The Best Way to Find Extra Commercial Installers
We know that the world of office furniture, racking and equipment installation can throw some unexpected surprises your way. Some of those surprises could leave you without enough installers, so having a reliable source for extra hands becomes your secret weapon. In this blog, we'll explore the places where you can find extra installers to assure you have the installation labor you need for your future projects.
Where Can You Find Supplemental Installers?
Let’s explore each of the common ways to find supplemental installers, along with the pros and cons of each. To do this, let’s set up the scenario:
Your company is winning bids left and right. You’re spread thin with the vast majority of your installers already working on different projects. Then you get a target client requesting a project in 2 days that requires 10 experienced office furniture installers. Where are you going to find these installers to fill the project?
The Outdated Models
Temp Agencies:
When installation companies require temporary workers for short-term or seasonal roles, they often turn to temp agencies. These agencies serve as intermediaries, connecting employers with a diverse pool of pre-screened candidates who are ready to step in and contribute their skills and expertise.
Pros:
It’s fairly easy to communicate your basic needs to a temp agency. Because their whole business model is to provide temporary workers to a diverse group of potential employers, they know what to do regarding understanding the project needs and communicating to the workers. They’re also typically decently priced for the market and some of them have a sizable pool of workers.
Cons:
The major problem with temp agencies when you’re looking for skilled installers is that you’ll hardly find anyone with the installation experience required. Yes, you’ll find handymen or unskilled laborers willing to give it the ol college try, but you’ll rarely find the number of actual office furniture installers that you need. Temp agencies are typically as limited in industry specific workers as the general market is and we all know there’s a short supply of office furniture installers out there. Unless they’re focus as an agency is specifically sourcing workers with office furniture and racking installation experience, it’ll be a mixed bag of talent. While temp agencies overall can offer an attractive price point as far as the hourly rate, they still have healthy margins built in, which equates to a relatively low net pay rate to the worker. At the end of the day, a higher pay rate will always motivate workers to show up and give it their best effort. Therefore, the attendance rate seen with workers scheduled through temp agencies will always be lower compared to other options.
Conclusion:
So regarding our case, with a temp agency there’s a decent chance you’ll have 75% of the number of workers needed show up at your project but it’s unlikely you’ll have many experienced installers show up. Ultimately, the lower price tag may not justify the inexperienced and shorthanded crew that your foreman will then need to deal with.
Temp Agency Score:
Cost to contract: A
Efficiency to contact: B
Last minute availability: C
Quality of industry skills: D
Installer quantity available: C
Reliability: F
Subcontracting Other Installation Companies:
Another common way to source extra office furniture and racking installers is to reach out to other installation companies and hire hourly manpower from their teams for your needs. Subcontracting other businesses to fill those extra labor gaps is a very common practice in the industry.
Pros:
What’s fantastic about subcontracting is that there is a far higher likelihood that the workers will be experienced. These guys are professional installers who are practicing their craft on a daily basis. They understand how projects work, they’re familiar with common practices, and they may even bring their own tools.
Cons:
The industry experience and skills actually works as a double edge sword with subcontracting. Yes, these installers know what they’re doing but it’s not easy to find available staff for that very reason. These guys are using their skillset full time for the company they work for. How often are the best guys from the best companies actually available and not already scheduled elsewhere? Further, when you subcontract guys for a project, you’re paying a flat price per installer no matter what they’re skill set is. That means the cost of 10 unskilled general laborers will cost you as much as the 10 seasoned professional installers, and someone with 6 months of experience will be the same cost as someone with 16 years of experience
Conclusion:
If you need 10 installers in 2 days time, you’re unlikely to get 10 workers with such short notice through one subcontractor. The inefficient option of trying to contract 2-3 installers from 4 different contractors always exists, but we’ve yet to meet a scheduler that gets overly excited about trying to juggle that. While those that arrive will be guaranteed to at least have some experience, the cost can often be prohibitive.
Subcontracting Score:
Cost to contract: F
Efficiency to contact: C
Last minute availability: D
Quality of industry skills: A
Installer quantity available: C
Reliability: B
Independent contractors in your network:
Who needs to call another company? You’ve been in the business for awhile and so have several of your coworkers. Just contact the installers that you or your coworkers know who are qualified for the job and ask them to hop on the project for you.
