30 May2015
Skills Shortage Hits Housebuilding.
It’s no surprise that the Housebuilding sector is beginning to show cracks, where the availability of talented individuals is concerned. It wasn’t so long ago that 10,000 people were made redundant. Not 10,000 subcontractors, I’m referring to employed staff located within offices of housebuilding groups up and down the country. Some would argue that many of the casualties were sub-standard folk and no real loss. That being the case, why is so difficult to find the best people in the housebuilding industry today?
There’s something happening in the workplace, which is frustrating the life out of personnel within the housebuilding industry. I can’t speak of other industries, but I would imagine it’s a similar picture.
Just recently, I’ve been speaking with several ‘unknowns’. To classify an ‘unknown’ is someone that I tap on the shoulder, having never spoken before and introduce myself in a professional way. Usually, the approach is made either via email and phone or some other means, Linkedin, Facebook etc.
I have a job on my hands, literally, in having to very quickly differentiate from other recruitment companies and ‘headhunters’. Within a few moments, it’s plainly obvious to the person I’m speaking with, but initially, I’ve been placed in the same annoying unprofessional, unethical, disingenuous category of the other recruiters.
Sometimes the responses are quite rude. It didn’t occur to me that these unknowns are being approached by lots of companies all the time, being bombarded with opportunities (most of which are the same job being marketed by every recruiter on the planet) and hassled to the point of frustration beyond belief.
Thankfully, I quickly demonstrate why I’m different and in the true sense of the word ‘Headhunter’, explain the key differences, not only in my ability as a Headhunter, but also my background, reputation and model of working which is unique to housebuilding.
Let me explain the differences to those whom are unfamiliar with terms such as Contingency and Retained. I work on a retained basis for all assignments. This means that I partner with my clients to find the best people as quickly as possible for any given role. I’m paid in advance, or should I say, part of my fee is paid in advance when I’m about to commence a search.
I explore the market and carefully consider the best people to select and interview for my clients.
The process is fairly straightforward. Once I have identified a potential candidate, I will arrange to meet, usually out of hours and near the candidate’s home location to make life easier for them.
I spend between 2 and 3 hours meeting each candidate in the search and build lasting relationships, based upon ethical practice, knowledge and trust.
Once I have a shortlist from all of my meetings, I discuss the shortlist with my client and present a maximum of three candidates, sometimes fewer, depending upon suitability.
Because I work exclusively with all clients, you won’t hear about the same job from anyone else, plus my confidentiality is the best in the business. I help, advise, manage and mentor people for all sorts of roles and create a profile of who you are why you should or shouldn’t fit into a particular company. This is possible from a deep understanding of all clients and target companies. Target companies are not clients. They are companies I choose to keep as targets for approaching on behalf of my clients.
Contingency recruitment is very different. To summarise; Some recruiters who work on a contingency basis, whether they have instructions from the employer or not, will do their best to attract anyone and everyone remotely suitable or in some cases, unsuitable, for a fee. They will pester, annoy, frustrate, send CV’s speculatively and (often without your knowledge) to an employer. Once they have you on the hook, they’ll start trying to back-fill your own job, but lining up people to take over when you leave. No wonder people are sick of recruiters. Read my other blog called Dirty Rotten Recruiters.
I had a call late one evening last week from a contact. For obvious reasons, I can’t go into any detail because of confidentiality. I do however want to share the emotion and content of the call in order to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation one day.
After establishing that all wasn’t great for my contact, I listened carefully to his immediate problem, frustrations and dis-belief.
