Keep up with our construction news, building news, construction jobs, contracts news and more from Harbron Recruit.
Posted 1 month ago
Trades Contracts: Your Rights Explained
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You have a job offer and the contract is on the table, or you are already working through our construction trades recruitment service and unsure whether your pay, holidays and pension are correct. For tradespeople and operatives, small wording differences in a contract can change your rights and your take-home pay. This guide covers the common contract types you will meet in construction, the statutory rights each normally carries, and the red flags to check before you accept work. If you are j...
Posted 1 month ago
M&E Commissioning Manager: Hiring Checklist
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You need someone who will take an installation from site completion to a reliable, handed-over state: planned tests completed, FAT and SAT passed, O and M packs tidy, client sign-off achieved. Commissioning management is where technical know-how meets programme control and stakeholder management, and getting it wrong costs time and money. This post gives you a practical, search-led hiring checklist for recruiting a Commissioning Manager in Mechanical and Electrical, covering qualifications and...
Posted 1 month ago
Quantity Surveyor vs Cost Manager: A Practical Guide
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You need the right commercial lead for your architecture and professional services project: someone who understands cost, contracts and the realities of site delivery. The choice between hiring a Quantity Surveyor or a Cost Manager shapes procurement, risk allocation and how the design develops, so it pays to get it right first time. If you are also weighing up delivery-side hires, see our guides on How To Hire A Construction Planner and How To Hire A Construction Estimator In 2026, or for arch...
Posted 2 months ago
Foreman vs Site Supervisor: Which to Hire?
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You need someone to keep the trades moving, hold standards and take responsibility for day-to-day delivery on a small-to-medium building and construction site. Should you appoint a foreman who knows the crew and the work, or a site supervisor with formal supervisory training and broader compliance duties? This guide breaks down the real differences, when each is the right hire, pay, tickets and sample job descriptions. If cards are the sticking point, our Which CSCS Card Do I Need? guide helps,...
Posted 2 months ago
Which CSCS card do I need? Construction trades
Are you looking for work on site, or hiring tradespeople and unsure which CSCS card matches the job? The right card gets you through the site gate and proves your training; the wrong one gets you turned away. This guide explains which CSCS card suits each construction trade and how to gain or upgrade one — and if you are job-hunting, our construction trades recruitment team can place you once you are carded. For related routes onto site, see How To Become A Construction FM Operative and How To...
Posted 2 months ago
Bricklayer CV Guide: Examples, Skills, Interview Questions & CSCS Tips
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Are you a bricklayer looking for your next site or a hiring manager trying to separate reliable tradespeople from the rest? A clear, honest CV and a solid on-site trial make all the difference. Construction trade employers want to see that you can build to line and level, understand health and safety, and turn up with the right cards and tools. This guide explains what to include on a bricklayer CV for building, construction and housing, how to present NVQs and CSCS, common practical interview...
Posted 2 months ago
How to become a site carpenter in the UK
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Thinking of starting a career as a site carpenter? Site carpentry is one of the most in-demand trades we recruit for through our construction trades recruitment service across the South West and the wider UK. This guide covers the realistic routes in — apprenticeships, NVQs and short courses, the cards and tickets employers expect, typical site duties and pay, and how to stand out when you apply. If you are weighing your options, it is worth reading How To Become A Construction FM Operative for...
Posted 3 months ago
How to Get A Job in Railway Sector: Licences, Training & Jobs
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Thinking of working on the railway but not sure what to get, or what employers will actually expect? Whether you are a trades operative, plant operator or an entry-level labourer, the rail sector has specific safety tickets, medical requirements and industry card systems that are non negotiable for line-side work. For most roles that require access to the railway, Personal Track Safety or PTS is the baseline competence. Employers will also check that you have a suitable medical and drug and alc...
Posted 3 months ago
How To Hire A Construction Planner
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A construction planner develops and owns the programme that gets a build delivered on time and on budget, managing the critical path, sequencing the works and resource-loading labour and plant across the whole life cycle of a project. Getting that hire right is one of the highest-leverage decisions you will make, because the wrong planner sends ripple effects through your site teams, procurement and subcontractor interfaces long before anyone notices the programme is slipping. On building and h...
Posted 3 months ago
When to hire an interim programme director for construction
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You have a complex programme slipping, a delivery window that cannot move, or a dispute and you need someone who can steady the ship fast. An interim programme director gives you senior delivery experience without a long-term hire, and they are often the difference between controlled recovery and months of firefighting. Harbron Recruit has more than 25 years supporting construction across the South West and the wider UK, with sector specialists and one of the region's largest candidate database...
