Management of Labor Shortages – What Subcontractors Should Know
Labor shortages are a widespread challenge for many niches. Construction is not an exception. Many subcontractors can hardly find competent workers for building projects. Nevertheless, the construction labor market experiences a new boom. While over 2 million workers are required around the world to perform building tasks of different complexity. That is why the best way to cope with the issue of a labor shortage is to improve working relationships and the way of searching for specialists for these and those projects.
Digitalization of most on-site and management processes can make a difference if you are a willing contractor to find competent workers. Cost estimating software, management apps, cloud-based programs, and many more tools can help you with optimizations. Mitigate all the risks like inaccurate costing, budget planning, and poor scheduling together with challenges concerning labor shortage with the help of the best-matching digital resources.
Remember that demand for building more and more residential and commercial premises is ever-growing. That is why you need to structure and manage to subcontract right now to perform on the local markets well and risk-free. Let’s take a closer look at the ways to manage labor shortages and avoid issues related to this subject matter.
Construction Labor Shortages Subcontractors Face: Three Steps to Undertake at the Very Beginning
Start with the most win-win approaches to minimize your risks in the context of labor shortages. Among these efficient three steps to take into consideration are:
- Have a strategy. Do not forget that you need to plan everything to avoid unpleasant surprises caused by poor planning and process management. First, do research and understand the profile of your ideal worker. Then, explore channels where you can find the staff for your projects. Such a go-to tactic strategy will help you overcome any excessive competition in the niche.
- Optimize your hiring process. It is possible to do with competent and experienced advisors. For example, you can delegate all the hiring routine tasks to recruiters or other special agencies. If you are going to hold all the procedures yourself, get ready with questionnaires to candidates, specify the main criteria for potential workers, and explore business profiles on social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
- Use the benefits of word-of-mouth. Remember that recommendations are the best for hiring people. Ask your friends, partners, and even suppliers about skillful experts to attract to your building projects. Hiring runs easier and more efficiently with candidates, someone cooperated with.
Competitive Wages Are a Must for Hassle-Free Hiring
One more idea that should be taken into account if you are a subcontractor who would like to hire skillful workers is to offer only competitive wages to your staff. Good experts know the value of their quality, time, and loads. Of course, you can hire an inexperienced worker with great potential and stay pleased with the money saved. But it is risky for your projects.
If you are interested in high-quality work with no imperfections and challenging moments, it is better to specify competitive salaries and a flexible bonus system for overwork and extra hours spent on the site. This way your potential workers will see that you pay well for their efforts.
Bonus Tip for Contractors to Overcome Labor Shortages and Save Money
One more hack for result-driven subcontractors is to practice supervision. For example, you hire a skillful plumber but you need several ones to bid more orders. Offer an experienced specialist a bonus for the supervision of inexperienced workers.
It will take some time but you will save money on hiring two or more experts in the niche with hire rates. But you should decide if it is reasonable right here and now. Sometimes, there are too many time-consuming tasks to do. And you have no time for supervision and onboarding routines. Thus, you can practice this approach later.