Pros:
These are your guys! People you’ve met and probably actually worked with. You know how they work, you know the quality of their work, you understand each other, and there’s a decent chance you’re even friends. A great option is former coworkers who have moved on to start their own business or independent contractors that you’ve worked with before. More than any other option, you can trust that you know the quality of their work.
Cons:
Good luck trying to assemble this group together. You’re not going through one company in this case so you’re cobbling together this team any way you can. Email this guy, call that guy, play phone tag with that guy for a week, send a homing pigeon to that guy. It’s typically terribly inefficient when you’re contacting random people in your network and the chances you can get several to commit to the project at a specific date and time are very low. Make sure you have unlimited talk and text if you go this route…
Conclusion:
Getting 10 installers from your own network in 2 days time would be near impossible. Yes, you know their quality of work and you may be friends with the workers. Having said that, this has to be the least efficient option in putting the group together and there’s an even lower chance than subcontracting that you’ll be able to find enough men for the project.
Networking Independent Contractors Score:
Cost to contract: B
Efficiency to contact: F
Last minute availability: D
Quality of industry skills: A
Installer quantity available: F
Reliability: A
Online Job Boards:
As the final option, you could post the job on an online job board. There are online platforms made for connecting people with jobs to people looking for jobs. This includes large websites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or Indeed.
Pros:
By posting the job on an online job board, you have complete control to make sure the needed information is passed on to the potential worker. You also only have to write out the details once for all potential workers to see it instead of repeating the information when contacting every individual. The best part is you’ll have interested parties reaching out to you instead of chasing them down. As a bonus, they may even be cheaper because these platforms are built for people actively looking for work.
Cons:
You have absolutely no idea who these people are and the job board has not vetted them. Their potential skill set and their reliability is completely untested. It may be easy to post the job and wait for the calls to roll in for interested workers but how many of them are actually interested and available for your job? How many of them are looking for install work? Remember you’ll be coordinating and scheduling with 10 separate individuals on top of your own team.
Conclusion:
It may be easy and cheap to post a job on an online job board but that doesn’t make up for the many unknowns, the inefficiency of sorting through their availability, and the headache of coordinating with 10 strangers.
Online Job Boards Score:
Cost to contract: A
Efficiency to contact: C
Last minute availability: F
Quality of industry skills: N/A
Installer quantity available: B
Reliability: C
The Modern Model
What if there was a new way to combine all the best parts of the old ways with none of the downsides? What if you could get 10 workers booked in 2 days time with industry specific experience AND you didn’t break the bank?
Steady Install: The best option to find supplemental installers
Let’s frankenstein a new way to find supplemental workers but only use the best parts of the old methods. Take the costs of the temp companies, the quality of subcontracting, the ease of posting to an online job board, AND add a service that’s great with last minute availability with a deep bench of potential workers. Whatdya get?
Steady Install, the online platform for sourcing on-demand and experienced installers. Here’s why Steady Install wins on all fronts:
Cost to contract: B - Maybe not as cheap as the unskilled workers you’ll find on Craigslist but comparable to a temp agency with much higher quality. The rates are based on experience so no more overpaying installers with very little experience. Did we mention there are NO overtime charges for shifts longer than 8 hours or having a worker contracted for more than 40 hours in one week?
Efficiency to contact: A - Like an online job board, all you have to do is write out the details and post the project on the platform. No calling, emailing, texting, nothing!
Last minute availability: A - The vast majority of Steady Install clients post and fill their projects within 72 hours of the start time.
Quality of skills: A - This isn’t a temp agency or an online job board. The installers on Steady Install’s platform are vetted to be experienced commercial installers like you would find with subcontractors.
Quantity available: A - Unlike subcontractors or networking with independent contractors, there are hundreds of available and interested installers on this platform ready to help with your job.
The old methods for finding supplemental installers are outdated, costly, and inefficient. Steady Install has the modern way that will help you find the right number of competitively priced, highly skilled furniture installers. With Steady Install, say goodbye to the hassle and hello to a seamless and cost-effective furniture installation experience.
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Steady Install helps you hire the right supplemental worker for your projects including office furniture installation, equipment installation, pallet racking installation, office moving, FF&E assembly, warehouse labor, millwork installation, general assembly, and much more. With their pre-vetted experts and seamless hiring process, Steady Install makes it a breeze to find the perfect match for your needs. Get ready to welcome amazing talent into your team! Sign up Today!