"Hiring Grows at Best Pace since 1999," read The Wall Street Journal's front page Dec. 6, 2014. Business is back, and many roofing contracting companies are doing well. But the greatest challenge to roofing contractors is staffing a competent, sustainable workforce. To do so, many roofing contracting companies are turning to the growing Latino labor market to fill their needs.
According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, by 2020, 74 percent of all new labor force growth will come from the Latino community. (According to BLS, the term "Latino" "refers to persons who identified themselves in the enumeration process as being Spanish, Hispanic or Latino. Persons of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity may be of any race.") Knowing this to be the case, every company should become an expert in the recruiting of a Latino labor force.
How to recruit
Most companies are going about their Latino recruiting efforts entirely the wrong way. They are recruiting through the friends and family network, and from a structural and leadership standpoint, this approach creates some serious challenges.
If you take this approach, you'll eventually find many employees who are part of a friends and family network do not want to be promoted to positions at the expense of others, or if they do, they have mixed loyalties and are torn between doing what's best for the company and what's best for their families or friends. Then, in a worst-case scenario, let's say an employee leaves your company and is upset. Chances are several others may follow, and you can lose a significant portion of your labor force quickly.
Be a champion
So how do you recruit? Like a champion. How do The Ohio State University, University of Alabama, University of Notre Dame or other high-level college football programs recruit?
First, they recruit in ratio. They don't recruit 20 quarterbacks. They recruit enough qualified people at different positions to create healthy competition and opportunity. If you know, for example, that for every five people on a crew, you need a foreman, and for every five crews, you need a superintendent, you should recruit at least three potential leaders for every seven people you hire.
Don't just hire laborers without assessing leadership abilities and hope some will emerge as leaders. Be strategic in your hiring, and assess people before hiring them. You then can put people into leadership development from the beginning, and they will understand they have a future within the organization.
Colleges also don't recruit a top quarterback and say to him: "Hey, do you have a few friends who would like to play running back?" That's absurd, but it is exactly what most roofing company owners do.
College football programs recruit in professional, culturally relevant ways. They know the cultural framework of their potential recruits and structure their messages to appeal to them in a highly targeted manner.
Most roofing companies have invested in professional websites, flyers, brochures, advertising, etc., to sell their roofing services but do not have near that caliber of materials or approach for their recruiting efforts. This is even truer when it comes to Spanish-language hiring and recruiting tools.
This doesn't make sense to me. If you sell work you can't service, your business will implode and destroy your reputation. According to BLS, 50 percent of all roofing workers are Latino. So why doesn't recruiting behavior reflect this?
My point is if you are going to successfully recruit a Latino labor force without the friends and family network and all its accompanying challenges, you'll need to up the ante on relevant recruiting and assessment tools and processes. If you don't and a competitor does, who will win the labor bowl?
Once you commit to recruiting like a champion, you'll need to build relationships with leaders in the Latino community who can influence people to check out your vocational opportunities. Yes, this is pretty much what colleges do with high school coaches.
Where to recruit
You must recruit in the right places. Following are my top five places where you should be recruiting:
Many young Latinos are seeking a vocational opportunity coming out of high school. Every roofing company should make a concerted effort to create relationships with their local high schools, especially with school guidance counselors as they work directly with students to help them determine their futures. Latinos in the U.S. have made great strides during the past 10 years and now 49 percent are going to college after graduating high school. This means that 51 percent do not go to college and need a good vocational opportunity to do well in life.
Every minister I know wants church members to be employed in good-paying, steady jobs. Latino ministers can be some of your greatest allies in the recruiting process. They have influence, know their people, and can filter good people and workers to you. For every person they bring to you and you hire, you may want to consider a tax-deductible donation to the church. Get to know the ministers of the three largest Latino congregations in your area. You may find you won't need to go beyond these three to find enough new Hispanic employees.
Grassroots community leaders also know a lot of people. You should make friends with them. Try to identify civic organizations and leaders dedicated to helping Latino people who are seeking to increase their socioeconomic status.
NFJP is designed to transition migrant and agricultural workers to steady, sustainable employment, and the organizations aligned with NFJP receive funds from the Department of Labor to provide migrant workers with training and transition resources. Many clients are Latinos, and these types of organizations are anxious to place people in steady, decent-paying jobs just like you have to offer.
According to a Pew Research Center study, 80 percent of all Latinos in the U.S. are on social media! This is a 10 percent increase per capita over non-Latino whites in the U.S. If you're serious about recruiting a Latino labor force, a culturally and language-relevant Facebook business page for your company could be your ticket to having people wanting to work for you.
LinkedIn has made a significant investment in attracting Latinos. I can tell you based on personal experience that Latinos are heavily engaged on LinkedIn. Granted, these Latinos typically are not construction laborers, but you can meet ministers, community leaders and other Latino professionals on LinkedIn.
Play to win
To be a champion in recruiting the Latino labor force, I encourage you to take these points to heart. Find the right kinds of hiring and recruiting tools, and develop a social media strategy that will work. Champions at recruiting ultimately are always the biggest winners.
Ricardo González is founder and CEO of Bilingual America, Atlanta.
For an article related to this topic, see:
"Things change," January issue, page 20
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