By: Nina Cofer, Product Marketing Manager at Breezy HR
Construction hiring managers would agree that finding the best candidate for a job is the number-one goal of filling a position. While this is true, hiring managers typically don’t examine the process they follow in finding the best candidate to see if there are ways to optimize it. Oftentimes, thinking through the recruiting process reveals there are limitations placed on sourcing the potential candidate pool and inefficiencies in the process from job posting to offer letter.
Rather than post a position and wait for applications to roll in, hiring managers should think in advance and source candidates before a position is open – creating a candidate pipeline. Fostering relationships with potential candidates – even those who are not currency job hunting – will yield the best possible pool of people when a position does become available.
Candidate Sourcing
The key to candidate sourcing is to foster relationships and have conversations with ideal team additions before there is a need – educating them on your culture, company and growth plans. This builds a network of candidates and a talent pipeline from which to pull when an opportunity does open up and increases the pool of qualified talent.
A good place to start finding candidates to build a pipeline through referrals – candidates who already have an established connection with people who know or trust. This can be asking for referrals from team members inside the company (establishing a referral bonus for new hires increases participation), asking your peers in the industry directly, or posting a question on LinkedIn for your connections to tag the best people they know with the desired skillset.
Before you begin candidate sourcing to build pipeline with referrals, it’s important to first establish how you will track new connections, including first and last touchpoint, the origin of the relationship, etc. New technology tools, like an applicant tracking system, are worth exploring to help organize and optimize this information, as well as other steps along the recruiting process.
Optimizing efforts with Technology
Construction hiring managers have an invaluable role in the organization and oftentimes do not receive the proper technology budget to truly streamline their operations. With proper technology investments, hiring managers can improve efficiency and free up time to focus on finding the best candidates. Tools like applicant tracking systems are more than simply a data portal – a good platform can optimize both internal and external processes in the following ways:

• Internal Communication

Hiring managers are hit from all sides asking for updates about candidate pipeline, interview performance, and offer letters. When information is housed inside intelligent technology platforms, it provides automated updates to the right people when candidates are moved along in the process, as well as virtual scorecards to provide a place for transparent feedback from various interviewees and performance across interview rounds.

• External Communication

When the pool of candidates is large and there are multiple open positions, keeping candidates updated on their status is both time consuming and a potential place for errors. The candidate experience in the interview process is extremely important and good candidates can drop out if they do not feel the experience is positive or organized. Applicant tracking systems house preferred methods of communication – including text messages – for each candidate and automates reminders and updates that would otherwise be executed manually.

• Automating tasks

Hiring managers spend a significant amount of time on repeatable tasks – ones that can be automated if the right data is inputted into an intelligent software system. From following up with candidates to scheduling interviews, and from initiating background checks to sending offer letters, hiring managers’ time can be freed up to focus on more impactful responsibilities for the organization when smaller tasks are automated.

• Data visualization

For easy reporting and accountability, data within a software platform can be visually represented in real-time. Rather than input data into a spreadsheet for reporting or manually draft an email with data points, a visual representation of candidate pipeline provides a clear, quick snapshot of the entire candidate pool, with the ability to dive deeper into each candidate as needed.

• The job post

Candidate sourcing is one avenue to build a talent pipeline, but a job posting is likely still necessary to ensure active job seekers are hit as well. Typically, hiring managers will craft the job posting and then manually post it to multiple recruiting sites and job boards. Time-consuming in itself, each site requires time to be managed and updated. A robust software platform can provide the ability for a single (or multiple) job postings to be syndicated with a single click and managed within the platform.
With such an important role within a construction organization, hiring managers must make a case for transforming through technology to stay ahead. From automating manual tasks to building and managing candidate pipeline efficiently, the organizations investing in recruiting technology will be the organizations that win in both today’s market and into the future.
About Nina:
Nina Cofer is a product marketing manager at Breezy HR, an applicant tracking system based in Jacksonville, Florida. Nina’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative mind, and artistic talent have given her more than a decade of experience working in marketing, pay-per-click advertising, web and graphic design, and search engine optimization.
About Breezy HR:
Breezy HR is a recruiting platform and applicant tracking system that believes hiring doesn’t have to be messy. Based in Jacksonville, FL and with customers around the world, Breezy has thrown out the traditional hiring model and replaced it with a set of tools that engage hiring teams, manage day-to-day chaos and ensures teams continue to attract and hire great employees with less effort. To learn more, visit breezy.hr.