EP 57 · 2023-06-12 · 58:39
How to Attract and Keep Great Construction Workers: Employer Branding for Any Size Firm (ft. Procore)
Procore's talent marketing manager unpacks the company's hiring philosophy, diversity gaps in construction, and why employer branding never sleeps — even in a hiring lull.
MM
Melissa Macfarlane Heidmiller
⟶ The story, written up — a sharp read with every fact on the record.
// CHAPTERS — TAP TO JUMP THE PLAYER
0:00Intro and co-brand disclosure — Host discloses this is a co-branded Procore series episode; introduces Melissa Heidmiller, Senior Talent Marketing Manager at Procore, joining from the GTA.1:39Melissa's career journey — Melissa traces her path from career coaching (post-Wilfrid Laurier) through social media consulting with a childhood friend, a COVID pivot, and landing at Procore's talent brands team. Key theme: self-awareness as a career navigation tool.9:25How Procore builds its talent pipeline — Melissa explains her role as talent marketing enablement: building candidate personas from top-performer data, creating targeted content, and coaching recruiters on where to find ideal candidates beyond LinkedIn.15:00Procore's three core values and the 'no brilliant jerks' rule — Openness, optimism, and ownership unpacked. Values were set around 2015 and reviewed periodically. The internal mantra 'no brilliant jerks' is shared; the claim is that misaligned hires self-select out quickly.21:21Values-based hiring in practice — How to embed values into interview questions (behavioural framing around collaboration vs. siloed behaviour). Discussion of core values trade-offs for high-growth vs. retention-focused businesses.25:03Labour shortage and workforce diversity — The parallel labour challenge in construction and tech. Women in construction Canada ~11-12%; women in tech ~32%; Procore at 38%. Strategies for attracting newcomers, Indigenous workers, LGBTQ+ populations. Apprenticeship outreach (apprenticesearch.com). Breaking the stigma that construction is only physical labour.36:00Career paths into Procore and the SPC/SVC roles — Construction professionals transitioning to Procore — SPC/SVC roles that get flooded with applicants. Sales, customer success, and even engineering re-entry paths. Melissa's message: ask what you can do *with* Procore, not just *at* Procore.43:20Procore culture story: TJ and the hospital site — Anecdote about Procore sales engineer TJ who coordinated a construction crew to make a sign and site visit for a hospitalized child — held up as a defining example of Procore culture.47:00Collision conference and 'Make the Physical Economy Sassy Again' — Procore CEO Tui is speaking at the Collision conference in Toronto on a panel with Motive co-founder and a Forbes tech contributor, arguing for tech's role in physical-economy industries.50:40Employer branding for small construction firms — Host asks the core SMB question: when does a five-person contracting firm need to think about culture and values? Melissa's answer: always — employee voice is your most credible recruitment asset regardless of size.53:20Closing: continuous employer brand vs. hiring-spree mode — Melissa's parting point: talent brand communication must be always-on, especially during a hiring lull, so that when demand spikes the pipeline is warm. Host closes with acknowledgement of blue-collar/white-collar divide and gratitude to the Procore team.
// THE INTRO
Co-branded sponsor episode featuring Melissa Heidmiller, Senior Talent Marketing Manager at Procore Technologies (GTA). The conversation covers Melissa's career journey from career coaching to talent branding, Procore's three core values (openness, optimism, ownership), the mechanics of persona-based recruitment marketing, gender and diversity gaps in construction (11-12% women vs. 38% at Procore), the labour-shortage response, and the argument that employer brand-building must be continuous — not switched on only when hiring. Host Daniel Arsenault draws parallels between Procore's corporate talent strategy and the challenges facing small Atlantic Canada construction firms. The episode is explicitly a Procore Series instalment and reads more as a brand promotion than a candid industry conversation.
// THE LESSONS
See all 10 lessons ▸Self-awareness about your own needs and values is the prerequisite for every successful career pivot — without it, discontentment is inevitable.
“if we can have the self-awareness to recognize what those needs are recognize what your values are what your priorities are”
Build candidate personas from your top-performer data before creating recruitment content — targeted messaging attracts aligned hires and filters out 'spray and pray' applicants.
“we look at who are our top performers... we create essentially that Persona so then we're creating content that is going to be appealing to those people”
Embedding your values into behavioural interview questions (not just culture-fit rhetoric) is the most practical way to screen for alignment before an offer is made.
“ask questions built around that right find out how does whatever individual how have they behaved in the past when it comes to leading a project working with a team”
The 'no brilliant jerks' rule works: a culture with deeply embedded values will naturally expel high-skill misaligned hires because they disengage from the friction.
“when the brilliant jerks do make their way in they honestly they don't last very long because those values are so prevalent in the way that we're working”
Core values need periodic revalidation against the business's current stage — values set during startup may not fit a maturing company's objectives.
“reflecting backwards have we stuck to these in the past year do they make sense and then going forward do they need to shift it all”
Women represent only ~11-12% of Canada's construction workforce and ~5% of on-site workers — closing this gap requires both active outreach and internal belonging signals, not just recruitment ads.
“women in construction in Canada I think is like 11 or 12 or something like that and then actually women on the job site is like five percent”
Breaking the 'construction is only hard physical labour' stereotype with the next generation requires showing up in schools, conferences, and newcomer-community channels — not waiting for candidates to find you.
“don't be afraid to go volunteer and do something and talk to grade seven students right and tell them about what life is like”
Construction professionals transitioning to construction-tech firms like Procore are among the most sought-after candidates because they reduce the 'who are you talking to' gap in product and customer roles.
“we absolutely love people that are coming in with construction industry because then you know exactly who you're talking to and why the product is so valuable”
Employer brand-building must be continuous — not switched on only when a hiring surge hits — so that the candidate pipeline is already warm when demand spikes.
“even when you're in a highly hiring lull it's even more important right now to be communicating out there that this is who we are”
Employee voice is the most credible talent-brand asset at any company size — five people with two genuine advocates is a stronger signal than any job posting.
“the voice of the employees is what wins so just like the voice of the customer is what wins”
All 10 lessons from this episode, on one page.
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// FEATURED BUSINESS
// FACT-CHECKED ✓ web-verified, with sources
✓ VERIFIED
Women represent only ~11-12% of Canada's construction workforce and ~5% of on-site workers.
The 11-12% figure aligns with 2022 data (women were 12% of total construction employment per BuildForce Canada in May 2022). By early 2023 (when this episode aired, June 2023) the figure had reached ~14%. The ~5% on-site figure is consistent with multiple sources. The claim is directionally accurate…
SOURCE ▸// COMPANIES & ORGS ✓ verified
Procore Technologies, Inc. ▸Melissa Macfarlane HeidmillerCraig 'Tooey' Courtemanche Jr.Motive Technologies, Inc.ApprenticeSearch.com
SOURCE: podscope · public episode data · BcW_WVBGkoc