Engaging young talent

By Emma Peterson. 

Contractors can mitigate the labor shortage and close roofing’s growing age gap by meeting the next generation where they are. 

Labor shortages and finding new ways to bring new talent into the field is not a new topic in the roofing industry. It has been a challenge for decades, but it’s not an unsolvable one. To talk about how contractors can get involved in engaging the next generation of roofers, Karen Edwards sat down Kristin and Tony Case for a Roofing Road Trips® episode. 

Kristin and Tony are co-owners of Hi-Peak Staffing, a company that specializes in placing talent in the roofing industry. Kristin explained, “Here at Hi-Peak Staffing, we specialize in job placement within the roofing world. Anything from your laborers to project managers, estimator sales to C-suite. We work nationwide and we are growing to fill the need in the industry.”  

This role has given them a front row seat to the challenges contractors are facing when it comes to labor. Kristin shared some thoughts on this, “A lot of contractors are looking to be competitive in the market through labor and the best way to do that is by bringing on the new generation. We’ve got massive age gaps in roofing right now, so we have to grow and evolve to solve that.”  

There are a variety of ways that contractors can evolve to connect with the new generation that Kristin and Tony suggested, such as getting out into the community and involved with schools and trade programs. Tony explained, “It’s important to meet the next generation where they are. You’ll need to figure out where these programs and schools are and get in front of them to introduce them to our industry.” Kristin added, “And not only do you need to be on the ground at these places, you need to be talking about it. Promote your visits to schools on your social media, show people that you care about the next generation and the future of roofing.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the whole podcast to hear more of Kristin and Tony's insights about recruiting the next generation of roofers.