7 ways to hire and retain safety-conscious employees

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Creating a safe workplace is something that everyone should strive towards. For employers in construction and manufacturing, building a strong workplace culture of safety is critical to the long-term sustainability of your business. Creating safe workplaces lowers worker’s compensation claims, reduces risks and potential accidents and is part of employers’ legal obligations.

Not to mention, potential candidates are more likely to choose employers who emphasise and promote safe workplaces. But how do you find the best team members with the right mindset and attitudes toward safety?

Here are seven ways to hire safety-conscious employees and create a safe workplace.

1. Make a culture of safety and creating a safe workplace part of your employer brand

If safety is one of your core values, it should naturally be expressed as part of your employer brand and Employee Value Proposition. Establishing strong brand messaging enables you to attract like-minded team members with shared values, allowing you to build a strong workplace culture of safety.

Regularly reinforce and amplify this value through your various channels, for example, through employee profile stories and social posts.

2. Include brand messaging around safety in your recruitment advertisements

A strong employer brand will be reflected in your recruitment advertisements. Make a safe workplace a key focus in your ad copy and showcase it as part of your Employee Value Proposition.

3. Include a screening question around safety

Attraction is the first part of the process; when it comes to screening, the fastest way for you to identify the top applicants in your pool who share a safety-focus is by including screening questions. Including a question around candidates’ safety focus allows them to demonstrate how they prioritise safety in their work.

4. Ask questions around safety priorities during second-stage interviews

After assessing candidates’ screening-question answers, second-stage interviews are an excellent opportunity to delve deeper into their experience and understand their values and priorities.

Here are some examples of questions you can use during second-stage interviews to explore candidate’s safety-focus more deeply.

Example 1: “Safety is of the utmost importance in this role and our organisation. How do you always ensure safety within your work?”

Example 2: “How do you promote health and safety practices among co-workers?

5. Offer consistent training

Structured training is vital to prevent accidents and serious injuries, so it’s likely your organisation has OHS training as part of your new hires’ induction. Leading with this safety focus is a great way to create a safe workplace, establish expectations for your new team members and make them feel comfortable and motivated about their new role.

While onboarding training is a great place to start, consistent training is an effective long-term strategy to reinforce your organisational and brand values.

If you experience challenges with participation and engagement, adjust your delivery. Some people may need to learn how to operate a piece of machinery, others will learn how to fix it. But everyone need to understand how to deal with an electrical fire. Your team members will be more willing to engage with and accept training when they understand its direct impact on their lives and how it serves their benefit.

6. Use incentives and rewards

Gain better results and establish a workplace culture of safety by offering rewards and incentives for using safety procedures properly. One way is to report and share information about decreased injuries and accidents. (But use this strategically so it doesn’t make employees reluctant to report workplace incidents.)

7. Provide the right support and equipment

While training is useful and effective, it must be reinforced with support and good equipment. While Australia has many mandatory rules and regulations, go above and beyond safety laws to provide support and good equipment in ways that are unique to your business. Regularly talk about first aid kits, helmets, fire safety, vehicle and machine-specific protocols, and other elements relevant to your business.

Demonstrating your commitment to create a safe workplace communicates to your current and future talent that you care about their health, safety and wellbeing. Including a safety-focus as part of your employer brand, screening and training processes, will empower you to build a strong culture of workplace safety.

Do you need a recruitment campaign to attract the best candidates to your vacancy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists.

Leveraging the power of employee referrals in construction and manufacturing

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Regardless of the industry you are recruiting for, many of the same recruitment marketing principles still apply. You need a marketing and advertising strategy that targets the right candidates followed by an efficient and effective shortlisting and selection process.

However, recruiting for construction and manufacturing presents many of its own unique challenges that can make it difficult for organisations to maintain the optimal staffing levels and remain competitive. In this article, we look at how word-of-mouth hiring and incentivised employee referrals can assist with recruiting in construction and manufacturing.

Factor in external influences

One of the things that makes construction and manufacturing so unique is its ‘boom and bust’ cycle, which reflects a range of factors including population growth, employment figures, interest rates and Australia’s overall economy. When recruiting for these roles, you need to be nimble, flexible and have the ability to anticipate your future staffing needs.

The total volume of construction activity across Australia has increased in the last two years, with a 2019 report by Master Builders Australia citing that activity nationwide is estimated to have increased by 11.4% to $220.8 billion during 2017/18. More demand translates to increase need for talent – which is why strategies such as referrals are becoming more and more important.

Attract talent through word of mouth

Word-of-mouth recruiting can often occur naturally when employees share the merits of their employer to friends, family and acquaintances. Current employees know what it’s like to work in the organisation and therefore refer people who they believe would be a good ‘fit’ for a new role. Most employees also care about their reputation so will only refer those they are interested in working with and can vouch for.

Suppliers, clients and sub-contractors also typically have a shortlist of workers who they would recommend, as do previous employees who can assist with vetting potential new hires. Most recruitment professionals also prefer to hire a candidate who not only have a quality reference, but are recommended by someone they know and trust.

Employee referrals can often mean candidates start with a better base knowledge of the position, the company and its culture because of their connection to the referring employee.

According to Susan Mayson, Associate, Australian Centre for Research in Work and Employment,“candidates are usually faster at getting up to the required standard of performance. There is evidence that employees who are good performers are likely to recommend potential recruits who are also likely to become good performers.”

