What’s your biggest workforce challenge? If it’s recruitment, you’re not alone. Recent Arcoro research shows 73% of contractors are struggling to find the right employees. And it’s been the same story year after year.
There’s good news. You don’t have to accept this as the status quo. The new year is a time for fresh starts, so join us in committing to one, or all, of these hiring resolutions to transform your recruiting process and make it easier to hire and keep new employees.
Improve your time-to-hire metrics
What it is: Time to hire is the number of days it takes to hire a new employee. It’s a key metric used by HR and hiring managers. It begins with the first candidate contact and ends when he or she accepts an offer. You can calculate your average time to hire by using this formula:
(Sum of Time-to-Hire for all hires) / (Total Number of Hires)
Time-to-hire varies by position level but typically averages anywhere from 30-45 days.
Why it’s important: Time-to-hire can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies that slow the process down. A slow recruiting process not only costs more time and money, but can turn off potential candidates or give them time to accept other offers.
A shorter time-to-hire minimizes the risk of losing great candidates to competitors and boosts overall team morale by getting them support quickly. It also helps support strategic workforce planning and continuous improvement.
Build comprehensive talent pipelines for critical roles
What it is: A talent pipeline is a cohort of passive candidates you’ve previously engaged with that might fill current or future roles at your company. A talent pipeline can be built by digitally storing all applications and creating a system to identify and nurture these applicants, keeping the lines of communication open.
Why it’s important: Utilizing a talent pipeline can not only reduce the time and costs spent recruiting (you’ve already made first contact), but it can increase your candidate pool in an ever-competitive job market.
According to Workable, 37% of US workers are passive candidates. That means job seekers are looking before they’ve left their current position, including your own workers. Being able to rely on an existing database of candidates can be invaluable during times of turnover.
Enhance the candidate experience
What it is: Candidate experience is how an applicant feels about a company and the experience they’ve had during the hiring journey. Candidate experience can include how the job post was written (did it accurately describe the position), how offers were presented and the communication throughout the entire process, including interviews.
Why it’s important: Perception matters. In an age where people are easily connected via social media, bad news about companies and how they treat candidates travels fast.
If several applicants report a poor candidate experience, it can easily deter qualified job seekers from applying at your company. On the other hand, a positive candidate experience can help convert your best candidates.
Leverage your data to refine hiring strategies
What it is: Hiring data includes all types of metrics, like time-to-hire, cost per hire and source effectiveness (job boards, employee referrals, LinkedIn, etc.). It also includes candidate data like skills, personality and interview feedback, performance data like retention rates and demographics.
Why it’s important: Data is king and the more you have, the more you can understand and improve your hiring process. Data helps accurately pinpoint inefficiencies and the strategies that give you the best candidates. Good data can drive recruiting decisions that save time, money and produce the best results.
For example, employee referrals might produce better retention rates and certain managers might produce more leaders. All this information is essential for keeping a productive staff. This data can also help justify investments in technology, staff and branding, all of which improve hiring performance.
Create stronger onboarding processes
What it is: An onboarding process is the journey a new hire takes once they start a position. It includes paperwork but also includes a focus on goals, culture, team, training and the tools needed to be productive. Good communication with continuous check-ins are essential to build new hire confidence and commitment. It can take up to a year for a hire to be fully onboarded.
Why it’s important: A good onboarding process sets the stage for a productive employer/employee relationship. In fact, construction companies with a comprehensive onboarding program see much lower turnover rates than those who don’t.
Arcoro found companies with a more structured or automated onboarding consistently report less than 5% turnover in the first 90 days.
Making 2026 Your Best Hiring Year Yet
Your biggest workforce challenges won't disappear overnight, but strategic hiring resolutions can fundamentally change how your company attracts and retains talent. By focusing on efficiency through improved time-to-hire metrics, building talent pipelines for future needs, creating positive candidate experiences, leveraging data for smarter decisions and investing in comprehensive onboarding, recruitment is addressed from every angle.
You can start small, with one or two resolutions and build from there. As these practices become embedded in your hiring culture, you'll find that recruitment transforms from a constant struggle into a competitive advantage, one that helps you build the skilled workforce your projects demand.
FAQ Section
How can construction companies reduce their time to hire?
Start by tracking your current time-to-hire metric and identifying bottlenecks in your process. Arcoro's Hire platform comes with advanced analytics that provides essential data needed to track the application process. Arcoro’s Applicant Tracking System can then help streamline every step from application to offer acceptance, helping construction companies fill positions faster and secure top candidates before competitors do.
How do I build a talent pipeline when I barely have time for hiring?
The right technology makes all the difference. Arcoro's Applicant Tracking System automatically stores applications, tracks candidate engagement and helps you nurture relationships with passive candidates without adding administrative burden to your hiring team.
Why is onboarding so important for construction companies?
Construction companies with structured onboarding programs see significantly lower turnover. Arcoro's Onboarding solution ensures new hires have everything they need from day one, reducing early turnover and accelerating productivity.
Can small construction companies benefit from advanced hiring strategies?
Absolutely. These strategies scale to any company size. Whether you're hiring 5 employees or 500, improving efficiency, candidate experience and onboarding quality will strengthen your workforce. Arcoro offers a Hire solution that’s designed specifically for construction companies of all sizes.
Contact Arcoro to learn more.
