The ramifications of inflexible skill set expectations in property and construction

When hiring, many employers are quite inflexible when it comes to the required skill set for a role, and sometimes will not consider candidates who don’t exactly match these requirements, without considering what other strengths they have beforehand. This is due to the fact that the hiring manager is looking to fill a role immediately, with minimum crossover time for training and development of the new starter. 

Whilst taking this approach is understandable, it is also damaging to your recruitment process. It can cause huge delays waiting for the perfect candidate. It is important not to restrict your recruitment process from accessing a wider pool of top talent.

Hiring challenges in the property and construction sector

In the property and construction sector, there are undeniably niche roles and skillsets required to undergo certain types of works and projects. Building regulations and difficult-to-fill roles are crucial to hire as they provide insight into a project that is a necessity. However, it is worthwhile considering a broader skillset and candidates from different backgrounds because it is a candidate-short market and top talent can be hard to come by.

Considering the time it would take to fill a role, versus the time it will take to hire someone with a slightly different skillset and train them to fulfil the duties and responsibilities of the role can save you time, money, and resource, whilst developing someone within your business at the same time. 

Broadening your candidate pool

Creating and perfecting your employee value proposition is a great way to attract new talent to the business, and inspire your current teams to better themselves with your organisation through training, development, and improved brand reputation. Not only can this boost your brand reputation, but it can engage potential candidates that maybe haven’t considered your business previously. 

Further to this, training and development in property and construction is a crucial tool to keep your current employees engaged with their roles and the business. Having regular, relevant training and development courses available to your teams will upskill your employees and potentially enable them to move up the ranks within your organisation. It is typically easier to hire junior talent in today’s market, so hiring from within can really ease the pain points of a recruitment push.

Depending on the role you are advertising for, it is also good to consider opening your recruitment search to other sectors. It may be a more difficult transition if they come from other sectors, but it can be really successful if they have relevant transferrable skills and some relevant technical experience as well. Talent from other industries can give a fresh perspective to an organisation. 

A flexible recruitment process

When building out your recruitment process, there are certain areas that you should consider that will really help you to build out your teams with the best candidates available on today’s market. If you aren’t willing to go above and beyond to secure the best people, it is very likely that your recruitment process will fall flat. 

1. Salary benchmarking

Even though a role is not all about the money, it is important to offer candidates what their time and expertise is worth. This is often one of the first things candidates look at, making sure you are benchmarking based on the industry average and your competition will help you to secure top talent. Use our Salary Benchmarking Tool to compare by sector and region.

2. Flexible and dynamic working

Offering a flexible and dynamic working policy and highlighting this throughout your recruitment process could be the difference between your candidate going with you or a competitor. If you don’t yet offer this, it is important to consider as most candidates are looking for this as a must have benefit.

3. Hiring at the junior level

Junior candidates are crucial people to have on your teams. You can upskill and develop junior people to become leaders in your business in the future. Don’t only look for experienced, senior professionals in your talent search, as junior people will be the management team of the future.

If you are interested in hiring top talent for your property and construction business, please get in touch with one of our specialist recruitment consultants today for a confidential discussion. 

Joseph Park
Manager, Michael Page Property & Construction