Discussing the construction candidate shortage in Melbourne
The construction candidate shortage | With Eddie Hayes & Shelley Weaver
It’s no secret that attracting and retaining reliable and skilled construction staff has been a challenge since Melbourne came out of lockdown. This has become a key issue for the industry across both Labour Hire and Permanent positions.
At this point in time, hiring managers and recruiter’s days are spent communicating with their networks of construction professionals, to try to meet their companies and clients hiring expectations. Needless to say, it’s a challenge for internal hiring teams and agency recruiters, however, it’s those with “time in the market” who are succeeding in sourcing and placing candidates right now.
We sat down with two of our highly experienced JV consultants who’ve provided their insights into the current construction candidate shortage in Melbourne, and how they’re solving the issues across permanent recruitment and labour hire positions.
Eddie Hayes – Senior Account Manager – Labour Hire
“Communicating with our clientele has been critical. Maintaining and managing expectations during a candidate shortage has had many challenges – particularly for those requiring Labour Hire services.
Here at JV, we’ve been working with clients to keep short term labour hire on for the medium-long term.
Educating our clients that once casual trades and labour resources ‘aren’t needed’ and become ‘available’, they’ll be placed into a new role within minutes – such is the demand for casual trades and labour support right now.
What that means is, it’ll be unlikely to get these workers replaced quickly, should you need them in a few days or weeks time. So, the work around is looking at the projects you have on the go and seeing if you can utilise these workers for the medium-long term while the candidate shortage remains.
I feel that the New Year may bring new candidates back into the market due to the relaxing of restrictions for interstate movement, international arrivals and confidence increasing around living with the virus”.
View Eddie Hayes profile and contact details here.
Shelley Weaver – Senior Recruitment Specialist – Commercial Construction
“It feels like every candidate who’s open to work has about 5 options to choose from – be it direct with a company or through recruiters. This is leading to candidates being overloaded and companies end up in bidding wars to secure the talent they’re seeking.
Nowadays, just putting an ad up on Seek doesn’t work. You have to utilize your network to source the right candidate.
Many construction companies are still taking on work/projects and are now starting to feel some pressure due to the shortage of available talent. It’s this shortage in the Permanent Recruitment market that is causing an increase in salary expectations.
In-demand roles right now include Carpentry professionals, Leading hands, Site Managers, Contract Administrators, Estimators and Project Managers.
My biggest piece of advice to business managers/owners right now is to get round your staff and ensure they’re happy, as there are many options out there for those contemplating a move”.
View Shelley Weaver’s Profile and contact details here.
It’s fair to say that with Christmas just weeks away, the challenges with hiring will continue through to the end of the year. And while many businesses focus on finishing up the year and make the usual decision to pick up hiring requirements in January and February, smart hiring managers are sourcing staff this side of Christmas to “beat the rest of the pack” in the new year.
If you want to discuss available candidates, roles you need support with, or new opportunities for yourself, contact JV for a confidential chat about your needs.
JV is a specialist recruitment and traffic management agency. We’re experts across the following specialisations throughout Australia: Construction, Engineering, Facilities Management, Energy & Renewables, Business Support and Traffic Management.
