Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Casey Craig talk about implementing best practices when hiring in the construction industry.

Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter.

RM365 HRAdvantage™ Portal

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Casey Craig

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

Transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Casey Craig, Account Executive with Ranch Mesa. He specializes in Commercial Insurance for paint, plaster and drywall contractors. Today, we're going to talk about best practices for hiring in the construction industry. Casey, welcome to the show!

Casey Craig: Thanks for having me, Alyssa.

AB: So, is this your first time recording in the new studio?

CC: It is.

AB: Yeah, how do you like the new office?

CC: It's massive. I mean, honestly, I feel like I'm getting my steps in coming over here.

AB: I know, I feel like I'm always on the go.

CC: Yeah, it's awesome, though. I mean, my last office was closer to the break room, so I heard everything. And now we've got the construction breakout area, and it's pretty cool.

AB: Yeah, I know you're on the other- completely other- side of the office, so we don't get to see you as much.

CC: I know, it’s, I mean, it's interesting. I feel like I made good friends that were right outside my office, and now they're on the other side of the building. So, I'm coming by and I'm like, I got to come over here more.

AB: Yeah, I know, I think we're all getting used to just our normal patterns and making a point to walk over to the other side because it is just so massive.

CC: Yeah, and you don't want to be the guy that's just walking laps all day either.

AB: Right, that is true. All right, so let's get into the podcast. So, with unemployment rates near 4%, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to find employees, let alone the right employee to help grow your construction company. And, it seems like most able bodied workers actually have jobs right now. And this leads to having either apprentice type employees that are, you know, come with unique challenges, or employers are pulling from an aging workforce that can bring a lot of other risks like accumulative, you know, injuries that they developed over the years. So, navigating these issues can be complex and there's no real perfect solution. What do you recommend employers do to ensure they're hiring the right people for their construction jobs?

CC: Yeah, you said it best. There's not really a perfect solution here. It depends on what type of construction you're doing, because if you have a ton of overturn, it's going to be tougher to maybe implement a lot of these. But going in, having some pre-hire drug testing, pre-hire physicals, targeted job postings with accurate descriptions of the daily work, multiple levels of interviews so you can get to know them better. And simulating work at your office at potential new hires would be performing in the field.

AB: Yeah, and those are all really good things for employers to implement in the hiring process. And I especially like the idea of simulating the work that they're going to be doing in the office maybe during that interview process so they can actually see what they'll be doing, you know, to replicate what they'll be actually doing in the field. So, how has the hiring process for construction, how is it different post COVID?

CC: Well, I mean, it's been pretty crazy. I guess prior to COVID, a lot of people in construction relied on word of mouth. You'd have referrals and you'd get- for my industries- you'd have brothers or cousins or friends that would be a good referral source that you could build off of. That's kind of gone away a little bit because you can't really trust what you're getting in the door. During COVID, we had a really big problem where employers couldn't find people that were willing to come to job sites. So, they ended up having to pay crazy wages to get people out there. And it was more of a “you take what you get” and you can't really complain. So, there was a lot of bad workers that were being hired and then they were overpaid as well. So, it was really tough to kind of move past that. And now we're running into an issue where, especially with younger employees, they were paid to not work during COVID. And that's a really big challenge for employers. You've got employees that are looking for a paycheck but not necessarily wanting to work. So, they're coming in and you're having fake injuries that can kind of, you know, pile up. And if you've got a couple of those going at the same time, that can be litigated as well and really start to impact your mod or you get those cumulative trauma claims for the older employees that you're trying to, you know, just fill a gap there. You're taking on their previous injuries as well.

AB: Yeah. So, what do you recommend employers do to protect themselves against these bad or what are going to end up being very costly hires?

CC: Yeah, this is tough. I mean, this is where it's- you might not see the impact to your bottom dollar. You're not going to know that you prevented a claim. It's just going to have or be something that would have happened. So, doing what we talked about before, those best practices steps, they're going to help, you know, insulate you. The more you know your new hires before they come on the job site, you're going to have a better feel of if they're there just for a paycheck or they're looking for a job. But, yeah, this is going to be a tough one where you need to really kind of put a little more time in upfront.

AB: Yeah. And I think having those multiple interviews, maybe with different people in the company. That can help too, because, you know, you'll get different perspectives from people.

CC: Yeah.

AB: So yeah, absolutely.

CC: Part of it is, I mean, there's a study just came out. Travelers, they had a survey where they said that 34% of injuries in the workplace happened on employees that had been working for less than a year. So, your new hires, I mean, they're necessary. We need to get them out there. But your long term goal is to turn those new hires into tenure, you know, veterans out there.

AB: Yeah, and I guess, our safety trainings can help with that.

CC: Absolutely.

AB: Get those new employees trained and then make sure that you’re continuing that training program as they stay with the company for years. So, our clients can take advantage of our RM365 HRAdvantage™ Portal. If they're having hiring questions, they can reach out to our experts. They can pick up the phone and talk to them on the phone, or they can submit their questions through the portal. And, there's a lot of really good resources out there if they do have questions about hiring. Casey, if listeners have questions about their- managing their company risk, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

CC: Yeah, you can email me directly at Ccraig@ranchomesa.com or you can call me at 619-438-6900.

[Outro Music]

AB: All right. Well, Casey, thank you for joining me in Studio one.

CC: It's been a blast. It’s beautiful.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.