Attracting “Talent That Sticks” with Jim Sobeck

It’s no surprise that the construction industry has been battling workforce shortages for at least a decade.  Effectively recruiting talent that “sticks” is more critical now than ever.  We chatted with Jim Sobeck, the President/CEO of New South Construction Supply to see what he’s doing on the recruiting front. 

“Our Talent Acquisition Manager uses LinkedIn Recruiter and we’re having great results.  It basically lets you input the location, job position, skills required, etc.  LinkedIn’s Recruiter module then provides recommended matches.  You can message your matches directly through LinkedIn’s InMail, even if you’re not connected with them.  We’ve found this to be a lot more effective and less expensive than other recruiting means.   We hired our CFO, a Market President, and a Regional Manager (among many others) using LinkedIn Recruiter.  Another tool we use is ‘iSolved’, an HR Management system which publishes job postings from our website on about 30 popular recruiting sites.”  

“We’re also attending more college job fairs.  We like to hire people right out of college for their first job.  This allows us to train them ‘our way,’ before they’ve learned ‘bad habits’ at another company.  And we’re posting more openings now on social media sites Facebook and Twitter.  Recruiting is like fishing – the more lines you have in the water, the more likely you are to catch a fish.”

James R. Sobeck. Jim graduated from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 1976 with a degree in Government and did his post graduate studies at the Wharton School where he completed the Executive management program in 1984. Prior to buying New South in 2001 he was CEO of ChannelLinx.com and Enterprise Computer Systems.