Using labour hire to deal with staffing needs has become very popular across all industries. In the past, labour hire was primarily used as a way to cover labour gaps when employees went on leave, fell ill or to cope with increased demand. It provided replacement employees for simple positions such as secretaries and file clerks. As it developed, however, more skills became available through labour hire and companies began relying on it for almost all their labour needs.
The construction sector is one of the areas where labour hire has gained a lot of popularity. The reason for this is that all work done in this industry is in the form of projects. One of the defining attributes of a Project is that it’s temporary in nature i.e. projects run for a specified time frame. Since permanently hiring a large workforce that will only be required for the length of the project is not economically sensible, other less permanent solutions are more feasible: hence labour hire.
Hiring Temporary Employees
By hiring temporary employees for your construction firm, you will have workers to work on all the aspects of the project without committing to hiring them on a permanent basis. This is because projects keep changing, one time the project might be big and require a lot of workers, other times it might be small and require fewer people. Keeping employees on a salary when they are out of the job would be too expensive.
Hiring temporary employees is not as simple as it sounds. It’s complex and requires a keen eye to identify a worker who will fit perfectly into your firm. Some of the things you should look for when hiring temporary workers include:
- Skill and experience. These two are a must have for any potential employee. The candidate should have the necessary skills and experience to do the job and do it to satisfactory standards. Candidates who have already worked several construction jobs are best as they already have an idea of what is required of them.
- Adaptability. Temps have a very short time to work with the company so they need to hit the ground running. Being able to adapt is a crucial ability that temps must have as their job assignments keep changing. Employees who cannot adapt quickly will waste a lot of valuable time trying to fit in the new environment and culture.
- Enthusiasm. Not all workers are cut out to be temps. Good temporary employees are able to bring their very best to each of their assignment. They are eager to participate in the completion of the job.
- Trainability. Your temp should display a willingness to understand and an eagerness to learn. This means training the employee to carry out a certain task will require less time, effort and, of course, save you some money.
Checking for all these attributes from each and every employee takes a lot of time and requires skills. For a company that is just looking for a couple of extra hands for a project, this could be a lot of work. Thankfully, all this can be done for you and a candidate provided to you already vetted thanks to labour hire.
At Blue Collar People
At Blue Collar People, we check beyond the usual requirements to make sure that all the workers we provide you with exceed your expectations.
With a wide range of activities that involve building, alterations, and/or repairs, the construction sector is one of the most labour intensive industries. Construction firms are involved in a myriad of projects that include residential construction, roadway paving, demolitions, excavation, bridge construction and much more.
Recruiting workers to fill job positions, especially for large construction projects, can be quite difficult and requires a significant amount of resources. From job vacancy advertisements, CV evaluation to candidate interviews, employee recruitment can be very tasking and especially when a large number of workers are required.
Labour hire can provide both skilled and unskilled workers such as carpenters, heavy equipment operators, electricians, plumbers, welders, masons, steel fixers, and construction labourers among others without the lengthy and costly procedure.
Construction Labour Hire Benefits
Benefits of using labour hire in construction include:
- Simplified recruitment. When using labour hire, all the recruitment nitty-gritty will be sorted out by the labour hire firm. All your company is required to do is provide the list of roles to be filled and the number of workers required for each role.
- Large skill pools. Construction jobs often require diverse skill sets for a single project. With labour hire, all your skill requirements can be fulfilled under one roof.
- Flexibility. In construction, the labour requirements keep fluctuating depending on the stage of the project. With labour hire, the workforce can be adjusted easily to suit the labour requirements to keep overall labour costs at a minimum.
Read more about construction labour hire below: