business. Learn more here.
