5 Essential Field Worker Hiring Strategies

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Field workers across a wide range of industries require unique and specific skills to meet the needs of your business. As such, the hiring process for recruiting new field workers is somewhat complex. It needs to be designed in a way that ensures that you hire only qualified, talented, and motivated candidates for your open roles.

Read on to find out how to hire the best field workers for your business, regardless of your industry or sector of operation.

What is a Field Worker?

If you want to hire the right person, you should know how to identify them first. A field worker performs a variety of manual labor, maintenance, and equipment-assisted construction tasks. These workers may work in fields like construction, maintenance, electrical installation, utility distribution system repair, and water utility system management.

Their work is usually associated with the repair and preventive maintenance of the systems mentioned above. Fieldworker professionals may be required to use construction equipment and motor vehicles that are relevant to their responsibilities.

The duties of a field worker are often physically demanding. Effective workers need to be capable of frequent heavy lifting and carrying weighty equipment and materials. They often need to be physically fit, as their jobs may require plenty of bending, stooping, lifting, and climbing. Employees in field industries are required to use specialized safety equipment and follow safety procedures when performing their duties.

Moreover, they are subject to regular emergency calls. Additionally, they need to be willing to work standby and overtime during weekends, nights, and public holidays as scheduled.

5 Proven Hiring Methods for Hiring Field Workers

1. Stay Abreast of Hiring Trends in Your Industry

One factor that makes field industries like construction and plumbing so unique is their ‘boom-and-bust cycle’. This cycle generally aligns itself with economic movements. For example, new construction booms tend to spike when interest rates are at their lowest. When this happens it’s easier for property investors to borrow money to begin construction projects. Naturally, additional construction workers are needed as the demand for construction increases.

With that said, these easy loans can sometimes overwhelm new property owners, who aren’t always able to keep up with their payments. Once a tide of mortgage loan defaults hit the industry in 2008, the insolvency of many of the world’s most prominent financial institutions was revealed. Home values fell dramatically, and new construction slowed for years to come.

The ups and downs of the economic market can make it tricky for construction and field service companies to maintain adequate staffing levels and stay competitive. So, this should be a consideration in your own hiring strategy. Hiring needs and hiring methods will vary according to region and population trends in those regions. Stay up to date with regional economic changes to remain flexible and anticipate your future staffing requirements.

The nature of the housing market forces you to be nimble and to spend time anticipating your future staffing needs.

2. Use Your Hiring Strategies to Attract Skilled Workers

Once you have identified your need for new workers, the process of hiring them will begin. This process starts with developing a search-friendly, engaging and compelling job advertisement. Effective posts will resonate with the specific candidates you want in your business.

Add these elements to your posting to improve your chances of attracting a dedicated and intelligent fieldworker:

The skills and qualifications you need. Field workers aren’t usually required to hold college degrees. But they certainly need qualifications, especially if they work in high-risk industries like electrical and construction. Specify the certifications that you want your applicants to have, particularly if they will work in management roles.
The duties they will need to perform. Many fieldwork businesses are highly specialized. If your company focuses on plumbing, roofing, or water system installation, indicate this clearly in your job posting. If your business has many specialties, list the specific areas of work your company services and the duties your candidates will need to perform.
Opportunities for development and training. Today’s workers prioritize employers that offer them learning and development opportunities. The most successful field workers are those who constantly learn new skills on the job. If your business offers training and development opportunities, mention them in detail in your postings.
Your company culture, mission, and values. Potential employees at your organization will want to get a sense of your company’s culture and what their experience working with you will be like. As their work may be physically taxing, they will likely seek out an employer that offers benefits, like health insurance and workers’ compensation, too.

Once you’ve created your job posting, it’s important to post it on platforms where it will be seen by your target candidates. Career search engines and websites have resume listings on which you can find candidates that fit your business’s specific requirements. Some examples are:

Workrise.com
Tradesmen International
SimplyHired.com
Constructionjobs.com
GCJobs.com

Tip: When hiring field workers, business owners should know how to pick the best based on the resume tailored carefully.

3. Hire the Right Person Using Referrals and Word of Mouth

Suppliers, subcontractors, clients, and even other field workers will often have mental lists of other industry workers who they would happily recommend to you. If you have a vacant role to fill, ask around, especially within your organization. These pre-vetted candidates may be extremely valuable to your efforts. Asking your staff for their recommendations may make it easier to hire workers who have worked with your employees in the past. They may be more capable of working together efficiently and amicably.

If you seek your new hires through job postings, be sure to request references. Getting in touch with their previous employees is a proven way to vet potential hires. This ensures that they will be the right fit for your company.

4. Adopt Inclusive Hiring Methods

One of the latest hiring trends is using inclusive hiring methods to diversify your workforce. Be sure to include candidates of all backgrounds, cultures, and levels of experience when creating your hiring strategy.

When a company embraces diversity, it can help everyone grow, examine their biases, learn from each other, and create more well-rounded world views. This can ultimately drive better business results. For example, your employees will have a greater ability to empathize with different types of people—including your customers—which can have a positive impact on your customer satisfaction levels.

Hiring industry veterans means you’re bringing in workers who have ample experience, are disciplined, and have the stamina, strength, and coordination to perform well out on the field.

5. Offer Apprenticeships

The best hires for your field service company may not even be qualified field workers just yet. If you want to hire the right person for your team, you may need to train them for the job. For instance, if you need a welder, painter, or plumber to join your ranks in the long term, it may be a good idea to seek out and train recent graduates to fulfill those roles in your organization.

Partner with field worker schools, colleges, and certification institutions, and even other field service companies, to find eager graduates for your apprenticeships. These types of institutions will help you advertise your apprenticeships through their in-house careers services, job boards, job fairs, and even word of mouth. Remember to advertise your apprenticeship programs well to enhance the visibility of the opportunities you have on offer. There are many online platforms to advertise your apprenticeships online such as Apprenticeship.gov and the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship.

Hiring Strategies, The Takeaway

If you need to hire the right field workers for your organization, start by keeping up to date with the latest economic and hiring trends in your region and in your industry. Once you identify the need to hire, use these five hiring strategies. They will assist in simplifying and streamlining your hiring process and ensure that you find the talent you need.

Hiring strategies aside, it’s also crucial to offer your candidates a positive application experience. This will strengthen your brand’s identity and improve the efficiency of your hiring processes in the future. Advertise roles clearly and coherently, and offer training and apprenticeship opportunities to attract the right field workers to your business.

Hiring is an integral part of your growth, learn more on how to supercharge your business here: 4 Tools and Resources Your Business Needs in Order to Grow