Where to Find the Best Subcontractors and Employees

Hiring Tips Builders Can Use to Find Reliable Subcontractors

With the skilled labor shortage, finding quality subcontractors and employees can be difficult. To make things trickier, some schools and certifications only focus on a narrow aspect of a trade, like how to install an HVAC system, but not how to troubleshoot issues on service calls.

As a builder, you need skilled and reliable help to grow your construction business. It might be harder to find the employees you need, but it’s not impossible. From tech centers and community colleges to your network, here’s how you can find trustworthy help.

First, ask for referrals

Before you get too involved in the process of seeking out subcontractors, try asking your network for referrals based on what you need help with:

• Make a few phone calls and post to your social media accounts (like LinkedIn and even Facebook).
• The next time you visit a specialty wholesale supplier, ask if they know of anyone looking for work. The business owners likely know plenty of tradespeople, and you never know when you’ll find one who is skilled, timely and available.

If you’ve already done this before it never hurts to try again — even if your network didn’t have any solid leads 6 months ago, that could easily change as time passes.

Check in with local trade schools and community colleges

Have you considered tapping into your local education system? While enrollment in trade programs has declined in many areas, these programs and institutions still exist.

Contact local community colleges, tech centers, apprenticeship programs, trade schools and other similar learning institutions to see if you can contact any graduates regarding work opportunities- certain schools may have job boards you can post to. Some high schools still have trade programs as well, so don’t count them out. Here’s a list of well-known construction trade schools and programs to help you start brainstorming.

Train subcontractors your way

If you’ve been in the construction industry for a while you likely have your own preferred way of doing things. Some builders even started out in a specific trade before moving on to more general building projects, and would be entirely willing to teach a new subcontractor the tricks of the trade.

Can you relate to the paragraph above? If so, you may want to consider the pros and cons of training your own subcontractors. This method will almost certainly take more time, but you’ll be able to train new employees to do the exact type of work you need them to complete.

If you decide to utilize this route, make sure that your trainees have all of the necessary certifications and other documentation required by your state or locality.

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