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Recruiting for the worst jobs
Recruiting & Staffing
Recruiting for the worst jobs
Exchange ideas about sourcing, screening, interviewing, finding passive candidates, measuring your results, and more.
How do you recruit and retain staff in a job that is, by most standards, one of the worst jobs around?
We are constantly recruiting for mold remediation laborers. The job entails back breaking work
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Forums » Topic Forums » Recruiting & Staffing » Recruiting for the worst jobs
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/18/2010 6:44 AM EDT
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Posts: 10
First: 5/18/2010 Last: 6/23/2010 |
How do you recruit and retain staff in a job that is, by most standards, one of the worst jobs around?
We are constantly recruiting for mold remediation laborers. The job entails back breaking work in dark, often hot, dirty, confined spaces suited up like a spaceman wearing specialized breathing masks and protective clothing, crawling through crawl spaces often frequented by rats and riddled with dead rodent carcasses, using chemicals and brute strength to remove and/or remediate mold formations in the bowels of buildings. This job is not for the faint of heart. All workers receive safety training. The qualifications for the job are modest as is the pay. We are a non-profit social housing organization so we pay as best we can. We offer full benefits after 3 months. We've got a great organization and really nice people to work with. There is little possibility of advancement in this specialized field, however. Other than the laborers, there are only 2 supervisors and 1 coordinator The remediation teams travel around, working on one project at a time, with some projects lasting weeks and others sometimes lasting months. Depending on the location of a project, teams may be in easy commuting distance to home, and if not, are never too far to go home on days off. How do you attract people that would actually aspire to this kind of work and stick with it? What motivates a person to want to do the kind of work that most people would find repulsive? What engages and keeps a person motivated with this kind of work? There are lots of repulsive jobs of which many may pay large salaries. We can't compete on salary. What else can we do to recruit and retain quality workers? |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/18/2010 6:07 PM EDT
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Posts: 1103
First: 3/16/2007 Last: 8/19/2011 |
Well, you have to start with an attitude change. This isn't the worst job, but it is a difficult one.
After that start looking at why people take the job, what are their expectations? Why do they leave? Is the job too hard, is the job too dangerous? Does Walmart pay more? Is it bad leadership or supervision? You need to know the answers so you have to ask the questions. Also, what does the individual experience after hire? Is the job they do the same one that was explained to them in the hiring process? Is it somehow more difficult, more dirty, more dangerous? Of those who stay why do they stay? More questions that will give you more important answers. |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/19/2010 6:02 AM EDT
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Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004 Last: 9/13/2011 |
Excellent advice from Nork and HRpro, the only thing I would add is to solicit leads from your existing workers. Everyone knows someone who is looking for work and they know the job well enough to be realistic about candidates. It shows that you trust their opinions and helping someone they know find work can be rewarding for them.
Some jobs just have high turn-over. You may have to accept that part of your workforce will be temporary or seasonal. Focus on rewarding the handful of senior workers. |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/19/2010 6:02 AM EDT
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Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004 Last: 9/13/2011 |
Excellent advice from Nork and HRpro, the only thing I would add is to solicit leads from your existing workers. Everyone knows someone who is looking for work and they know the job well enough to be realistic about candidates. It shows that you trust their opinions and helping someone they know find work can be rewarding for them.
Some jobs just have high turn-over. You may have to accept that part of your workforce will be temporary or seasonal. Focus on rewarding the handful of senior workers. |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/19/2010 6:02 AM EDT
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Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004 Last: 9/13/2011 |
Excellent advice from Nork and HRpro, the only thing I would add is to solicit leads from your existing workers. Everyone knows someone who is looking for work and they know the job well enough to be realistic about candidates. It shows that you trust their opinions and helping someone they know find work can be rewarding for them.
Some jobs just have high turn-over. You may have to accept that part of your workforce will be temporary or seasonal. Focus on rewarding the handful of senior workers. |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/20/2010 8:31 AM EDT
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Posts: 10
First: 5/18/2010 Last: 6/23/2010 |
Exit interviews have proved impossible as employees quit on the spot or by simply failing to show up for work. If we could get even a few good exit interviews, it might shed some light on what we need to do to attract and keep our people.
Taking referrals from our successful team members hasn't resulted in good hires either. Not even the brother of one of our best workers! We will continue to use employee referrals, though, as you just never know when the right person will be referred. Maybe we need to be looking for candidates in less traditional places. I'm not sure where those places are but we're open to suggestions. Or just maybe we need to advertise positions in an unconventional way that might appeal to the kind of person that likes to get down and dirty, and loves the glory and challenge of a job that most others wouldn't/couldn't do. The problem I see in doing that would be associating our good name with a job that is described in very unflattering terms. Recruiting undercover may be an option. |
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Recruiting for the worst jobs
posted at 5/20/2010 8:39 AM EDT
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Use an industrial temp agency to source and refer your candidates. If they work out after 90 days (or whatever you agree to with the agency), put them on your payroll. If they don't work out, ask the agency to replace them. |
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