Every construction company realizes the significance of hiring the right worker. Often, a company will go to great lengths to recruit, interview and confirm that the applicant is exactly what the company wants and needs for a position. Unfortunately, this effort is often short-circuited by the manner in which the company assimilates its new hire.
Employee assimilation is seldom done well and more often done with little-to-no strategy. After the initial company orientation, new hires, no matter the level of responsibility, are left to figure things out for themselves. Let’s take a look at how to effectively assimilate a new worker into his first role in your company.
1. Prepare for assimilation
You will need to have an updated description of exactly what the new employee is hired to fulfill. This first effort is most often overlooked. Don’t think traditional job description; think instead of identifying the top three to five roles that the new employee is hired to execute. For each role, identify three to five responsibilities that point him to the actual tactical efforts that he will fulfill.
2. Review duties and assimilation plan with current workers
Assimilating a new worker requires engaging those the employee will be working for, with and leading. The current workers should recognize what the new employee “brings to the table” and should prepare themselves to share their own current roles and contribution. The current workers should also be encouraged to prepare a few questions for the new employee. This will create good interaction and help to fast-track the “honeymoon” period, moving the new employee to greater productivity sooner.
3. Schedule assimilation introductions and discussion
Depending on the size of your organization, a schedule should be created that teams the new worker with each of his “future interactions.” This quickly engages the new worker with each of the other “360” contacts and allows for questions and personalities to become more familiar.
Hour-long scheduled meetings normally provide ample time to break the ice and to address work-related insights. Scheduling a lunch with the new employee and those he might be working the closest with is a good idea.
4. Present the “90-day” plan
In many ways this is the heart and soul of the assimilation process. Think of the professional image that your organization projects when the new employee learns that each of his or her first 12 weeks will be strictly instructed and monitored.
Each week should introduce something new about his role, a process or system, or something new about the company. There should be a company “guide” assigned to the new employee for information support. Likewise, there should be a weekly “test” over the new info that was introduced.
5. Monthly culture checks - “How are you (and we) doing?”
Getting acclimated to a new company, both its people and work culture, is often the hardest thing for a new employee to endure. Not everyone assimilates the same, thus, a great effort for the slower engagers is to schedule a monthly culture check. I would suggest the owner (for smaller construction companies), a senior leader or the Human Resource leader. If you have all three available to conduct the culture check, that’s even better. Here are several things about which it might be worth getting the new employee’s observations:
- How is new employee feeling about his decision to join the company?
- How well is new employee getting to know other employees?
- Describe what you are learning about the company: policies, systems, etc.
- Any suggestion on new employee assimilation?
Obviously, you can tailor your own questions or inquiries. The important point is that such follow-up reaffirms your company’s commitment to making new employees an integral part of your company sooner and with greater education.
6. Get the new employee engaged contributing ASAP
Critical to the assimilation process is to engage the new worker in a project or portions of his tasks as soon as possible. This isn’t to encourage recklessness or to put the new worker in an effort that might be dangerous or well over his head.
Still, learning often is expedited when workers are immersed into their chosen line of work. Assigning a mentor or internal consultant to the new worker can enable him to jump into the work process with both feet and begin his new career.
7. Conduct a “post 90-day” debrief
This is similar in spirit to the culture checks with one final required “dissertation.” After the first three months are completed sit down with the new employee and conduct a final discussion about his entire experience to date. Also, assign the new employee the task of re-writing his position’s roles and responsibilities. This effort will bring to light what the employee has begun to see that will better describe what he was hired to really do.
Often, I’ve had new employees tell me that after getting to know the company better they realized that what they were initially hired to do was not quite what they ended up doing. This is not a mistake on the company’s part. Often, the talents and past experiences of a new hire bring to the construction company more than what the company had first thought. Such input is actually quite healthy and should be anticipated and welcomed.
It’s the new hire that cannot bring anything new to your company that you should be worried about!
8. Follow-up assimilation with quarterly updates
Though the first 90 days are important, you will want to keep your finger on the pulse of how the new employee is continuing to adapt. On a quarterly basis bring the new employee in and discuss how he is continuing to grow in his new role. Ask the new employee to prepare for this feedback session, encouraging him to be honest about his assessment of the people he works with, for and leads.
Likewise, ask the new employee for any new ideas he might have about your company’s processes and systems.
9. Request a new employee budget
You will probably provide the new employee with needed tools. Again, depending on his position, this might include hand tools for field workers, laptops, tablets, and software choices for field leaders and office staff. Consider also other work “tools” that will make the new employee more effective; perhaps little things such as a Blue-Tooth earpiece, an easel and flip chart, a white board, or access to a particular online, for-pay, “app” or software.
Remember, when you hire a new employee, he brings his own methods of work, and this often includes the “tools” he is most comfortable using. While you might not be able to accommodate every budget request, providing him with this opportunity reaffirms that you want him to be successful. In the process you might learn of some “tools” that you should be investing in for others, including yourself.
10. Encourage new employee to ask the hard questions
Help your new employee and your own company by encouraging the new employee to ask the really hard questions — questions that might embarrass you regarding your presupposed understanding that your company was “perfect.” New employees are not yet biased to the less-than-perfect culture and can be very useful to address the same. Be prepared for the new employees’ questions, not taking their questions to be personally negative but personal enough to set out a corrective action strategy. You don’t get these opportunities often so make the best of them.
Remember your first week of work
Do you remember your first week as a new employee? You had several invisible “receptors” picking up on all sorts of signals and vibes given off from your new work culture and workers. You most likely knew, just after the first few days, whether you had made the right decision to accept the job. Trust me, each of your new employees also knows quickly whether your company is his right choice…or not.
Take a renewed look at how you are assimilating your new employees. It does seem a waste of effort to expend a lot of effort to land the best available employees only to spend little to no real time in weaving them into your company’s fabric. Start today to build the right assimilation culture for your company. Review the 10 insights presented here in this article, realizing that one or more of the tips will help you to gain greater productivity from newly hired employees.
Finally, by taking a bit more formal approach to assimilating new workers, you will not only add to the retention time of your new employee’s longevity but, you will also strengthen your recruiting efforts at the same time.
