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Recruitment in the skilled crafts sector: Hans Ulrich Gruber gives expert tips

Full order books and a shortage of staff: this problem is familiar to many craft enterprises. Personnel consultant Hans Ulrich Gruber gives tips from his experience for finding employees.

In the skilled trades and in the industrial environment, there has been a shortage of staff in some professions for years, and this shortage will become even worse when skilled workers retire in the next few years. “For a variety of reasons, it has not been possible to train enough staff here in recent years,” says personnel consultant Hans Ulrich Gruber. That is why it is all the more important to be an attractive employer for the existing skilled workers. For this, future employees must of course know the company. “Make sure that your company is known,” is therefore an essential tip of the personnel consultant.

How companies achieve awareness

Craft enterprises, like other companies, can achieve awareness in various ways. One good way to stand out is through press relations. “If entrepreneurs serve the press with topics and regularly bring news, they increase their publicity,” advises the expert. “The following also applies here: Constant dripping wears away the stone. If you try something, you will also achieve something and be featured in the media,” says Gruber. Even if not every report is immediately taken up. “The advantage of the classic media is that a lot of trust in the company can be built here.”

Be present on the channels where the employees are

If you are primarily looking for trainees, the rule is: be present on the social media that the young people also use. In the past, this was mainly Facebook, but today Instagram or Tik Tok are preferred channels. If you want to score points here as a company, you need beautiful pictures. “It is often the case that companies complete the most interesting projects and then don’t take any photos. I know this from my own experience,” says the personnel consultant. In this case, it can help to look for employees who like to take good photos or to hire a photographer for special projects. Another good option is to be regularly present at training fairs. “If companies have a good space and an attractive stand, they can also attract positive attention,” explains Hans Ulrich Gruber.

For key positions there are personnel consultants

When it comes to filling a key position, personnel consultants and headhunters can help. For example, when it should not be known that a position needs to be filled. “This is often the case, for example, when it comes to company succession or a management position. When choosing a recruiter, I can only recommend making sure that he or she speaks the candidate’s language and is familiar with the daily work routine,” says Gruber, who himself worked for many years in the field of technical building equipment, the construction industry and mechanical engineering.

Especially the good specialists and managers are quickly annoyed by unqualified enquiries and people who don’t know what it’s all about. In order to convince them to change jobs, convincing arguments and knowledge of the industry are needed, reports the personnel consultant from Kulmbach, who works for his clients throughout Germany and internationally.