A new social media platform geared toward the construction industry is generating buzz around the globe, and it all started after two men from North Bay were left stranded after experiencing truck trouble.
Hard Hat Hunter is an online construction-oriented forum that brings together employees, employers, job seekers, and industry and educational organizations to promote the sector.
Working in Cochrane about five years ago, Ed Goulais and Paul Robillard — the owner and operations manager at First North Construction — found themselves out of luck after experiencing trouble with their vehicle, explained Samantha Dyck, Hard Hat Hunter’s communications director.
“It was a Sunday night and they needed to reach someone to help them, and it would have been nice if they’d had those connections in place beforehand,” Dyck said.
“So (Hard Hat Hunter) is the idea of making those connections for people to collaborate and connect.”
Launched last November, the website avoids the hodgepodge of birthday greetings, silly memes, and baby photos associated with traditional social media and features only construction-related content.
Users can post photos of projects they’re working on, view job postings, post their resumes for prospective employers, or make business connections with like-minded business owners.
The website is free to use and is currently being accessed by users on every continent except Antarctica, Dyck said.
“Our reach is pretty far,” she said. “We’re obviously most popular in North America right now, specifically Canada, but with our partnerships that we have in place and going forward, I guess it’s kind of limitless.”
The website’s blog offers safety tips, highlights different careers in construction, provides guidelines to enhancing a résumé, and examines industry trends, among other topics. New content is uploaded to the blog daily.
Businesses can create profiles, giving small businesses in particular a chance to have a web presence without paying big dollars for an exclusive website. Employers, meanwhile, can peruse the worker profiles to find skilled labourers.
Small businesses can also connect with each other for potential business opportunities.
“A lot of small companies can’t compete against bigger companies because of just the way that it works when you get on jobs, so the idea is to be able to find someone to collaborate with,” Dyck said.
“So, if there's a big project in Timmins, and we're two little companies on other ends of the province — one's in Thunder Bay, one's in North Bay — we can bid on this job together, we can join forces and we can compete for this job in Timmins.”
Hard Hat Hunter is still currently in the beta phase, but feedback has been positive and users from around the globe are accessing the site.
Dyck said the organization is in the process of making connections with industry. Already it’s set up partnerships with the Ocean County Vocational Technical School in New Jersey, Lafarge, Drillspec, and Cementation.
Education is a key tenet of the forum, Dyck said.
“Our target, who we're really looking to engage in community, is today's youth — specifically women, but all youth,” Dyck said.
“We're trying to raise awareness about the trades, support the trades in the construction industry and really get people to be involved and see all the great opportunities that exist out there.”
A useful test of the network will come at the end of this month when Hard Hat Hunter visits MINExpo in Las Vegas.
There, Dyck said, the organization hopes to further spread word about Hard Hat Hunter and gain more industry collaborators.
“We’re really excited to see where the future takes us,” she said.
