Company Highlights
Tradesmen International is construction’s premier staffing resource and provider of labor cost-containment strategies. We help:

• Minimize skilled labor hiring challenges and expenditure
• Optimize workforce productivity
• Mitigate workers’ compensation costs and exposure
• Reduce costs associated with benefits and unemployment

As a reliable and effective extension of a contractor’s internal staffing resources, Tradesmen International has an impressive track record. The company boasts a nearly 80% “fill rate” in meeting the construction industry’s workforce needs, even amid a growing skilled labor shortage. Tradesmen’s fill rate regularly hits 90% or higher if given four or more working days advance notification from clients for trade needs.

How does Tradesmen do it? By operating a National Recruiting Center and two regional centers, Tradesmen supports the order needs of 178 offices across the country, focusing on both small local client needs and medium-to-large regional or national mobilizations. In doing so, the company leans upon a network of more than 200 full-time local recruiters who attract, vet, onboard and sustain relationships with an exhaustive database of nearly 400,000 proven craft professionals.

The company sees itself as a bona fide, reliable staffing partner and works closely with its clients to understand their workload peaks and valleys so it can act quickly and efficiently. The bond is so close, in fact, that Tradesmen is frequently invited to participate in project labor planning and production sessions.

Through a collaborative relationship with Tradesmen, a contractor can maintain a leaner workforce, thereby avoiding the “the holdover phenomenon” where they hold onto employees in anticipation of upcoming work. “At one point in our history, we were like many construction companies,” says John Lehmann, senior vice president, Poole Anderson Construction. “We held onto trade employees we could not keep productively working between projects or during normal project life cycle lulls. We did so because of trade shortage challenges and the fact that we did not have a reliable source for ‘just in time’ qualified craft professionals, which negatively impacted our project profit margins.”

Lehmann adds that: “By including Tradesmen as part of our skilled labor strategy, and physically in our labor planning sessions, they’re now working well in advance of our actual employee-need dates to reserve their best craft employees. We have formed a strong partnership with them and our workforce productivity has substantially increased.”

Contract skilled labor, used correctly, can help a contractor increase its profit margin simply because labor is used only when it’s needed. In effect, it strikes the perfect balance—you’re not overstaffed with profit-draining labor, nor are you understaffed when you need it most. Further improving profit margins, Tradesmen provides workers’ compensation insurance, back-end payroll, benefits and OSHA training for its employees.

Tradesmen International’s craftsmen are seasoned, skilled, productive and follow all industry standards. At the jobsite, the company initiates toolbox talks and perform “safety walkouts” when introducing employees to a new assignment. “Safety is always the priority for Poole Anderson, so we wouldn’t partner with Tradesmen if they didn’t have the same emphasis on safe behavior,” Lehmann says.

With a full-time recruiter and the technology to access an array of trades in a particular service area, Tradesmen takes a “do-what-it-takes” approach to orders. In a crisis scenario, that means it can deliver the correct trades and skill sets in just days or even hours.

Nonetheless, its business model thrives when it’s grounded in real partnerships and clients plan ahead with them for their labor needs. This gives Tradesmen time to reserve its best craft professionals who fully meet client trade specifications.

Tradesmen International is a proud ABC National Strategic Partner.

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