The recruitment process in building and construction companies

Most of the companies in the construction sector are small and medium sized enterprises. The priority is to make the construction site work at its best, that’s why their staff is mainly composed of technical and operational figures, often at the expense of an organized management and managerial structure.
When the decision to include new people in the team is made, the selection is entrusted to an expert technician or to the ownership, who will follow the entire selection process, from the curricula screening up to the last interview before admission inside the company.
What’s the problem with this modus operandi? First of all, the figures who have other tasks and goals are forced to focus their time on activities which their not prepared for
That means that the time spent is not enough to manage the selection process in an ideal way. And the trend will be the resource evaluation only for seniority and technical skills, not balancing them adequately with soft skills and transversal skills.

ots of times has happened to include a new resource on the construction site and after a few days hear: “I didn’t think that working on the site was that difficult” or “I don’t get along with the site manager, he always shouts” all of this generates an inevitably production rhythm slowdown and a harmful domino effect begins, workers arguing with each other, jobs delivered late and at worst the risk of getting hurt and injured.
Let’s not turn around it, working on a large construction site is very difficult, you get dirty and you work even in adverse weather conditions. A person can be technically the best out there in the world but if is not ready for the the construction site life, he will hardly last more than a month in it.
We tent to avoid this to happen immediately, we entrust the first selection process phase to a recruiter who does it by profession who is able to make candidates feel at ease, and at the same time to understand the aptitude characteristics by analyzing the actual matching between the characteristics , the values ​​and attitudes of the candidate to business needs. This doesn’t mean that the recruiter must follow the entire process but at least he has to set up a suitable candidates list for the role not only by considering the knowledge they have but above all for their personal aptitudes.

A construction company can do without a psychologist in its staff?
What’s the role of an occupational psychologist within a company? Why is he (potentially) a good selector?
The role of the an organization psychologist constitutes a great added value in the personnel selection phase as he has training in interview techniques, he is well aware of the distorting effects leading from errors in the evaluation of a candidate and he knows how to manage the relational dynamics  created in a professional context.

Let’s try to apply this concept in the construction sector  specifically in the shipbuilding sector where human relationships and teamwork are a fundamental aspect; having adequate and very different technical skills its one thing, but to experience the construction site every day and to know how to balance them with one’s own temperament and that of one’s colleagues its a different thing.The risk is hire someone who seems perfect but who turns out to be unsuitable for that specific role after a few days, what happens in this case? That the selection process must be repeated from scratch with an unnecessary increase in time and costs.

That’s the reason why, by entrusting the first cognitive interview to an occupational psychologist significantly reduces this risk, the technical skills will be subsequently verified through a second more in-depth interview with a technical figure of the company.

How does the occupational psychologist carry out the selective process?

The recruiting psychologist has to put the person at ease, making them feel free to express themselves. He knows well that the individual must be respected even in an evaluation phase.

Secondly, the psychologist will analyze the person character peculiarities during the dialogue by analyzing the actual matching between the characteristics, values ​​and attitudes of the candidate to business needs. If he deems it appropriate, he will support the selection process by using psycho-aptitude tests or assessment centers.

These tests will in no case replace the human work of the psychologist, they will only be a valid support in the selective phase.

We saw that having a psychologist in the company staff with HR department support not only constitutes a great added value but allows considerable savings in time and costs, times if we think about the sudden turnover of inadequate personnel, costs if we think about economic outlay that the company must sustain for  not well organized selective process.

We are partners of those companies who want to continue growing and need specialized figures for their construction sites. With this mindset, the geoJOB staff makes use of a team of occupational psychologists who are interview, techniques and management of selection processes experts.

Are you looking for workers for your construction sites in the Infrastructure and Plant Engineering sector?

Find out more about our specialist recruiting services.

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