How to Improve Your Skilled Worker Recruiting Strategy

Demand for skilled workers is still high in Minnesota, and positions are becoming harder than ever to fill. Hiring managers can easily get discouraged by the inability to find the right candidates to fill their roles. We’re currently working with our clients to ensure that they remain staffed with the best skilled workers to meet their goals. Here’s how we’re helping those clients reevaluate their hiring strategy and get their hiring process back on track.

Mind the generation gap

Millennials are those born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. This generation is fully of age and looking to start families and take the next steps in their careers. Hiring managers need to be acutely aware of young adults’ changing expectations for their professional lives. Many members of this generation have been taught that college is their best chance at success, but blue-collar jobs can set themselves apart in this regard.

Meanwhile, Generation Z is entering the workforce. The prospect of apprenticeships, immediate pay and on-site training can help lure high school students into the productive and fulfilling trades. The student debt crisis is something that young people should be considering as they think about career prospects, and the trades offer a great option to make good money at a secure job immediately – without owing money for years to come.

If you want proactive workers, be proactive!

Throwing up an ad and waiting for the right applicants is no longer the path to recruiting success. You should be thinking about your company and what it can offer employees, not just the reverse. Workers today are more likely to want to work at an organization that has a clear mission and values, so be ready to define these qualities. It will give you the inside track on potential employees who value working at the right place.

On this same note, you want to be proactive about promoting training opportunities. Employees feel valued if they know that their employer is willing to invest in them. Apprenticeships and on-site training are enticing offers, and you should be taking full advantage of them by making all potential hires aware of their benefits.

Empower your current staff

Too many hiring managers assume that employees are set once they’re hired. You need to continue on a path of offering positive feedback and tangible rewards to employees throughout their careers with you. This will not only result in higher morale and loyal staff, but it will create long-term benefits as word of mouth spreads that you are a desirable employer that values its people. This will only serve to benefit your recruiting efforts in the short- and long-term.

Minor tweaks can go a long way in recruiting and hiring skilled workers. Companies should be ready to describe their own company’s strengths, of the appealing benefits of trade work and how they can create happy and empowered workers.

If your business is looking to recruit more skilled workers, Award Staffing can help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can create an effective staffing strategy for your business.