Addressing the challenges of talent acquisition

By Dani Sheehan.

From rethinking recruitment to leveraging the right partnerships, Chris’s approach will help you take a step toward winning the war for talent in the roofing industry.

Labor shortages are a pressing challenge across industries, and roofing is no exception. In a recent episode of our Contractor Outlook Newscast, workforce development expert Chris Czarnik shares invaluable insights into recruiting, retaining and developing talent in the roofing industry. Chris’s depth of experience and actionable strategies offers a roadmap for navigating this critical issue.

With over 20 years of experience in workplace development, Chris is no stranger to the challenges of matching workers with industries that need them most. He explains, “I’m not a guy from the ivory tower in New York telling you what theories might happen. Before I taught companies how to find people, I was a career coach for some 8,000 people, whether they were high school students, college graduates or mid-career professionals... I taught people a project-oriented way to figure out how to go to work and how to find it.”

He taught them a process he called Human Search Engine, which later became a topic in his book Winning the War for Talent, that he wrote for the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) but which has now been used by over 4,000 organizations. His approach emphasizes tangible solutions tailored to the roofing industry, an often-overlooked sector as a rewarding career.

Our industry faces a fundamental issue: most people don’t know the roofing industry exists as a viable career path. “When you’re seven years old, you can look at a fire truck and say, ‘I want to be a firefighter.’ You see a police officer and say, ‘I want to be a police officer.’ But we don’t see commercial roofing in our daily life,” Chris highlights. With an average second-year salary of $50,000 and lifetime earnings surpassing $2.5 million for commercial roofers, this field offers opportunities that are too often overshadowed.

Chris doesn’t shy away from the hard numbers: “We’re 8.5 million people short in the workforce for the next ten years. My generation [the baby boomers] are retiring at a rate of 2,500 people per day, and the generation replacing us only has 1,500 people per day entering the workforce.” However, he’s quick to offer a solution-focused perspective. Roofing companies don’t need to solve the national labor crisis to succeed – they need to focus on finding a few great employees at a time.

He asks, “Are you working as hard to find your next great employee as you are your next great client? If not, then the numbers are against you.”

Want to hear his practical advice and wake-up call for the roofing industry? Read the transcript, Listen to the newscast or Watch the webinar for Chris's solutions concerning workforce development and how you can apply them to your business.