One thing that’s worked well for us is partnering with local community colleges and career centers. Students in trade and technical programs are often looking for hands-on experience and are eager to learn, which can create a strong entry-level talent pipeline.
I’d consider creating some form of apprenticeship or cohort-based program and marketing it directly to those schools. That gives you access to people who are interested in developing skills and building a career.
We recently launched a small cohort program and worked with a local career center to recruit participants. The participants were eager to learn and get hands-on experience. There was definitely a learning curve in building the program and creating a good experience, but once the structure was in place, it became much easier to recruit and onboard people.
You can also leverage some of your more experienced craftspeople to help lead the training. It gives newer workers someone to learn from while helping preserve the knowledge and skills that experienced workers have built over the years.
We’ve also found that people are more likely to stay when they can see opportunities to learn new skills and take on more responsibility over time.
This post is really helpful as we are struggling to find employees. It seems as though no one wants to work. Currently we’ve been using temp agency employees and it is huge expense. A benefit is that they are covered by worker comp and such by the temp agency so we don’t have to worry. Our one actual employee is getting older and want to have a team going before he retires. I’d be interested in learning more on how you go about doing all that you mentioned!
