Labor shortages are considered a top challenge for the construction industry right now and Propel People wants to fix it.
Launched by 1848 Ventures, the AI-powered recruiting platform was designed to help HR teams cast a wider net by recruiting through tools like text to apply codes. “The job search has undergone an immense transformation, starting during the pandemic and really evolving since," says Venture Lead Dan Ringen.
"Processes and tools, especially in construction, haven’t been able to keep up with that and hiring teams are doing everything they can to stay in the race but need more help to really match the new expectations of the candidate.”
Ringen dives into the details of the platform and industry obstacles below.
What prompted the launch of Propel People?
For us, it really came down to looking at an industry we care deeply about and asking ourselves, how can we help smaller businesses compete with the large players? We believe construction is the backbone of the U.S. and an industry that traditionally has been overlooked when it comes to software companies investing in new tools and products for them. With that perspective, we dove into what are some of the main struggles and challenges that are facing this industry and especially impacting small and medium sized businesses (SMB). Ultimately for us, that challenge was labor and as everyone knows, we are in a massive workforce shortage which is causing strain all across the board but SMB’s are really feeling that pain.
What are your top three concerns for hiring in the construction industry today?
It’s hard to just limit this to three but if I had to pick I’d go with:
- Workforce Shortage. My entire generation was told to go to college and what we are seeing from that is we don’t have nearly enough individuals entering the skilled trades workforce as we see leaving or retiring which is causing strain and incredibly high competition all across the board.
- Processes and Tools. The job search has undergone an immense transformation, starting during the pandemic and really evolving since. Processes and tools, especially in construction, haven’t been able to keep up with that and hiring teams are doing everything they can to stay in the race but need more help to really match the new expectations of the candidate.
- Overwhelmed Hiring Teams. HR teams in construction historically fall on the low end of the ratio when it comes to the number of HR employees to number of total employees at a firm. You often see one to two people supporting a 500-person company, and we’re not just talking about hiring, but we’re talking about payroll, benefits, performance management, onboarding, and so much more. Throw on top of the fact that there is a super competitive race to not only be the quickest but to have the best connection with top talent when they become available and you see that teams just can’t keep up, especially when going up against the larger players in the industry.
What’s behind the name Propel People?
Breaking it down into the two portions, “Propel” represents how we want to help our customers move forward and into the future, we want to “Propel” them into the new age of hiring with tools built for them. The “People” portion of the name ultimately comes down to what the most important thing is for us, we aren’t just trying to help a company fill a role, we want to help the people at that company, find the right person for them. This is the construction industry; people drive everything and we wanted that to be front and center with our name.
How can the platform help HR teams?
The first aspect I’d say about this is that we looked at the nuance within construction and started there. We asked ourselves what we can do to really help the individuals in this industry that are trying to hire talent, specifically skilled labor. When looking at it from that view, we built some construction specific tools and laid them on top of an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) structure. So really focusing on features and tools such as:
- One Click Posting: Getting your job onto all the big job boards to expand your reach
- QR Code/Text To Apply: Custom QR Codes and Text To Apply codes so you can post your job locally or on social, again trying to help teams expand their reach as much as possible
- SMS Based Application Process: Adapting to the workforce and what they want, people nowadays always have their phone with them so how do we make the application as accessible as possible so we offer full applications through SMS texting.
- Intelligent Resume Scoring: This is where some of the AI we use comes in. We've built a proprietary model that is constructed using only data from this industry to assess how strong someone's skills are when they submit an application to the job description. This isn’t just keyword matching, this is an advanced way of using semantic matching to see how close someone's skills are to what you’re looking for.
- Automated Pre-Screening: Again, meeting the candidate where they are. We deliver pre-screening questions via SMS text so that you can have all the information you need before you ask someone to come in for an interview.
How can it attract a larger talent pool?
Let’s be honest, there is no silver bullet for finding talent in construction. That’s why we built Propel People to help teams get their job posting and their name out there in as many ways as possible to attract the largest talent pool. There are a ton of strong initiatives throughout the country to bring more people into the trades and we plan to be a part of that and find more ways to bring people in but then also find more ways to help you connect with the great people already in this industry. We want to continue to grow and have initiatives we’re working on to do just that and bring more qualified talent into the process and are excited to share some news soon!
