The IRE Community Map is now live on Roofing & Exteriors and the IRE homepage.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the construction industry in many ways, from increased demand to supply-chain delays and labor shortages.

According to an analysis conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America, construction employment increased by 31,000 jobs between October and November. However, this level of growth isn’t keeping pace with employment openings or market demand. “[R]ecord job openings show the industry needs still more workers as more types of nonresidential projects get started,” said AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson.

Residential construction is facing similar challenges. “The construction industry needs more than 61,000 new hires every month if we are to keep up with both industry growth and the loss of workers either through retirement or simply leaving the sector for good,” said Home Builders Institute (HBI) President and CEO Ed Brady. “From 2022 through 2024, this total represents a need for an additional 2.2 million new hires for construction. That’s a staggering number.”

RESPONDING TO DEMAND

The International Roofing Expo (IRE) partnered with Work For Your World to offer the IRE Community Map, a new visual way for workers to discover and learn about the roofing industry, companies and job opportunities near them. The map goes live in advance of the 2022 show in New Orleans on Feb. 1-3.

The IRE Community Map will allow companies to pinpoint hiring locations and showcase what the company is about and stands for.

Recently, new, useful features such as the ability to display companies on the map by job function, company category and company name, were added. Paid company profiles enable job candidates to contact the company directly via email, phone call or career/jobs page. 

“This interactive, mobile-optimized map will help the IRE community address their labor shortage,” said IRE Group Show Director Ray Giovine. “The 30,000-member strong IRE community includes tradespeople, project managers, salespeople, marketers, contractors, architects, engineers, logistics specialists, distributors and manufacturers.”

HIRING DONE DIFFERENTLY

“There are two ways to attack the talent market,” Robert Drblik, founder and CEO of Work For Your World, told Roofing & Exteriors. “First, there's talent actively searching for jobs, and second there's the talent that is not actively searching for jobs. On average, 20% of the population is actively looking for a new job, while 60% are passive, open to new opportunities but not actively searching for them. Only 20% are not open to a new job.”

Job boards focus on the 20% of the talent market who are actively looking, explained Drblik. What makes Work For Your World innovative is that it creates a community that gives the 60% who are passive a chance to discover the different kinds of roofing employers near them such as contractors, service providers, distributors and manufacturers.

“You don't just show your audience jobs, you show them the industry—who the players are, where the hot segments are and where the future of the industry lies. So, the IRE community will be able to see in real-time on a globe where the hotspots are," Drblik said.

Ray Min, Work For Your World’s COO, unscored the transformative nature of this tool. “Offering a tool like this opens up the job market. Pretty much everyone has a smartphone nowadays. They can go to this map, look at their location and filter for companies looking for roofing laborers (or whatever segment of the industry describes them). Then, within a couple of taps, they can find and contact the potential employer. That is a gamechanger; workers can discover and contact employers they are interested in rather than employers hoping workers will respond to job ads.”

There are currently over 1,400 company profiles on the map including US and international roofing contractors.

Responses have been overwhelmingly positive:

Work for Your World will be at booth #536 at IRE to show the map and answer questions.

Interested employers can visit IRE’s information page here or email [email protected] for more information.