How to HireTop Talent in the Construction Industry

 

Finally, the time has come for construction contractors to emerge from the industry recession. At the same time, we have Baby Boomers increasingly staring retirement in the face. This presents quite a challenge. Hiring the right employees, screening out bad employees, and properly coaching existing employees is not as easy as it once was.

It is now more critical than ever to find, retain and train the right employees to get the job done efficiently and effectively. This can save companies much needed time and money.

Many employers are asking themselves these questions:

TalentClick, a Canadian employee assessment and talent coaching company, believes in thoroughly understanding people in order to reduce risks, and just may have the answer to these questions, released in a new study. The Safety Quotient™ (SQ™) Personality Risk Assessment is a personality assessment utilized to assist companies with new hires. It is widely conducted on North American working adults in an industrial settings. It measures key personality traits related to safety behaviors in the workplace. It is trusted by employers around the world.

As just one example, they conducted an analysis on a Safety Quotient Analysis on a company specializing in the mining of precious and base metals, which is an industry known for hazardous environments that require workers and managers to collaborate effectively to avoid incidents in the workplace.

The data analysis looked carefully at personality and safety incident data from 80 Supervisory/Management Employees and Front-Line Workers, and these were the results:

The personality traits of “Impulsivity”, “Anxious” and “Distractibility” appear to be factors in elevated incident rates of crew members. The risk levels were significantly lower in “Resistance” and “Impulsivity”. Their workers were most likely to follow rules and guidelines without questioning or pushing back.

The results allowed the mining company to gain the following:

•    A clear view of the traits of a high performing worker to be used in external hiring and internal promotion.
•    Knowing the “ideal profile” will help ensure the right fit between candidate and job type.
•    A better understanding of how to train and develop workers and managers
•    A means to provide tailored coaching and training to compensate for performance gaps.

Impulsivity is just one personality characteristic that can affect a manager or front line employee’s job performance. Impulsivity refers to the degree to which a person seeks excitement and taking risks, versus carefully evaluating options before making decisions.

Studies show that the higher the impulsivity rate of a person, the greater the incidence of personal injury on the job. Avoiding hiring this type of employee can benefit your business tremendously:

The construction industry is notorious for having hazardous environments, strict deadlines, limited training time and severe consequences for workplace incidents.By using data collected on potential hires,both managers and front-line workers, you can determine which candidates would be more likely to cause incidents and injuries that cost you time and money.

Further analysis of personality traits of workers reveals these results:

Consider Personality Profiles

What this valuable information should tell hiring personnel is that it is time to consider using a personality or job compatibility analysis that can become an excellent predictor of the type of individual you are hiring. For example, if you need a superintendent who is organized and works well under pressure without snapping, these types of profiles can help you find people who are skilled at handling more stressful scenarios.

Personality Profiles for Developing Effective Training

Understanding the personality traits of employees can also aid you in developing training programs based on these dimensions. You can implement programs that reduce Resistance, Anxiousness, Irritability and Impulsiveness. You can also develop personas of high functioning, successful employee characteristics, or an “Ideal Profile” of High Performing Employees. Consider setting ranges for specific job roles within your company to help inform job placement and work assignments as well.

Use this information by analyzing it over a period of time to discover long-term trends within your company. Data sets determined over long-term can be used to inform holistic human resource policies and safety program that only benefit your business, saving you time, money and frustration.