Last spring, I reported on a job fair that I had attended at a local tech school. At that event, I was impressed to see the effort being made by that school to expose the students to real-life contractors in search of employees. That event was put on by the school and was open to vendors from every area of concentration that the school offered—including, but not limited to, the building industry.
Last month, I was fortunate to attend a Career Day event at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds that was put on by a partnership between the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Cape Cod (HBRACC) and the Cape and Islands Workforce Investment Board (CIWIB). The all-day event was attended by more than 350 high-school students at all grade levels from schools on Cape Cod as well as nearby southeastern Massachusetts. But unlike the event that I attended in March, Career Day was specifically related to the building industry.
Educating while job hunting
As at the job fair, there were dozens of vendors specifically looking for “fresh blood,” new recruits to fill the employment voids that everyone in every phase of the industry is experiencing. Chris Duren, executive director of HBRACC, said that the workforce shortage is epidemic on Cape Cod, the same as it seems to be all over the country. Working with the CIWIB was a unique opportunity to unite students, who will be looking to join the workforce in the next 4 to 6 years, with businesses who are eager to hire new employees.
But the career day event was not just lines of vendors looking to sign on new employees. Outside, there were several stations set up where students could experience hands-on snippets of building, from framing and installing windows to placing concrete and hardscape landscaping. These events really seemed to engage the kids, who seemed genuinely interested in seeing things first hand that they’d been learning about in the classroom.
From job fair to job site
While the real-life hands-on demonstrations were going on outside, another part of the event was taking place in a nearby metal barn, where representatives from dozens of companies spoke to students about what their specific businesses had to offer. The real eye opener for me was speaking with several of the representatives there about the challenges they face in finding new employees. I asked Lindsay Cole, a human resource manager at Cape Associates, a large building company on the Cape, where they look for new hires. Her answer: “Everywhere!” Cole said that they are constantly looking for new employees, but that the tech schools offer some of the best prospects. Cape Associates works with programs where students alternate between two weeks in the classroom and two weeks on the jobsite. This is trial by fire for the students, and it gives them the opportunity to apply their education in immediate and real-life situations. Cole said that having students in these programs not only gets them interested in the work, but it also gives the company name recognition. When the students are ready to join the workforce, they are much more likely to work for a company that they already have experience with.
I asked Cole if Cape Associates was gearing up to hire students for a busy summer, and she pointed out that spring was actually the busiest time for work on the Cape, as first and second homeowners try to get their places ready to use for the summer. Cole also said that the company is developing a skills test to place incoming employees in the right section of the company and at the right level.
In direct contrast to this strategy was another one I heard about. I asked Matt Anderson, owner of a framing company, how he recruits and qualifies the people who come to him looking for work. Matt said with a chuckle, “I hold a mirror under their nose and have them exhale. If it fogs up, then they’re hired.” In other words, the only prerequisite for hiring a person is their being alive. He went on to say, “Seriously, framing is hard work, and if someone is interested in giving it a try, experience is good, but not required. We figure out pretty quickly if a person is going to pick up the techniques and work well with the team. Most framers learn from being out there every day.” He also said that he receives almost no calls from kids coming out of trade schools. By and large, his incoming employees are typically in their early 20s.
Exposure to other areas of the industry
It wasn’t just building companies and contractors that were represented at the career day. I was able to speak with building officials, architects, landscape designers, and folks from the local utilities about the challenges they have in recruiting employees. At the booth for National Grid, a major natural-gas supplier in the region, I spoke to Joseph Carroll, director of community and customer management. He said that the biggest problem they face is an aging workforce, with an estimated 40% of their employees nearing retirement age. He said that he likes to show young adults that there are opportunities to stay on the Cape to live and work. For National Grid, some plumbing experience is a help, but they have a nearby training facility and are willing to train employees to work in the field. Carroll also said that one big problem with teaching—both at schools and at facilities like theirs—is that technology is moving more quickly than the education. Who is teaching the teachers?
In a positive follow up to last spring’s job fair, I spoke to Ann Sweck, an HR representative from W. Vernon Whitely, a Cape-based plumbing company with more than 70 employees. She said that they’d hired two students from the spring event. But she also said that their search for new employees has been constant even through the recession. To monitor employee progress on the job, Sweck said that they use a system she called “shadowing,” where a new hire partners with a seasoned employee who works with the new person and monitors how the new employee progresses in various jobsite situations.
Finally, I had an interesting chat with Victor Staley, a building official from the town of Brewster, at a table representing code officials. He said that most kids don’t aspire to be building officials, but most building officials come from working in the industry in some capacity. The Building Official table seemed to have a constant audience of young faces, and Staley explained that it is important for them to see how the industry is regulated and for them to realize that a building official’s main job is ensuring that a building is safe for its occupants. He said, “You never know, maybe someday one of those students will be out there working as a building official.”
Photos by Roe Osborn
