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Brian Drucks describes his musical style as classic rock with an R&B twist, almost like the songs of Al Green singing the Rolling Stones. But he also knows that selling his band, which plays professionally on weekends, requires hearing their sound, not just reading a description.
The same goes for recruiting. Reading a resume is not the same as seeing someone’s qualifications, especially when it comes to construction and the trades.
To this end, Drucks founded the network platform Where Trades Go, which announced a partnership with Passaic County Community College in New Jersey on May 14. With about 3,500 current users, Drucks says the app plans to announce deals with three other schools in the Garden State in hopes of expanding even further.
Here, Drucks talks to Construction Dive about the origins of the platform’s dating app, the state of the emerging workforce, and mitigating risk in hiring.
Editor’s Note: The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Immersion in CONSTRUCTION: where are the trades going? How did the app start?
Brian Drucks: Well, I started in construction at the age of 14 in a family business and I’m still involved. I have a commercial painting company – we did Giants Stadium, the American Dream Mall. But, being in the different positions I’ve been in, I realized that the biggest problem we have is work. Labor is between 60% and 80% of our turnover. The labor shortage is out of control.
Everyone is doing the same thing: “Send me your resume, send me your resume and maybe we’ll use AI to read it.” But resumes don’t work for construction people, just like resumes don’t work for musicians. You have to hear its sound. In construction, you have to see their work.
The concept actually comes from a dating app. I went out to a city where I was new and saw all these people on a Wednesday night. They were all in their fifties and most were single. And then the next night in a different place it was the same scenario. I asked, “How do you all know each other? Everyone seems to know each other.” They all met on dating apps.
I realized that this was the future of old-school networking for businesses, and that’s what the application is. It’s old-school matchmaking, but it uses dating app technology to connect all levels of people who want to enter the trades, are already in the trades, or want to retire and find a teaching position. And on the other hand, combine them with educational facilities and work facilities.
How does the app work?
A school makes all its students create profiles, just like a dating app. The difference is in our checkboxes. Let’s say you have an OSHA 30 card, say you have some certification. You can check these boxes.
But on our platform, you’ll need to upload all of these things to be visible. You must upload images of your work or videos of your work. You must verify your identity using a government database and a photograph of yourself.
We’re de-risking and de-risking, and then contractors can go to any local trade school they have in their area and, at no cost to them, hire those students or one of their alumni through the school’s website.
Do you see interest from the emerging construction workforce?
There is certainly interest. Higher than ever because associations and non-profit organizations are working to get people interested. The biggest disconnect is that today’s young people coming into the trades have no experience of what the trades are all about. They haven’t made a tree fort, they haven’t made a kart, they haven’t worked with tools and hammers.
Let’s face it, for most of them, families look at $250,000 for college and decide, “That’s not feasible, let’s look at the trades.” So yes, this has generated interest, but the interest isn’t based on anything other than saving money.
I think we’re seeing like 35% retention. The scale is tipping. And that 70% failure, I think, is based on two things. One is the unrealistic expectations for those who come. They don’t really know what construction is all about. And then two is that the mentoring process for people who are already in the trades, they don’t know how to speak the language of a 20-year-old, a 17-year-old. So there is some friction, and that friction hurts.
What sets it apart from any other recruiting platform?
You can think of the app as a plug-in, but also as a risk mitigation or verification tool. If during the onboarding process I ask you to do 10 things and you only do five, imagine when I take you to a construction site and you only do half of the tasks or you did three of the 10 things wrong. This is the pain point we have when hiring for construction.
It takes 90 days to truly understand this pain. That’s why most benefits don’t usually show up for 90 days. If you hire someone at $18 an hour and mentor them for three months, you have a minimum investment of $30,000. So if I’m a hiring company, I’m really avoiding risk by avoiding hiring new people who haven’t been evaluated in some way.
We’re hearing a lot of resistance from companies that are willing to take a chance on new hires and go it alone. They want someone between the entry to the trades and those who hire them. This could be a union apprentice program. This could be a trade school.
Because if you’re going to spend the money to go to a trade school or through interviews and union apprenticeship programs, when it comes to hiring, you’ve eliminated 80% of the risk associated with that.
