Podcast: Changing recruitment practices for the industry

EXCLUSIVE:

This podcast focuses on gaps within the recruitment sector for construction and how to resolve these. Recruitment across industries has been evidently impacted through 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic and its implications. While this has been a recurring trend across sectors, the impact across the construction industry has been colossal.

As part of the most recent Construction Week Viewpoint podcast series, we sit down with Shyam Visavadia, who has developed an online portal, driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure efficient, seamless and speedy recruitment during these trying times.]

Construction Week · WorkPanda on changing recruitment practices for the industry.

Speaking about the glaring issues in terms of recruitment within the construction industry at the moment, Visavadia says: "Most job seekers don't know what they are doing. 78% of job seekers find job seeking stressful, and from the employer's perspective, the cost of hiring is massive. It is anywhere between 7 and 30% of gross salary. Plus, the time to hire should be considered as well. In construction, we are continuously building pipelines. When you are hiring for giga projects, you need people on the ground to get done and to meet stringent KPIs. Unfortunately, the process is very slow."

As a response to such gaps within the market, WorkPanda delivers an "industry-specific" marketplace which is fixated on "globalising talent" and providing a seamless experience for the employer and employee, he explains."It's all about pre-screening candidates. Technology is key in screening. Additionally, we are looking at taxonomy in data, to curate better matches," Visavadia says, adding that this is all down to the right kind of technology use.

It is perhaps worth pondering over the introduction of new roles and/or sectors within the industry induced by the pandemic. Addressing this, he concludes: "In terms of new roles, construction technology is changing. Talking specifically about projects backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), most projects are leaning towards prefab, OSM, BIM, automation, and modular construction.

Building those type of skills will help understand the new wave of construction. Job seekers must look at where the industry is headed and start to pick up skills in that respect. There are some specialist roles like smart city consultants, sustainability consultants, roles in renewable energy, and more."

Original article here - https://www.constructionweekonline.com/business/270281-podcast-changing-recruitment-practices-for-the-industry