How to write a labour order that fills first time

An agency consultant reads perhaps forty orders a day. The ones that get worked first are the ones they can act on without a phone call. The ones that sit are the ones where somebody has to ring back to find out what the job actually is.

That is not laziness on their part. It is arithmetic. If your order is missing the start time, they cannot brief a candidate properly, so they park it and work the one below it that is complete.

Here is what a fillable order contains.

The six lines that matter

Trade and grade, not just trade. “Groundworker” covers a man who can lay kerbs to a string line and a man who can dig by hand and nothing else. Both are groundworkers. Only one of them is the one you meant. Say which.

Headcount and whether it can be split. Four operatives from Monday is one order. Four operatives, two Monday and two Wednesday if that is easier, is a much easier order to fill and often gets you the better two first.

Start date and start time. 0730 on site, not “Monday morning”. Half the first day no-shows in this industry are somebody turning up at eight for a half seven start, being told the gang has gone, and never coming back.

Duration, honestly. “Two weeks, likely to run to six” fills better than “ongoing”. Ongoing means nothing to a man deciding whether to leave a job he already has. A real number he can plan around will move him.

The rate, and what the rate buys. A day rate covers nine worked hours on our terms. If your day is ten hours, say so and price it, because the candidate will find out on day one and you will lose him on day two.

Tickets and site rules. CSCS grade, any plant tickets, whether the site runs a drug and alcohol test on induction, whether there is parking. The parking one sounds trivial. It is the reason a fitter turns down a job in central Birmingham.

What slows an order down

Vague pay. “Competitive” tells a candidate nothing and tells the consultant that you have not decided, so they will not brief anybody until you have.

An unrealistic rate for the area. Pay moves by trade, season and location. If your number is under the market you will get the people nobody else took, which is a false economy that shows up as rework in week three.

Too many tickets. Every extra requirement cuts the pool. Ask for what the job needs on day one and add the rest later if the man is staying.

An order placed with six agencies at once. It feels like insurance. What it actually does is tell every consultant their odds are one in six, so none of them puts their best candidate up. You get six mediocre CVs instead of two good ones.

The test

Read your order back and ask whether a competent operative could decide, from that alone, whether to take the job. If he could, it will fill. If he would need to ring and ask, so will the consultant, and you have just added a day.

If you want a second pair of eyes on an order before it goes out, send it over. We will tell you honestly whether it is fillable at the rate you have set.