21

Jul

2021

– Seven top recruitment tips for construction firms

The latest statistics from construction jobs board ConstructionJobs.ie show housing as the sector with the most jobs on offer, with northern Europe being the top jobs location next to Dublin.

The construction sector continues to face a myriad of recruitment challenges, from growing skills gaps to replacing workers who have switched careers or returned home and scaling up to take on new projects.

The uncertainty caused by the pandemic over the past 18 months has impacted all industries. But construction was resilient during the pandemic due to being early to adapt to meet changing conditions.

Analyse your recruitment approach

According to Paraic Kelly, Director, constructionjobs.ie, in order to overcome current recruitment challenges, contractors should be analysing their approach to recruitment and asking themselves if they are getting the best value from the mix of recruitment tools they are employing.

“Shortages in construction, engineering professionals and trades mean that there is currently and will be a lot of competition for talent in the short to medium term,” Paraic Kelly comments. “Contractors should be considering a mix of recruitment tools to attract the right talent. With pressure on the housing sector and other labour-intensive construction sectors, it is at this time a jobseekers’ market.”

Routes to find construction jobs candidates

Kelly suggests that contractors should be using all the routes that they can to get the right people.

“Recruitment agencies, head hunters, general jobs boards, niche jobs boards, job aggregators and social media platforms are just the start of it,” he says. “Other enticements will have to be considered and if that doesn’t work, upskilling and retraining existing and trusted employees is another measure worth exploring.”

Highest recruitment activity in housing

The latest statistics from the ConstructionJobs.ie jobs board give a general indication of the most sought after candidates, the popular jobs with candidates, and where those jobs are.

Paraic Kelly says that at the moment, the sectors that are seeing the most recruitment activity are housing, data centres, pharma and civils, with project managers, quantity surveyors, site engineers and site managers the most advertised jobs. From the candidate’s perspective, he says the most viewed jobs in June were health and safety officer, quantity surveyor, project engineer, construction manager and accounts payable assistant.

“As would be expected, Dublin is where most of the recruitment activity is taking place,” he says, “with mainland Europe and Cork the other top locations. As Irish M&E firms and contractors have such a huge stake in data centre development across Europe, it should be no surprise that most of the jobs in mainland Europe are for construction and engineering professionals in the data centre market.”

 

To learn more about the latest construction and engineering opportunities, visit www.constructionjobs.ie

Top 10 locations for jobs on constructionjobs.ie June 2021

  1. Dublin
  2. *Mainland Europe
  3. Cork
  4. Kildare
  5. Meath
  6. The UK
  7. Limerick
  8. Wicklow
  9. Galway
  10. Tipperary

*Jobs in mainland Europe are primarily driven by the demand for construction and engineering professionals for data centre projects.

Top 10 job categories on constructionjobs.ie June 2021

  1. Project manager
  2. Quantity surveyor
  3. Site engineer
  4. Site manager
  5. Health & safety
  6. Foreperson
  7. Electrical engineer
  8. Contracts manager
  9. Civil engineer
  10. Mechanical & electrical engineer

Top 10 most viewed jobs on constructionjobs.ie June 2021

  1. Health and safety officer – Longford County Council
  2. Quantity surveyor Grade I – Office of Public Works
  3. Project engineer
  4. Construction manager – Amsterdam
  5. Accounts payable assistant
  6. Quantity surveyor
  7. Senior quantity surveyor – Limerick
  8. Site engineer – Blanchardstown, Dublin
  9. Junior engineer
  10. Junior quantity surveyor

Top 5 sectors for jobs on constructionjobs.ie June 2021

  1. Housing
  2. Data centres
  3. Pharmaceutical
  4. Civils
  5. Office-based

Paraic Kelly, Director, ConstructionJobs.ie

Paraic Kelly’s seven recruitment tips for construction firms

Mixing it up gets the best results from recruitment strategies. Paraic Kelly, Director, Constructionjobs.ie suggests seven recruitment strategy tips to find the right candidate for the job.

  1. Use a mix of recruitment agencies, head hunters, jobs boards (General and niche), social media, Google adverts, local papers
  2. Have a clearly defined inclusion and diversity policy in place
  3. Have a clearly defined graduate development programme in place
  4. Make a compelling proposition to work for your organisation
  5. Use your digital resources, website and social media to promote your employer brand. Show the people behind the business at their work
  6. Be an organisation where candidates can Grow, Learn and Contribute
  7. Sell the vision and culture of your company.
Irish Construction News