Fastest Growing Home Builders of 2017 and How They Hire

January 11, 2018 | Sherry Seaton

Three firms were honored at last year’s Housing Leadership Summit as the fastest-growing builders of 2017. California builder Comstock Homes, private builder Wade Jurney Homes, and public builder AV Homes were recognized for their impressive growth and new home sales in 2017.

When commenting on their growth strategies, two of the three CEOs mentioned the importance of efficient, consistent and scalable processes in building and in company growth.

This includes the recruiting process. Successful growth builders proactively expand their workforces using a repeatable and scalable recruiting process to find and hire top talent.

Seaton and Associates has years of experience working with high-growth home builders across the country. While specifics of their recruitment processes vary, most have the following elements to help maximize recruiting efficiency:

1. A solid understanding of their needs: Fast growing builders don’t have time to search for the perfect (and non-existent) candidate. They have a clear list of skills and experience ‘must haves’ for qualified candidates, a list of ‘nice to haves’, and realistic expectations of what quality candidates looks like for their positions and compensation levels.
2. A killer job description: In a previous post, I discussed how home builders can make their job postings stand out.  High-growth home builders use many of the techniques discussed in this post to create a job description that attracts talent, sells their brands and sells the positions. They highlight how the positions impact their organizations and customers, and the results expected, rather than listing requirements and providing generic company descriptions.
3. An active social presence: While many high growth home builders have yet to build a talent pipeline or engage with potential candidates via social media, most do have an active social media presence, which helps introduce candidates to their brands, values and cultures. When candidates can follow and engage with your company online, they will be more familiar with your brand and feel more connected.
4. An experienced industry-specific recruiter: Shameless plug here but also fact. Home builders in growth mode often do not have in-house recruiting and their hiring managers do not have the bandwidth to search for new talent. Using a firm that recruits exclusively for home builders and construction companies allows them to tap into their recruiter’s talent pipeline and valuable candidate database. Recruiters who are well connected and well known in the industry will have more success engaging with and delivering high level candidates.
5. A well-defined interview process: The interview process certainly varies by company, but most follow a defined process that is efficient, time sensitive and can easily be communicated to the candidate. This is important for creating a positive candidate experience, managing candidate expectations and keeping top talent engaged until they receive an offer. The recommended timeframe is between two and four weeks, and many home builders err on the shorter side due to the need to fill roles quickly.
6. A positive candidate experience: As discussed in the Construction Candidate’s Wishlist for 2018, a positive candidate experience is rare and noteworthy. Many organizations do not get this right. However, it’s important. Candidates talk and will share negative experiences with their peers, which can negatively impact your brand, reputation and talent pipeline. Home builders who are focused on growing and expanding their workforce prioritize the candidate experience and have steps in place to ensure it’s positive one. Simple techniques, such as managing expectations, an efficient interview process and appropriate candidate follow up can create a positive experience. A good recruiter helps you manage communication and follow up to create a good experience for candidates.
7. A highly effective onboarding program: This goes beyond paperwork, badges and passwords. Candidates frequently share their onboarding experiences with me. The happy ones have similar onboarding experiences, in which their organizations communicated their enthusiasm and confidence in their hiring decisions, took steps to immediately introduce them to other employees, and made them feel a part of their teams. This seems easy enough but many hiring managers don’t do it well simply because they’re busy doing their jobs. Creating a list or following a program that not only accounts for provisioning but also welcoming can make a huge difference in your new employees first impression and job satisfaction.

Efficiency in the recruiting and hiring process is important for any organization looking to grow quickly. However, it is especially important for home builders whose success depends on the ability to staff their projects with high-quality candidates, who immediately fill important roles that impact project success.

If you have questions about your recruitment process or how we can help you source and recruit top talent, contact me. I would love to chat.