7 Excellent Tips for Hiring Temp Workers in Times of Talent Shortage

Do you know? In February 2022, the well-known Harris Poll, which conducts periodic and in-depth Surveys for the well-being of American Blue Collar Workers, stated that 67% of the Workers felt that the Views of Society towards their Jobs has changed post the Pandemic.

The same Survey also indicates that although the pandemic has brought a sense of increased appreciation towards Temp/Part Time jobs, at the same time, these jobs also come with unwanted pressure and stress, thus adding a strain on the overall labor force.

The Poll points out that the Work-Life balance of close to 73% of blue-collar workers has been severely impacted due to the ongoing labor shortage.

What’s alarming about this trend is that almost 2 out of 5 five (37%) blue-collar workers are being subjected to heavier workloads due to staff shortages, which is highly unfair.

The Blue-Collar Desperation

Even though ironically, nearly 75% of blue-collar workers believe that post-pandemic, the demand for jobs is changing rapidly and times will be better and brighter, some hard facts say otherwise. Talent Shortage is indeed a major problem that the country is facing right now. Contrary to positive outlooks, Blue collar industries across the USA are in dire need of a capable workforce, which can be on-boarded quickly. This is where an organization needs to merge with an established and reputed High Volume Staffing Agency that can cater to the company’s needs and work closely with the company’s Recruitment Team to hire the ‘Right Talent’ across various sectors.

So we ask the question? How to tackle these humongous hiring challenges and most importantly, what is the ‘success mantra’ to fill up the open positions and speed up the current Talent Shortage obstacle to excel in blue-collar recruitment?

The Success Mantra lies not in ONE but in “7 Important Tips” to successfully Recruit Blue-Collar Employees in this demanding market scenario.

Procuring Talent from Niche Job Websites

What Are Niche Job Sites?

Niche job websites are both search platforms and databases where you can look out for open positions that suit and cater to your preferred industry and lifestyle. Niche job sites do not depend on your education or experience level. Just search for suitable open roles that are applicable to you and apply right away, that’s it.

For instance, if you are looking for Manufacturing based jobs (e.g., welder, assembler, or machinist), such jobs can be found on job sites such as ‘Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Crossing, and Jobs in Manufacturing. Other dedicated and well-known job sites that offer a variety of quality blue-collar positions are betterteam.com, jobstars.com, etc.

Recruiting Veterans

Truth be told, Military Veterans, are a group of highly skilled candidates who are often looking for new jobs. Roles such as welders, electricians, machinists, mechanics, construction tradespersons, and engineers are always in shortage. Recruit military veterans for positions like operations leadership, maintenance, maintenance management, quality engineering, and improvement. This will make a huge difference in the overall output and performance within an organization because veterans are already well-equipped with the skills and technical expertise that manufacturing positions require.

When veterans leave their military service, they come with an array of technical skills, leadership experience, dedication to safety, compliance, and an ability to adapt and learn new procedures. This advantage makes them the future of manufacturing workers as they are better trained and smart.

Use Referrals to your Advantage

1. Employees who get referred are 4 times more likely to get recruited than those who are without a referral.
2. 82% of Blue Collar & White Collar Employers, placed referrals above other alternatives for yielding a higher return on investment (ROI).
3. Statistics show that 45% of candidates who were employed through referrals stay with the company for more than four years.
4. In 2020-21, a Human Resource Report showed that the amount saved in productivity and sourcing costs per hired employee referral was $7,500.
5. Only 25% of employees recruited through job boards/sites stay for more than two years, while 45 percent of employees obtained through employee referrals remain for more than four.

Blue Collar Meets Gen-Z

According to a recent Forbes Article, Millennials are rapidly recognizing the value of blue-collar jobs. The blue-collar world is being reinvented by the Gen Z crowd. These tech-savvy high school and college students are changing the whole blue-collar way of working. Isn’t that fascinating and beneficial for Employers to get some quick high volume talent?

Millennials are reality driven and are not entangled in the outdated notion that only a white-collar job will bring in benefits. For them, a decent-paying job of any type, be it a blue-collar or white-collar is perfectly fine. Nothing is ‘above or below and they believe in the dignity of labor, which is why they are eager to take up Blue-collar jobs like plumbing, construction, electricity, landscaping, cleaning, and handiwork as they offer low entry barriers. These Apprentices get to earn while studying as well and the problem of student loans for their post-secondary training is also been taking care of.

Now Companies should grab this opportunity to recruit these young professionals to join their fields and also convince more high school students to possibly pursue blue-collar jobs as a long-term career, thus putting a temporary end to the talent shortage.

Promote the Positive Aspects of Blue Collar Jobs

Sometimes, blue-collar jobs can be exhausting and dangerous. They lack the glamour of other professions as it’s mostly field & groundwork with sweat and stains involved. But blue-collar jobs have advantages that Employers can highlight to recruit younger people.

Recruitment Experts from Big organizations and high-volume staffing agencies should collaborate and focus on encouraging aspects to attract future workers like being active, job satisfaction, a long-term vision, and other tangible benefits. Including perks may attract candidates, like gym memberships or say free lunches from lunch trucks.

Revamp the Evaluation Methods

Most blue-collar jobs don’t rely on or require you to have a college or university degree. They focus instead on your skills, expertise, experience, and certifications. This would mean that many excellent workers with tons & years of on-ground knowledge and in-depth understanding of the work might be unfit at the start of the hiring process itself, thus further impacting the talent shortage.

This is why it is important to change with the times and try new ways to evaluate a candidate; like video interviews, or assessments by paying a potential job seeker to work in the organization for a day. Gamification, a new concept that aims at employee engagement, can also be a good alternative assessment by having the candidates play a game or asking about the person’s preference itself for being evaluated.

Be Mobile-Friendly for Better Opportunities

According to a recent survey by Glassdoor, blue-collar job seekers are more likely than other workers to use their phones to seek out new employment opportunities. To grab the attention of these job seekers, employers and organizations must create seamless and lag-free website careers pages or application forms that are attractive and mobile-friendly.

To be mobile-friendly, make sure your career pages have useful content and also keep updating the mobile version of your website with valuable updates and job application forms.

Conclusion

To decrease Talent Shortage and hire quality blue-collar workers, partner with an experienced and professional High Volume Staffing company like Bear Staffing Solutions. With our large database of staffing resources and a proven HR management system, all your Recruitment challenges will be hassle-free and seamless.