Construction recruiting in Manitoba, by someone who has run a crew.
You give us the seat and the job description. We source, screen and interview the trades and the office roles that keep a construction business running, and you decide how involved you want to be from there.
15% of first-year salary, $5,000 minimum per role
- General contracting
- Roofing
- Siding
- EIFS & stucco
- Plumbing
- HVAC
- Electrical
- Excavation
Construction and trades firms of 5 to 50 people, anywhere in Manitoba.
Winnipeg or rural, one crew or several. If you run general contracting, roofing, siding, EIFS or stucco, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, excavation, or a related trade, we run the same search we would run for our own crew: map the seat, confirm what it needs to hold a ticket or a licence, and go find the person who fits it.
Most of the owners who call us are done reading resumes for a role only a licensed or ticketed person can fill, and want someone who has actually stood on a jobsite running the screening.
- General contracting
- Roofing & siding
- EIFS & stucco
- Plumbing & HVAC
- Electrical
- Excavation
Field, shop and office, we hire for the whole crew.
Whatever the seat, it goes through the same search: mapped, screened, and interviewed against a real job description.
- Site supervisor
- Estimator
- Project coordinator
- Journeyperson trades
- Apprentices
- Installers
- Equipment operators
- Office & dispatch
The paperwork behind the person matters as much as the resume.
Seasonality
Outdoor trades slow down or stop over a Manitoba winter. If you need a roofing or excavation crew ready for spring, the search for it usually has to start while the ground is still frozen, not after the first thaw.
Red Seal and apprenticeship realities
A Red Seal ticket means the person is certified to do the work, unsupervised, to the same standard anywhere in Canada. An apprentice is a different commitment: someone has to supervise their hours, and that has to be a real person on your crew, not a line on an org chart.
Safety tickets
Fall protection, WHMIS, confined space, working at heights, forklift or aerial lift: whatever your sites require, it has to be confirmed before an offer goes out, not discovered on day one.
Driver's licence and abstract
Most field roles need a valid licence, and a lot of them need a clean enough abstract to be insurable on your trucks or equipment. That is a knockout question, not a nice-to-have.
Crew fit
Someone technically capable who cannot work inside your crew's rhythm creates more problems than the empty seat did. The best tradespeople we place are as much a fit for the people as for the work.
Job Bank actually rates the 2025 to 2027 employment outlook as “Limited” in Manitoba for carpenters, for construction trades helpers and labourers, and for electricians. That means, by their own measure, there are more job seekers than openings in each. That is not the same thing as an easy hire. A Limited rating counts everyone who shares the occupation code. It does not tell you who is Red Seal, who holds the ticket your job requires, who has an insurable licence, or who wants your hours and your site. That gap between “people are looking” and “the right person is looking” is what the screening in a search closes.
Job Bank, Government of Canada. Job outlook for Carpenters (NOC 72310), Manitoba, and Job outlook for Construction trades helpers and labourers (NOC 75110), Manitoba, and Job outlook for Electricians (except industrial and power system) (NOC 72200), Manitoba. Each: “The employment outlook will be Limited ... in Manitoba for the 2025-2027 period.” Outlooks updated 10 December 2025.
Manitoba employers reported 17,810 job vacancies in the first quarter of 2026, a vacancy rate of 2.8%, at an average offered hourly wage of $26.55, across all industries.
Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0441-01, Job vacancies, payroll employees, job vacancy rate and average offered hourly wage by economic regions, quarterly, unadjusted for seasonality. Manitoba, reference period 2026-01 (first quarter of 2026). All industries, not construction alone.
Four steps, with Quadrant doing the screening.
The same search we would run to fill a seat on our own crew.
Draw the seat
What the role reports to, which tickets or licence it needs, and whether it is a season, a project, or permanent.
Write the job description
We draft it with you, naming the ticket, the licence class and the physical demands the role actually has.
Source and screen
Every candidate takes a DISC assessment and a structured video screen on Quadrant, plus knockout questions on tickets and licence, before anyone reaches your shortlist.
Prove the fit
You meet the finalists with the DISC profile, video-screen notes and our recommendation already in hand.
Two ways to hire, priced the same as every other role we fill.
Construction seats do not get a different fee. They get the same screening, run by someone who knows what a ticket and an abstract are for.
Contract Recruiting
15%of first-year base salary
$5,000 minimum per role, charged once. We run the whole search, including the interviewing, and you decide how involved you want to be.
Start a searchHiring Services
$2,999One Hire, per role
Or Always Hiring: $1,500 a month for up to three roles at a time, or $2,999 a month for up to ten, three-month minimum. We post and screen, you run the interviews.
See Hiring ServicesOn Contract Recruiting: if the person you hire resigns through no fault of yours, or is dismissed for cause, inside 90 days, we run the search again once, at no additional fee.
| Contract Recruiting | Hiring Services | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | 15% of first-year base salary, $5,000 minimum, charged once | $2,999 per role, or $1,500 to $2,999 a month |
| Who screens | Us, with Quadrant's DISC, video screen and knockout questions | Us, with the same Quadrant screening |
| Who interviews | Us, alongside you as much as you want | You, from a ranked shortlist |
| Best for | A seat you need filled and off your plate | Owners who still want to run the interviews |
I have run job searches for installers and a division manager at IN-EX Plastering & Stucco, a Manitoba EIFS and stucco contractor, so this is not theory. A driver's licence and a genuine safety mindset were never a nice-to-have on those roles, they were the difference between someone who could start Monday and someone who could not.
The installers who worked out were not always the ones with the longest resume. They were the ones who could read a set of prints, set up and work off a lift or scaffolding without being told twice, and fit the pace of a crew that was already moving before they showed up. That is what the screening on a construction search is actually trying to find.
Rod Penner, People Purpose
Questions construction owners ask first.
Do you find Red Seal journeypersons?
Yes. We source and screen journeypersons in Red Seal trades the same way we do every other role: map the seat, confirm the ticket, and run the Quadrant assessment before you meet anyone. A Red Seal ticket tells you the person can legally do the work. It does not tell you how they will fit your crew, which is the part the screening is for.
Can you hire for a season?
Yes. Tell us it is seasonal and we source for it, including people who want a defined start and end date. Manitoba construction slows down over winter, so a lot of good field people are actively looking for exactly that kind of work in the shoulder seasons.
What about apprentices?
We hire apprentices too. It is a different search than a journeyperson: we confirm where they sit in their hours and technical training, and we talk with you about who on your crew will supervise them, because that is a real commitment, not a formality.
Do you screen for safety tickets and licence?
Yes. Knockout questions on the tickets, licence class and abstract you require run before anyone reaches the shortlist, through Quadrant. If a role needs a clean abstract to be insurable on your equipment, we ask before you spend an hour interviewing someone who cannot legally drive it.
How fast is this?
There is no fixed number of days, because it depends on the ticket and the season. A general labourer search moves faster than a search for a Red Seal tradesperson with a specific ticket. Tell us your start date early and we will tell you straight whether it is realistic.
What if the person leaves?
If the person you hire resigns through no fault of yours, or is dismissed for cause, inside 90 days, we run the search again once, at no additional fee. It is written into the contract, not a handshake.
Not ready for a full search? See Hiring Services, by the job or by the month. Hiring an electrician, plumber, welder or another skilled trade outside construction? See trades recruiting in Winnipeg.
Tell us the seat. We will take it from here.
A 20-minute call. We will ask what the role has to own, what tickets or licence it needs, and who it reports to. If we are not the right fit for it, we will say so on the call.
We answer every enquiry within one business hour.
Prefer to talk? 204-921-1000 or rod@people-purpose.com.