Posted 3 months ago
Site Administrator CV Examples
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Are you applying for your first role as a site administrator, or hiring for an entry to junior level office and business support role on site? This guide gives practical CV templates, ready-to-use bullet points and the checks employers in construction will expect so you can move from application to interview faster. Harbron Recruit has supported the construction industry for more than 25 years, with dedicated sector specialists and one of the South West's largest candidate databases. This post...
Posted 3 months ago
How to Become a Construction FM Operative
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Thinking of starting a career as a Facilities Management or maintenance operative within construction? Maybe you want steady site-based work, daytime hours maintaining occupied buildings, or a route into trades and supervisory roles. This guide tells you what employers in the South West expect, and how to get the right tickets, experience and paperwork in place so you can get on site quickly. Harbron Recruit has more than 25 years supporting the construction sector, with dedicated sector specia...
Posted 4 months ago
Hiring Chartered Architects: Interview Guide
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You need a chartered architect or senior technologist who can lead design, manage risk and deliver on time and on budget. You might be recruiting for a practice or client-side role, or filling a senior technical position for a housing or regeneration programme in the South West. Either way you want a practical architecture and professional services recruitment process that reduces risk and surfaces the right experience quickly. Harbron Recruit has more than 25 years of experience placing constr...
Posted 4 months ago
Hiring Energy Coordinators for EV Charging
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Recruiting Energy Infrastructure Coordinators has become a practical necessity for contractors delivering EV charging and integrated low-voltage systems. As sites add large numbers of electric vehicle chargers and tie them into building distribution under smart load management, M&E teams face rising complexity. A dedicated coordinator closes the gap between design, installation and the Distribution Network Operator (DNO). They prevent late design changes, avoid costly rework, and keep commissio...
Posted 4 months ago
How to Hire a Construction Estimator in 2026
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Bid deadlines do not wait for hiring. If you need to recruit a commercial estimator or quantity surveyor to keep tenders moving, the difference between winning and walking away from a job often comes down to how fast you can put a competent estimator on the work. This guide walks you through what a modern construction estimator does, what to look for in their CV, what to budget on day rates and salary in 2026, and how Harbron Recruit mobilises estimators against tight bid windows. Construction...
Posted 4 months ago
Recruiting Operatives for Temporary Works & Resilient Drainage | Harbron Recruit
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Recruiting operatives and supervisors for temporary works and resilient drainage has become one of construction's most urgent challenges. Named storms arrive more often. Surface-water flooding affects more sites each year. Contractors need civils and groundworks teams who can deliver dewatering, pumping and temporary works at pace, without compromising on safety or assurance. Recruiting the right people protects more than your programme. It protects your assurance position, your safety record,...
Posted 5 months ago
Rail Recruitment: Building Site-Ready Teams for a Highly Regulated Sector
Rail is specialist. The safest and fastest way to hire is to combine sector knowledge with dependable, repeatable vetting - and to plan resourcing as carefully as you plan the works themselves. Rail projects demand more than general construction experience. They require strict compliance, consistent safety behaviour, and a working understanding of how tasks are planned and delivered inside controlled environments. Whether you're supporting maintenance, renewals, civils interfaces, stations, dep...
Posted 8 months ago
Onsite Wellbeing Champions: Hiring to Improve Safety, Retention and Productivity
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Construction projects are physically demanding and mentally stressful environments. Appointing dedicated Onsite Wellbeing Champions focuses attention on welfare and mental health, which reduces incidents, improves retention and lifts productivity. A named champion becomes the visible point of contact for welfare, promotes safer working behaviours and helps the site respond early to wellbeing risks before they escalate. Core tasks for an Onsite Wellbeing Champion include: mental-health first ai...
Posted 8 months ago
Digital Natives on Site: Hiring BIM-Literate Field Teams
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As construction embraces digital delivery, recruiting field teams who can translate BIM models into practical site decisions is increasingly important. Employers need people who are not just familiar with 3D models but can interpret, communicate and act on model information under pressure. Below are practical recruitment and on-site assessment strategies, pairing approaches, tooling and training pathways, and quick wins to reduce rework through improved digitalâfield collaboration. Target jo...
Posted 8 months ago
Recruiting for Green Retrofits – Sourcing Trades, M&E Engineers & FM Professionals | Harbron Recruit
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Recruiting for Green Retrofits: Finding Trades and Engineers to Deliver Net‑Zero Upgrades As demand for retrofit and energy‑efficiency projects grows, recruiters must adapt their sourcing, assessment and retention processes to deliver tradespeople, M&E engineers and FM professionals who can meet net‑zero objectives. Smaller specialised pockets already exist within mainstream construction candidate pools - for example, groundworkers and civils operatives and site managers are present in our datab...
