By COLIN ESTREM

It will cost your firm six to nine months’ salary to replace an employee, making it more important than ever to make the best selection the first time.

If you have a project manager who is earning $120,000, it will cost you up to $90,000 to find a great replacement if you are doing everything internally.

You have options as a construction executive to keep your headhunting and recruiting efforts in-house or to outsource the lion’s share of this task to an agency recruiting firm.

Does your organization have a rock solid game plan to attract, acquire and retain the best of the best?

Are you taking advantage of all the tools, technology and resources available today?

Do you and your hiring managers understand the financial and cultural impacts of a misfire or a mis-hire?

Here are the Top Nine Recruiting Tips for running a successful internal recruiting program:

• Prepare a profile of your ideal candidate’s background

Brainstorm your must-have and want-to-have traits for your new hire. Write them down and refer to them as you interview prospective candidates. The point of this exercise is to establish a consistent baseline from which to measure all candidates equally. Interviewer bias will cost you big-time in mis-hires.

• Your value proposition as an employer: Why work for you?

Once you’ve figured out what traits make up your ideal person, you can use this information to begin to understand what needs to be done to attract him or her. What are the selling points of working with you and your firm? Money alone is not always enough to lure top talent away from your competitors. Consider things like PTO, benefits package, vehicle allowance, bonus structure as well as your culture and career growth you can offer. Write your employer value proposition down and make sure that your team is on the same page. When the moment comes to pitch a prospective candidate, you must be ready. Why would he or she want to leave for you or choose you over your competitors?

• Getting the word out on the job boards

What we need now is an advertisement that will attract interest from the right people. Be prepared. You will have just opened a virtual fire hydrant of talent (not always the right kind) that will take you some time to sort through. A job description is a clinical look at what the requirements and responsibilities are for the position, and a job ad is used to peak your prospects’ interest and attract them to your organization.

• Have company info readily available to share

This one is basic, but a lot of companies overlook it. Don’t be that company that doesn’t have a shareable company profile. This is your opportunity to list your company’s achievements and showcase the team. Prospective candidates will want to understand who they’re dealing with. This is your chance to show off who you are and what you’re all about.

• Tune up your company’s best practices by using a structured interview process

Structured interviews are the most important step towards eliminating “interviewer bias,” which is what happens when the interviewer begins to form an opinion based on anything other than a defined set of criteria. Have all interviewers use a set of agreed-upon questions for all interviews. Then a predetermined method of evaluating answers is applied. Debriefing is done after each interview. Based on the input from the group and the fact that there were set criteria, it will eliminate the chance for a “gut instinct” hire, giving you a better shot at eliminating mis-hires.

• Set up your Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Software to manage the profiles of candidates who apply to you is cheap and easy to use these days. The basic concept of the software is this: Over the course of the year, these profiles add up. Then the next time you are ready to make a hire, you have an easily searchable database that can provide you with a list of candidates as a starting point.

• Engage with construction professionals on a consistent basis

Referrals are almost always a high-quality lead, but you won’t likely get many referrals if your network is small and people don’t know or trust you. You know that ATS from the last step? Don’t just use it to store the results of your job postings. You need to be loading that database with people you meet as you interact with people in your industry and in your community.​

• Establish a presence on social media

Post your job advertisements when you have active hiring needs. Share them across all platforms. We all can benefit from building up and leveraging our networks. Social media makes it that much easier. LinkedIn is king right now, but we recommend a broad social media approach.

• Prepare to begin the interview process

Remember that it is not only the candidate who needs to make a great first impression. Make sure that your interviewing process is professional and makes people want to join your team.

Colin Estrem is owner and senior recruiter at Estrem & Co.