At Tradesmen International, our skilled craftworkers have the opportunity to work on projects that can make a lasting impact on the community and the country. For example, in April 2014 we partnered with a large international contractor to support heavy industrial staffing needs on a multi-acre liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Gulf Coast.
This multi-billion dollar LNG project is one of the largest construction projects in the country, spanning 10 to 12 years and regularly utilizing more than 3,000 craft workers at any given time. When completed, the plant will receive and process shale oil gas from the western states, and store or ship the product to Asian markets.
Meeting Manpower Needs in the Wake of a Severe Labor Shortage
The Gulf Coast is in the midst of a severe labor shortage, making it difficult for contractors to meet their skilled manpower needs — especially when it comes to finding combo welders and other tenured trades who have the specialized skill sets and certifications required for industrial work.
Combined with the large volume of construction projects in the area, this labor shortage has turned finding proven craftworkers into a nearly impossible task. That’s why our client decided to turn to an outside skilled labor provider to support their internal recruitment resources, tasking Tradesmen International with delivering 50 combo welders for the project.
To meet the client’s needs, we developed a three-tiered recruiting approach:
- We placed a dedicated staff (two tenured on-site coordinators and a project administrator) at the project site to provide service and recruitment expertise to client management and Tradesmen employees. We also enlisted support from our Gulf Coast offices in New Orleans, Houston and 20 other locations to implement a regionalized recruiting campaign targeting hundreds of Tradesmen employees. In addition, we utilized various third-party job boards, trade publications and other recruiting resources.
- With tens of thousands of pre-screened trades in our national database, we tapped into the expertise of all 150+ project coordinators based out of our 140 service/recruitment offices around the country. These coordinators contacted their local and travel-dedicated employees, and canvassed their areas with job postings and recruitment collateral specific to the needs of the LNG project.
- We also brought in our National Recruiting Center to assume a leadership role for this massive recruitment initiative. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the National Recruiting Center has 15 trade-specialized recruiters and 10 call center staff who support projects nationally by recruiting, screening, on-boarding, dispatching and establishing strong relationships with skilled craft employees..
Within four months, we were able to fulfill 90% of the client’s order for 50 combo welders. These Tradesmen employees had the specific certifications requested, were able to pass rigorous weld test parameters and had a minimum of five years of experience.
As a result, we now support the client’s ongoing recruitment efforts on the LNG project for welders, electricians, carpenters, pipefitters, instrument techs, boilermakers, millwrights, ironworkers, crane operators and instrument fitters.
“Tradesmen International has supplied skilled craft labor on an ongoing basis to our LNG project from April of 2014 to the present date. They have been very responsive to our needs and have supplied craft workers that have met the skill and knowledge criteria established for this project. We really appreciate our partnership with Tradesmen International and I highly recommend them as a skilled labor provider.” — Contractor Vice President