Your firm goes through a lot to find reliable, skilled employees, so the onboarding process isn’t the time to drop the ball. A few simple, proven onboarding tips for construction firms will help you smoothly integrate your new hires.
Share Your Vision
When your employees understand your firm’s founding vision, they’ll not only remember the rules and safety regulations better, but also be equipped to make good choices even when no clear guidelines are available. Ideally, the company owner should sit down with new hires to explain what’s unique about the firm’s approach to construction, the traits of a good employee, and the kind of experience clients should have interacting with them.
Take Time With the Employee Manual
In addition to giving new hires a copy of the employee manual to peruse at home, an administrative worker should go over the manual with them. A new employee is likely to be overwhelmed by all the new information and have more than a few questions. Someone taking the time to review the manual in detail and check the employee’s understanding ensures no critical information escapes notice.
Pair Them Up
For the first week, or at minimum the first day, pair each new employee with an experienced employee and let them work together. Have the new employee first observe their partner completing a task, then the partner observes the new employee doing the same thing. After this, the two should hold a feedback session.
Check in Weekly
Schedule new employees to meet once a week with their managers to review the previous week’s work. The discussion should cover what went well and what didn’t, as well as specific plans for making improvements.
Establish a Probationary Period
A 90-day probationary period gives both you and the new hire time to see whether or not you’re truly a good fit for each other. If you aren’t, take time to look into what may have gone wrong during the hiring process and how you can avoid making the same mistake again.
To get more experience-based onboarding tips for construction firms, contact Construction Monitor today.
I just talked to one of my friends who is currently studying construction management in the hopes of starting a firm soon. He wants me to help him when he tries to get his own company started, and I really liked reading these tips. I can agree with the importance of sharing your vision, and I think that this is the first step in ensuring that quality work gets performed. Thanks for sharing this!
Sharing your vision can be a great way to keep the workplace full of ideas and creativity. I think it is smart to have everyone understand where you want the company to be. That gives everyone a central focus and they understand what their purpose is in that plan.
Interesting article David, onboarding is very important indeed.
Do you think there are real differences between construction firm onboarding and other companies?