Do not start work until 8 a.m., and indoors instead of “on a cold construction site”? You do have to be “a little handy” and have some experience with “small jobs” – tailor-made company and shop Haverkamp Deventer does not place much more demands on a carpenter or woman. With such texts, the company, which specializes in cabinets, doors and hinges and locks (‘security’), tries to attract young people from the construction industry. Yet owner Rowin Winkels (31) does not succeed the vacancy filling, he says. He sits in his shop, in front of a wall papered with locks, door handles, mailboxes and house numbers.
Need a new door? The company can still arrange that – if you order now just before New Years Eve. In one corner of the shop are about twenty doors, custom-made and wrapped in plastic – ready for the carpenter to hang them in people’s homes.
But before this happens, a few months will pass. The waiting time in 2019, pre-corona, was about four weeks. Now there are twelve to sixteen. Customers sometimes get a ‘short fuse’ from it, says Winkels.
It is not only due to the staff shortage in the construction industry; people are doing less and less themselves. A while back, Winkels sold an electronic doorbell. The customer asked whether it could also be mounted. It’s just two screws, Winkels said. Yes, but I don’t have a screwdriver at home, the customer replied.
Winkels: “We are happy to assemble it, but it means that we need more and more people. And we just can’t find it.”
rush job
Employee Jan Westerhuis (64), who specializes in security, also notices a “different mentality” among customers. “People no longer feel like doing odd jobs on the weekend.” An extra colleague, he says, “would be nice. Then we might get fewer nagging customers.”
Normally Jan works in the shop, behind the counter or in the workshop in the back. Now he is sent out more often, to change a lock or do an urgent job. ‘Normal’, he thinks, although it costs him ‘moments of rest’. “You just do it. If someone has locked themselves out, I won’t leave them alone.”
We enjoy editing, but it means that we need more and more people. And we just can’t find it
Rowin Stores owner of tailor-made company and shop Haverkamp
Lots of work, few people: Winkels has been seeing this trend for several years, and corona was a catalyst for it. People received holiday pay, but could not go on holiday. “So they just bought a new closet.” The Royal CBM also saw this trend, the trade association for the furniture industry and interior construction. Director Kees Hoogendijk: “During the covid period, people started to spend more on odd jobs at home.”
Six months ago, CBM conducted a business survey among members, which according to Hoogendijk showed a clear trend of staff shortages. “As a result, companies are taking on fewer orders.” No numbers were kept in the survey.
Winkels now employs four carpenters (out of twelve employees in total), but needs at least two more to keep up with demand. Now he takes care of that with self-employed people. “They are much more expensive, and it makes quality assurance more difficult. You know those people less well, you don’t always know how they work. It has sometimes been disappointing.”
Photo Flip Franssen
In addition to carpenters for the ‘outside service’, who do odd jobs at people’s homes, Winkels also has people for the ‘inside service’, such as Westerhuis. They do the sales and act as a point of contact. “But more and more they also have to go out, because there is simply no one else there.” This means that Winkels himself has to work behind the counter – without having a relevant background in construction. “The office staff is also there for small jobs in the store. If I am there and someone needs specialist advice about a lock or something needs to be tinkered with, that customer has to wait or come back later.”
improvise
Ellen Vet (30) is one of those people from the office who has recently started going out a lot. In the first instance – she has only been working there for five months – she would only do ‘recordings’ of houses where small jobs have to be done or where security has to be installed. “Now I also do bigger things.”
She has just installed a key safe, and is just stepping back into the door maze in the store. “The agenda is getting fuller. Sometimes you think in advance that a week is not going to be too bad, but that always fills itself up.”
Often enough, Vet is on duty, but is out all day. “Extremely fun,” she says. “I learn super fast because of that.” But sometimes it is difficult. “Then I come to a job and I think: how am I going to do this?” Then it’s improvisation, or just call a colleague to think along. “Usually it works, but sometimes it would be nice if a more experienced colleague was there.”
If it really doesn’t work alone, Vet tells the customer that he doesn’t have the right tools with him for this job. Then she returns later, with the missing tool: a colleague.
That is how it is intended – also in the open position at Haverkamp: a newcomer receives intensive guidance from an experienced colleague and can therefore learn.
If it really doesn’t work alone, Vet tells the customer that he doesn’t have the right tools with him for this job. Then she comes back later, with the missing tool: a colleague
But in practice it turns out differently now. Due to the staff shortage, the guidance of the learning carpenter sometimes falls short. And that takes revenge, because the intended supervisor is getting busier and busier because he can hand over less. Jobs therefore sometimes take even longer.
That shortage of students is also noticeable throughout the sector, says Hoogendijk of the CBM sector association. “We didn’t see it in the list of shortages before, but now there is clearly a great need for it.”
Winkels has already adjusted its opening hours accordingly. The store used to be open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, now from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Before and after, there is more time for jobs at people’s homes. It helps, a little. But not enough. Some colleagues also have to go out on weekends.
“One of my carpenters has had to work from Monday to Saturday for the past two weeks,” says Winkels. Sometimes he is afraid to ask too much of his staff. “Everyone tries to help where necessary. But you notice that they, rightly so, also think: it would be better to have free time at the weekend than to work.”
uncollegial
Winkels is trying to spice up his vacancy for recruitment. Young construction workers often start on a construction site, early, and do a lot of lugging. “Then standing in a store or doing odd jobs at someone’s home can be quite tempting.” It is not enough, reactions are not forthcoming for the time being. But he finds it difficult to recruit “more aggressively”. “I will not approach people who already work elsewhere. That feels very direct, and a bit uncollegial.”
There is no salary indication with the vacancy. “Because it really depends on the experience. Do we still have to train someone, so that a colleague always comes along in the beginning, or is someone already able to do everything?”
At least that’s what Winkels always thought. “But maybe I should add an indication. Those recruiter job sites say it increases the chance of responses… I haven’t really thought about it much. Now that you mention it, I’ll have to reconsider that.”