Hiring the Right Team Members in Contracting

The completion of virtually any type of building or remodeling project depends heavily on the competence and cooperation of the team that is doing the work. In many cases, separate teams that are each responsible for different phases of work need to coordinate their efforts with fairly high precision. Each team’s contribution is extremely important in ensuring that work is completed in a timely manner and that the quality of the work is satisfactory. Likewise, the contribution of each individual member of a team can bear heavily on the quality of the work, the safety of conditions on a job site, and clients’ satisfaction with a project’s progress. It is important that contracting companies take care to hire the right crew members for the job at hand. Here are some key considerations about what a company’s leadership must do in order to make successful hires.

Verify Qualifications

When a scope of work involves advanced experience and skills, the individuals who are making hiring decisions must ascertain that an applicant possesses the requisite know-how to perform the type of work that he or she will be doing onsite. In addition to verifying references to confirm prior work experience, it is advisable that hiring managers satisfy themselves with construction workers’ competence by testing their knowledge. This could consist of questions about specific tasks that they did on previous projects or questions about how to complete a specific task.

Assess Judgment

Construction job sites are fast-paced environments where workers may need to make on-the-spot decisions in reaction to what is happening. Presenting hypotheticals to potential crew members may help managers gauge their critical reasoning skills. For example, asking someone how he or she would react to observing an unsafe condition on a job site may provide some useful insight and ability to follow directions.

Conduct a Background Check

A construction company could potentially be liable for negligent hiring practices if it fails to conduct an adequate background check on an employee. If a worker has a particular type of professional license, managers should confirm that it is in good standing.

A background check should include a search of a person’s criminal record. Of course, prior convictions should not necessarily be a bar to employment depending on the nature of an offense. Outstanding warrants, however, are an unequivocal red flag.

In contracting, mistakes and delays can be very costly. Using smart hiring practices helps project managers to assemble good teams and reduce the risk of setbacks or surprises.

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