Hiring skilled people for construction material makers: where to find them and how to test them

A paver plant interviews a press operator who talks well about his last job. He is hired the same afternoon. On his first night he cannot set fill depth on the zig-zag mould, and two hundred pavers come off the vibro press with crumbling edges. At no point before the offer had anyone put him in front of a press.

Skilled hiring across block, tile, chemical and fittings plants goes wrong in the same few ways. The search starts late, the source is whoever the thekedar brings, and the test is a conversation. Below: the sources worth working, and tests that let you watch the skill rather than hear about it.

Loaders and helpers can come through crew networks with a short induction. The seats below need more care, because one wrong hire shows up as rejects within days.

• Roller kiln firing and burner hands, and glaze line operators in tile plants.
• Hydraulic press and egg-laying machine operators in block and paver plants.
• Batching plant operators who control water, admixture and aggregate grading.
• Precast riggers, rebar fitters and shuttering carpenters who work with gantry cranes.
• Lab chemists and technical sales staff who demonstrate products to applicators.
• Roll-former setters for roofing sheets, and uPVC or aluminium fabricators and installers.
• Maintenance electricians who can trace a fault in a press panel or kiln control cabinet.

Your own crew is the first source. Ask your senior operators who from their district or old plant could do the job. They will not recommend someone who embarrasses them. Pay a modest referral amount after the new hire completes a season.

Trade institutes are the second source for fitters, welders and electricians. Visit once a year, offer a plant tour and take apprentices who can grow into setters. Machine suppliers are a third. Their service engineers know which plants run their presses and kilns, and which operators are good. Construction chemical makers can look to applicator and contractor networks, where people already know how a product behaves on a wall or terrace. Last, keep a phone list of decent hands who quit. Many come back after one season elsewhere.

Each skilled seat gets a short practical test, run in your own bay with your own aggregate, glaze, coil or profile. Keep it short. The senior hand runs it while the plant head watches. Score it the same day.

• Press operator: set fill depth and vibration time for a known paver or block mould, then pick out three faulty pieces from a tray.
• Sorter: sort a mixed tray of tiles by shade and calibre under the sorting light, and explain each call.
• Kiln hand: read last week's firing chart and describe his response to black core, dunting or crazing.
• Rigger: show hand signals for a crane lift and choose slings for a precast slab of given size.
• Fabricator: cut, weld and clean one uPVC corner, then check its diagonal against the drawing.
• Technical sales: demonstrate a waterproofing or tile adhesive application to a mock applicator and answer three site objections.

1. 1

   Write the seat card

   One page naming the machine or product, the calls the person makes, the rota and the practical test. See the role pages for block plants and for door and window shops.

2. 2

   Start the search early

   Begin when a keeper gives notice or a new line is approved, not when the seat is already empty.

3. 3

   Screen by phone

   Ten minutes: last machine, last product, last in-charge and why he left. Drop anyone vague about the machine.

4. 4

   Run the trade test

   In your bay, on your mould or die, marked on the score sheet below.

5. 5

   Pay a trial shift

   One paid shift beside your senior hand on a normal production day.

6. 6

   Call the previous in-charge

   Ask about attendance, temper on night turns and whether he would take him back.

7. 7

   Make a written offer

   Grade, daily or monthly rate, shift pattern and the next skill step, all on paper.

Candidate name, seat applied for and date.
Task set, in one line.
Time taken against the expected time.
Result: pieces passed, defects found, or demo quality.
Safety habits seen: gloves, guard use, lockout, posture when lifting.
Questions he asked about the material or machine.
Tester's verdict: hire, trial again or reject, with one reason.

A blank version of our interview scorecard works for the conversation part, and the test sheet sits beside it.

The recruitment process service designs seat cards, trade tests and score sheets that your plant head can run without us. Tell us which skilled seats sit empty through our short brief.