Be a Mentor

Finding successful employees for construction businesses can be one of the hardest challenges company owners face. One often overlooked way to find candidates is through internship programs with high schools and colleges. Students learn the business while getting credit in school, and many schools are open to such programs—but it may require the contractor’s initiative to get it off the ground.

The benefits to both sides can be substantial, notes Victoria Downing, president of Remodelers Advantage in Laurel, Md. In the short term, the company can gain much-needed internal support while teaching young people about an industry they might not have considered as a career option. In the long term, the programs help develop a more professional approach to business and possibly a future member of the company’s team. “Any intern could turn into an employee,” she says. “That’s the great thing about it.”

The best way to start is to contact a local high school or university that offers a trade or construction program as a course. Some universities already offer intern programs during the school year and during the summer, with some even providing school credit. At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mass., for instance, internships are set up with companies on a one-on-one basis, explains Paul Fisette, director of the building material and wood technology department. Each spring, local executives visit the classes to talk about their companies, after which, interested students talk with the executives about potential work options.

School Reviews Both Sides  
The program is controlled from both sides, he notes. Faculty members discuss with each student his or her schedule, curriculum plans and interest in an internship, and they also talk with each company to learn what the students will be doing. “We don’t want them driving a forklift all summer,” Fisette says. Typically, the company will outline a variety of work situations for the prospect. These include shadowing a sales person and helping with inventory management.

The activities with which an intern can aid a remodeler are varied and valuable, Downing adds. They can include helping to coordinate production, tracking subcontractor bids, maintaining insurance policies, tracking material deliveries, taking notes at meetings and writing up procedures that have not been added to the employee handbook.

Students typically are paid around $10–$15 per hour in the University of Massachusetts program, Fisette says. In some cases, those students return after the semester to continue for another semester—and they may be offered a full-time job when they graduate. “It maximizes the company’s chances of finding a good employee—and also helps find bad ones, which is just as valuable,” he adds “If you hire three interns and find one really good employee, you’ve still come out ahead.”

Indeed, students who don’t work out can reveal weaknesses in a company’s employee program or activities that can be fixed—and there’s no need to “fire” these workers, because they’ll be leaving at the end of the semester or summer. “At worst, a company never really loses money when they take on an intern,” Fisette says.

The university has a mechanism in place to facilitate such internships, Fisette notes, but it doesn’t promote the service. Instead, it’s done by word of mouth, meaning contractors must ask about such programs or become involved with the school to gain access. There are a variety of ways a company can become involved with a school, he adds (for suggestions, see below).

“As soon as a company tries hiring an intern, they’re sold on it,” Fisette says. “It really maximizes a company’s opportunities for finding good employees.”