If hiring is tougher, hiring for blue collars is the toughest.

Yes, we understand.

The job market is filled with blue-collar job opportunities but where is all the talent to fill them?

It is comparatively more difficult to hire blue collars than white collars due to their lack of education and corporate exposure. Some of them are not well groomed and are under family and financial pressures.

Let us look at some of the hiring mistakes, and also how to solve them. So let’s start one by one;

1- Not setting priorities while hiring blue collars  

     Solution- Make a checklist of the requirements for a specific position so you only hire someone who has all the skills for the required profile and does the job well.

2- While posting about the position, recruiters sometimes do not provide information about the primary eligibility criteria for the position, the type of job, salary range, etc.

     Solution- Carefully mention the job requirements and expectations you have for the employee, their key responsibilities, the type of job (onsite, offsite), and the minimum to maximum salary range in the job posting. 

3- The lack of a proper assessment of the skills of potential employees affects hiring. Going by word of mouth doesn’t always deliver value.

     Solution- To address this problem, you should encourage employee referral programs. As current employees know the needs of the organization and point to the best fit, the retention rate increases over a period of time.

4- Forgets to provide on-the-job benefits and perks for the employees

     Solution- You may consider running some employee engagement programs for workers, such as offering them good working conditions, overtime benefits, additional income options, sick pay, etc. When employees feel respected and valued, they become more productive and loyal to the company

5- Lack of employee assessment 

     Solution- While hiring it is important to look for the most suitable person for the required position. Their behavior justifies whether they are the best fit for the company or not.  

6- While you speak in English the candidate does not, which creates a gap between you and the potential employee. You miss out on skilled candidates. 

     Solution- Remove language barriers and communicate your requirements in the most simple and easy language that even a 5-year-old kid understands while hiring and even after onboarding the employee. 

7- Gender bias in hiring leads to a shortage of talented candidates. Among blue collars, the proportion of women is already lower due to family pressures and insecure working conditions.

     Solution- Make your company more women-friendly. Provide female employees with a safe work environment and pay them the same as their male colleagues.

Online job search portals can speed up your hiring process. You can use it in place of contractors and middlemen who only exploit people.

Job portals like MyJobee allow you to apply certain filters that speed up the hiring process, such as Location, specific work-centric skills, expertise in a particular area, job types, shift timings and much more. It helps you hire the best and most imaginative candidates.

Final Words

There are many unfilled job positions due to lack of trained employees. Some of who are employed are underpaid which eventually decreases productivity and brings no positive results to the company. Identifying skill gaps impacts the productivity of every member.

It’s always a good idea to upskill especially in today’s day and age.

Training on team communication such as soft skills, interpersonal skills, various technical skills, time management, etc is important to maintaining work quality and managing any work crisis.

It’s a long-term investment for the company as well as the employees.