One of the most important aspects of handling and responding to the industry’s changes and challenges is talent acquisition and retention – and the hiring process itself is no stranger to these changes. Finding the talent best-equipped to face your company’s future means fine-turning the hiring process to your needs and the needs of the industry.
Veronica Ramirez, President and CEO of Joseph Chris Partners recruiting firm and a long-time specialist in hiring solutions, has given BUILDER Magazine her thoughts and insights on the recent changes and trends in residential recruitment practices.
What changes have you noticed in the industry’s hiring operations in the past few years?
Over the past few years there have been many changes to the hiring operations process. We are seeing medium to large builders and developers hiring or adding to their internal recruiting departments. Smaller builders and developers are spending the money to hire recruiters for important roles because a bad hire negatively affects the synergy of a company and is costly on many fronts.
The hiring process has become more intentional involving sticking to the process, testing, multiple interviews, meeting spouses, and involving more team members in interviewing the candidates to make sure that the hire is the correct one. As stated above, a bad hire or someone that doesn’t stick is not good for many reasons. The hiring managers are also becoming brutally honest during conversation with final candidates. This is to make sure the candidates know exactly what they are walking into, to ensure there are no surprises, and to minimize fall out. The honestly in communications helps the candidates gain trust in the company, its leaders, and the opportunity.
What are people doing now that they haven’t done in the past?
Our industry has made a thankful comeback from the downturn. Yet the speedy growth has created challenges supporting talent acquisition for builders and developers. Where is the talent? Certain skill sets have a smaller universe in today’s market and have become much harder to find. Companies as a result are more open to relocating employees, hiring those who have recently left the industry, or bringing back those who have started their own companies yet do not have the financial strength to grow.
Companies today also are more accepting of resumes that do not show tenure with companies from 2007 through 2014 due to the downturn and acquisition changes. They recognize that there were a lot of good people in uncontrollable situations.
We also are seeing that companies want to hire managers and senior executives with recent pre-downturn experience because they know how to handle challenges, disruptions, and situations that are a part of the building and development business. Companies also want these candidates to be open to new technologies, different processes, continuous learning, and collaborating with other leaders in the division or company. For executive and non-management positions, we see hiring managers attracted to candidates who seem like they’d fit with the company culture and are open to learning from others, have intellectual bandwidth, curiosity, and confidence to share their point of view.
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