Offer bonuses and incentives

More employers creating formal internal referral programs, where employees are offered financial incentives to motivate and reward those who put forward a successful referral and assist with filling job vacancies. Referral bonuses are determined by the type of position, a company’s hiring needs, and the nature of the workforce, however they often take the form of either cash incentives or other perks. Some organisations also offer an initial bonus and then a series of additional bonuses if the new recruit stays in the organisation, which motivates the employee to assist the new hire to succeed.

Disadvantages to be wary of!

Word-of-mouth hiring does have some disadvantages, including limiting the number of considered applicants you can consider and potentially reducing workforce diversity. Which is why it’s important to develop a formal recruitment referral program, keeping things like diversity in mind, which is transparent and grants all existing employees the chance to participate. You should also make it clear that recruitment referrals don’t automatically result in appointment – policies and procedures still need to be followed to ensure the right candidate is employed for the job.

To find out more about tailoring a recruitment strategy for your business, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Alex Fraser and Hanson win CCAA Innovation Awards for Diversity & Inclusion 

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Congratulations to our valued clients, Alex Fraser and Hanson, who won this year’s CCAA Innovation Award for Diversity & Inclusion through the success of their Woman Driving Transport Careers program. Employment Office was so pleased to play a part in attracting and shortlisting the best talent for this fantastic initiative. 

With the future of work constantly evolving, a number of industries are facing tough recruitment challenges – particularly the driving and construction industry. But with smart recruitment advertising, attraction strategies, and screening processes, it’s possible to secure the best talent. 

Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser secured new talent through their Woman Driving Transport Careers program through a partnership with Transport Women Australia Limited and Volvo Group Australia and Wodonga TAFE’s Transport Division DECA.

Jeff Burns, HR Manager Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser Group, shared their reason for launching the program, and its success.

“We have 4000 employees and 1800 truck drivers, so our pipeline for drivers needs to be solid, particularly as the business grows and we add trucks to our transport fleets. So, we really had to understand what was changing in the transport driver marketplace.”

“Our Australian CEO for Hanson, Phil Schacht, has joined Male Champions of Change which enables male business leaders to champion gender diversity in their organisation. He felt we could do something in our driver workforce through our recruitment.”

Burns started conversations with Wodonga TAFE and DECA who mentioned their upcoming driver training programs. The WDTC program was, therefore, an opportunity for Alex Fraser and Hanson to secure eight new trained employees. Participants in the program receive support and training to prepare them for their driving tests. They also have the opportunity to drive the same trucks as they would be when employed.

Hanson and Alex Fraser engaged Employment Office as their trusted recruitment partner, to run recruitment advertisements on traditional job boards, complemented with targeted social media advertising campaigns. They promoted the campaign through their company’s social channels. 

“It was, by and large, a very positive and widely-shared social media post,” said Burns. “We were really surprised by how many thousands of people looked at it, and how far around the world it went!”

Alex Fraser and Hanson were able to target their advertisement at women, as the opportunity qualified under equal opportunity legislation. (Note, if your organisation is looking to recruit a certain demographic, ensure your advertisement is not discriminatory. Equal opportunity law is state-based, so check the law in your location before you advertise, or book a discussion with one of our recruitment specialists.)

Recruitment was challenging, as they were seeking passive candidates who didn’t necessarily have a commercial driving background. Instead, they had to assess for qualities to shortlist instead, such as adventurousness and willingness to have a go.

Employment Office’s recruitment advertisement also included a number of screening questions, which drastically streamlined the shortlisting and selection process. 

Alex Fraser and Hanson received approximately 260 applications for their eight roles. From this talent pool, they invited 30 candidates to attend a group assessment day which was run by Employment Office.

After the group assessment day, seven candidates were offered employment.

“We had a challenging timeline of six weeks from advertising to making the offer, including comprehensive truck driver medicals. Some of our candidates had to provide notice at their other organisations, but we had to complete training before the end of the year! We managed to secure seven new hires. The instructors at Wodonga TAFE gave glowing praise for all our candidates.”

Winning CCAA’s Innovation Award for Diversity and Inclusion 

The CCAA Innovation Awards are a two-year program of annual state awards, the winners of which compete for the National Awards biennially. The awards recognise innovation in the way the construction materials industry is committed to continually improving its performance in a range of areas. CCAA promotes innovative thinking and leadership to inspire others to deliver improved performance in their businesses and across the industry.

Congratulations Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser for winning the Diversity & Inclusion award, which recognises the outstanding contribution they have made in improving the level of Diversity & Inclusion in their workplace and the industry more generally. 

Hanson and Alex Fraser received the award for their Woman Drivers Transport Careers program, designed to bridge the gap between licensing standards and professional industry requirements and increase the participation of women drivers across the Australian Road Transport industry to address the shortage of drivers in this sector. 

The State Awards were hosted at the annual CCAA Awards Dinners which was attended by over 1100 representatives of industry, government, suppliers and sponsors. The National Awards will be hosted at the Construction Materials Industry Conference, the industry’s premier biennial event. 

The state winners will now go as finalists for the biennial National Awards in 2020. Congratulations Hanson, Alex Fraser and Employment Office, and well done to all the winners.