How to sell to Heads of People at Construction companies
Heads of People in construction companies are measured on employee retention rates. They respond to outreach that demonstrates an understanding of labor shortages and the unique challenges of managing a diverse workforce of contractors and tradespeople. Highlighting how you can alleviate these issues will increase your chances of a reply.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 564 construction company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high employee turnover
- skills gap in trades
- seasonal labor shortages
The playbook
- 01
Identify companies with high turnover rates
Use industry reports and HR databases to filter for construction companies reporting turnover over 20%. This indicates a potential pain point for the Heads of People, making them more receptive to solutions that can enhance employee engagement and retention.
- 02
Find recent leadership changes
Look for announcements about new Heads of People or HR executives in construction firms. New leaders often seek fresh perspectives on existing challenges, making them more open to outreach that addresses their immediate needs.
- 03
Highlight specific workforce challenges
Craft your message to address common issues in construction, such as difficulties in hiring skilled tradespeople or managing seasonal labor fluctuations. Use insights from industry news to show you understand their unique context and challenges.
- 04
Utilize LinkedIn for connection
Send a connection request on LinkedIn to the Heads of People at your targeted companies. Include a note referencing a specific article or report about labor shortages in construction, showing you’re engaged with the industry and its current challenges.
- 05
Propose a brief call with industry insights
After establishing a connection, suggest a 15-minute call to share insights on workforce strategies tailored for construction firms. Emphasize how your conversation could provide valuable perspectives on improving retention and managing labor effectively.
Can construction companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 564 construction companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 19.2% of 1–10-person companies against 73% of the largest — 54 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving retention in construction
- Addressing workforce challenges
- Insights on labor shortages
Questions
- Why do Heads of People in construction ignore outreach about general HR solutions?
- Heads of People in construction often receive generic HR outreach that doesn't address the specific challenges of their industry. They prioritize solutions that are tailored to the unique dynamics of managing a workforce that includes a significant number of contractors and tradespeople.
- What challenges do Heads of People face in attracting talent?
- Attracting talent in construction is challenging due to a competitive labor market, particularly for skilled trades. Heads of People must navigate the perceptions of the industry, addressing issues such as job stability and working conditions to attract candidates.
- How do Heads of People measure the success of their initiatives?
- Success for Heads of People is often measured through metrics like employee retention rates, time-to-fill positions, and employee satisfaction scores. They need data-driven insights to demonstrate the effectiveness of their hiring and retention strategies.
- What common objections do Heads of People have to new HR technologies?
- Common objections include concerns about integration with existing systems, the learning curve for staff, and whether the technology will genuinely address their specific needs in the construction sector. They seek proven ROI before committing to new solutions.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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