What if there’s one simple document that would tell you everything you need to know about hiring and retaining new employees? What if that same document would help increase your new hire retention by 82% and productivity by 70%?
What if there’s one simple document that would tell you everything you need to know about hiring and retaining new employees? What if that same document would help increase your new hire retention by 82% and productivity by 70%?
In this week’s episode, I’ll share a webinar replay I did recently. Here, you’ll learn the five secrets of hiring and retaining the right employees.
We’ll uncover the three foundational pieces missing in most construction businesses, how these sabotage your hiring process, why your job descriptions could set up your new hires to fail, and what you can do instead.
Let’s dive in!
First-Day Horror Stories
When was the last time you brought someone new into the team? If it has been a while, you might not even remember how it all went down.
Apparently, those new hires always seem to remember their very first day at work, and guess what? They’ve gone ahead and shared all about it on the internet
Surprisingly, those were more like horror stories rather than exciting ones.
These are just some of the good ones that I found online.
“I turned up at a new job to find that the person who hired me was away for a week, and nobody else knew what I was supposed to do. No desk, nothing. Standing in the middle of the office. While they all just looked at me blankly.”
“My assigned office was completely empty when I showed up on day one. No furniture, no computer, no phone or anything. They just gave me a box of tissues on the first day.”
“I was actually supposed to get a drug test. But the company had sent the wrong paperwork. I was put through a full body physical, including an internal exam.”
According to John Morris, president of a chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) in Ohio, who I interviewed a few years back, most companies have a huge disconnect between management and field labor force that has held a standard of productivity that cannot be achieved with a new, less skilled worker added to the team.
He said that most companies are designed to make new hires fail.
What could be the reason behind it?
Companies are focusing too much on hiring and not enough on retention. We’re too focused on getting people in the bucket when we have a leaky bucket!
Never Make a Bad Hire Again
Just this past January, the numbers say there were a whopping 248,000 job openings in construction in the United States.
Imagine this: What do you think will happen if those 248,000 job openings are vacant again in a few months because you, as an employer, don’t know how to set your new hires up for success, let alone onboard them properly?
What if you could keep these people longer? What do you think will be the ripple effects on your construction business?
So here are the five secrets to hiring and retaining the right employees.
1. The onboarding map
The onboarding map is a detailed guide for new hires from day one, then on the second and third, until they fully integrate into your team. It consists of questions about your company’s goals, how to climb the success ladder, what winning looks like, and more.
2. Pretend you’re from Missouri
Missouri is known as the show me state. To hire the right people for your construction business, have people SHOW you what they can do immediately. You can add open-ended questions to see how they’d tackle real situations or simply have them demonstrate those must-have skills for their job.
3. The Big Five concept
What are the most essential tasks that your new hires should spend time on? The Big Five concept is the best way to articulate what really matters to your new hires or the entire team. This concept determines the top tasks your new hires need to perform to ensure you hit your company goals.
4. Get over your fears
One of the biggest stumbling blocks stopping construction business owners from hiring A-players is their fears. These fears usually sounded like these.
“What if it costs too much?”
“How will it affect the team dynamic?”
“Is this the right time?”
“What if I get exposed, and they’d outshine me?”
“What if I end up training my competition?”
Here’s the real deal. After talking to and coaching hundreds of construction business owners over the past decade, I found out that the underlying problem is NOT that there is a skilled labor shortage or that the interest rates are sky-high. It is that you see new hires as threats– a threat to your business, finances, comfort level, and, most significantly, ego.
5. Fix your missing foundations
There are three missing foundations that could be sabotaging your hiring process. If you don’t have these three foundational pieces in place in your business, it’s like catching the water with a leaky bucket.
These will not only sabotage your hiring process but also reduce productivity, reduce retention, and cause many other problems. I call these the holes in the bucket. We’re talking about the accountability chart, nailing the handoff process, and your CEO schedule.
To go in-depth on these foundational pieces and the five secrets to hiring and retaining the right employees, listen or watch the full episode HERE.
Additional Resources:
– Download the FREE onboarding guide HERE
– Join the FREE Get Paid for Estimates Masterclass HERE
– Hear our clients’ success stories HERE
– Book a FREE call with our team HERE
– Visit Construction Leading Edge for more HERE
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The Construction Leading Edge Podcast helps construction business owners maximize their revenue, eliminate chaos, systematize their work, and win back their time.
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