Top Techniques for Effective Construction Bid Recruitment

Bidding Staff Recruitment for the Construction Sector

The construction sector knows a thing or two about tendering, winning contracts and the importance of a high performing bid team. There is severe skill shortage in the sector so it's never been so important that you get construction bid recruitment right! We need skilled bid managers and writers who can craft compelling tenders and secure those projects and framework wins. But finding and hiring the right talent for your bid team can be challenging in today's competitive job market.

We'll explore some top techniques to help you recruit top-notch bid professionals for your construction company. From assessing your current team to creating an attractive company culture, we'll cover practical strategies to attract qualified candidates. We'll also look at effective screening methods to identify the best bid managers and writers for your needs. With the right approach, you can build a winning bid team to take on those big construction tenders.

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Assess Your Current Bid Team

Before we can begin to recruit new talent for our construction bid team, it's crucial that we take a step back and assess our current team. This will help us identify any skill gaps and evaluate overall performance, allowing us to make informed decisions about where we need to focus our recruitment efforts.

Identifying Skill Gaps

The first step in assessing our current bid team is to identify any skill gaps. We need to look at the technical knowledge and experience of each team member, as well as their professional skills and personal qualities. Are there any areas where we're lacking expertise? Do we have team members who struggle with communication or problem-solving?

One way to identify skill gaps is to conduct a skills audit. This involves asking each team member to complete a self-assessment of their skills and experience, as well as gathering feedback from managers and colleagues. We can then compare this information to the skills and competencies we know are essential for success in construction bidding.

Evaluating Team Performance

Once we've identified any skill gaps, we need to evaluate the overall performance of our bid team. This means looking at our win rates, proposal volume and turnaround time, cost of bid writing, and customer satisfaction.

If we're not winning as many bids as we'd like, or if we're struggling to meet deadlines and quality standards, it could be a sign that our team needs additional support or training. On the other hand, if we're consistently delivering high-quality bids and winning contracts, we may want to focus on retaining and developing our existing talent.

To evaluate team performance, we can use a range of metrics and KPIs, such as:

Win rate: What percentage of bids are we winning?
Proposal volume: How many bids are we submitting each month or quarter?
Turnaround time: How long does it take us to complete a bid from start to finish?
Cost of bid writing: How much are we spending on each bid, and is it cost-effective?
Customer satisfaction: What feedback are we getting from other members of your team and departments?

By regularly monitoring these metrics, we can identify areas where our team is excelling and areas where we need to improve. This will help us make data-driven decisions about bid recruitment, training, and development.

Implement Effective Screening Techniques

Once we've attracted a pool of qualified bid candidates, it's time to screen them effectively to identify the best fit for our construction bid team. This involves a combination of technical assessments and behavioural interviews to evaluate their skills, experience, and cultural fit.

Conducting Technical Assessments

Technical assessments are a crucial part of the screening process for bid professionals. We need to ensure that candidates have the necessary technical knowledge and skills to produce high-quality bids.

One effective way to assess technical skills is through a bid writing exercise. This can involve providing candidates with a section of a sample tender document and asking them to write a response, or to review an existing quality method statement and provide feedback on how they would improve it. We can then evaluate their writing skills, attention to detail, and ability to address the client's requirements. At Thornton & Lowe we have 4 main bid recruitment tasks, which we use to quickly assess the quality of candidates and shortlist efficiently.

Another option is to use online assessments or tests to measure candidates' knowledge of the construction industry, procurement processes, and bid management best practises. These assessments can be tailored to the specific role and provide an objective way to compare candidates.

Utilising Behavioural Interviews

While technical skills are important, we also need to assess candidates' soft skills and cultural fit. Behavioural interviews are an effective way to do this.

In a behavioural interview, we ask candidates to provide specific examples of how they've handled situations in the past. For example, we might ask:

"Tell me about a time when you had to manage a challenging client relationship during the bid process. How did you handle it?"
"Describe a situation where you had to work under tight deadlines to submit a bid. What strategies did you use to ensure success?"
"Give me an example of a time when you had to collaborate with colleagues from different departments to create a winning bid. How did you ensure effective communication and teamwork?"

By asking these types of questions, we can gain insight into candidates' problem-solving skills, communication abilities, and teamwork approach. We can also assess their fit with our company culture and values.

To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation, it's important to use a structured interview process with standardised questions and scoring criteria. This helps to minimise bias and allows us to compare candidates objectively.

By combining technical assessments and behavioural interviews, we can identify the best candidates for our construction bid team and set ourselves up for success in winning contracts.

Create an Attractive Company Culture

A positive company culture is vital for attracting top talent to your construction bid team. Skilled bid professionals want to work for companies that value their contributions, provide opportunities for growth, and offer a supportive work environment. Here are some ways to create an attractive company culture:

Highlighting Career Growth Opportunities

Bid professionals are often ambitious and driven individuals who seek opportunities to advance their careers. By highlighting the potential for career growth within your company, you can attract candidates who are looking for long-term opportunities. Consider:

Clearly communicating the career paths available for bid team members
Providing training and development programmes to help employees acquire new skills
Offering bid mentorship opportunities with experienced bid managers or directors

When candidates see that your company invests in their professional development, they are more likely to view your organisation as an attractive place to work. You may also be interested in the five things I wish I knew before becoming a bid writer, or a day in the life of a bid manager.

Offering Competitive Compensation Packages

To attract top bid talent, it's important to offer competitive compensation packages. This includes not only base salaries but also benefits such as:

Health plans
Pension
Competitive level of holidays
Flexible work arrangements

Research industry standards for bid professional salaries in your area and strive to meet or exceed those benchmarks. Keep in mind that the most skilled bid managers and writers may have multiple job offers, so a strong compensation package can set your company apart. This is of course an area that Bid Resource can help you with. Hello@thorntonandlowe.com - 01204 238046

In addition to financial compensation, consider other perks that can enhance your company culture and attract top talent. This might include:

Team-building activities
Recognition programmes
Opportunities for community involvement, which will also support your social value!

Remember, a positive company culture is key to both attracting and retaining top bid talent.

Bid Recruitment Services Bidding for the Construction Sector

At Thornton & Lowe we offer bid recruitment services for the construction sector. We have a dedicated Bid Resource division that specialises in finding and placing qualified bid professionals for our clients. Whether you need a freelance bid writer, a permanent bid manager, or a whole bid team, we can help you find the right talent for your projects.

Our Bid Resource division also recruits for our own in-house bid management team, ensuring that we have the best people to work on our clients' bids. We have a rigorous selection process that tests candidates' skills, experience, and knowledge of the construction sector and tenders. We also provide ongoing bid training and development to our staff, keeping them updated on the latest trends and best practices in bid management.

If you are new to tendering in the construction sector you may find our construction bid templates a highly efficient way to get started. These provide tender answers to frequently asked construction tender questions.

Thornton & Lowe also has a successful graduate trainee bid recruitment and development service. Let us recruit new talent into the sector for your business, train, mentor and guide them. Via our in-house bid team we can provide quality assurance and additional bid writing support!