by Brooke Smith | 19 February 2024 7:00 am
Whenever I ask my business coaching clients if they have anyone in their construction company who could potentially move up from field foreperson or superintendent to estimator or project manager (PM), the typical answer is “no.” It is the same answer when I ask if they have anyone in their entire field operation who has the potential to become a foreperson or superintendent. Bosses tend to see their employees where they are—not what they can become or grow into.
In several companies I have also observed crew bosses who protect their role, responsibility, control, and territory by discouraging their employees from doing more or taking on additional accountability. It seems as if they do not want these employees to take their jobs and move them out if work slows.
One large electrical contractor’s quarterly estimating meeting I attended consisted of 10 estimators from each of the contractor’s regional offices in six states. I asked what their backgrounds were. Eight of these estimators started out in the field as an apprentice, were promoted to journeyman, and then to foreperson. Eventually, the company asked if they wanted to come into the office as an assistant estimator. Now, these eight are full-charge commercial electrical contractor estimators. All it took was a company culture of training and promotion from within.
Your future leaders work for you now
A few of my clients do work hard to build and develop future leaders. They have designed step-by-step, company-wide programs to encourage their current leaders, forepersons, supervisors, and managers to train and promote individuals who work for them. They maintain a “promotion from within” culture and incentive program that does not allow for these leaders to discourage their people from moving up.
One large civil contractor in the northwest U.S. has a successful “promotion from within” culture. They have developed a promotional and training ladder for employees to clearly follow and understand what it takes to move up. They offer ongoing regular training for field crew employees to move from general laborer through to full-charge supervisor. Their formalized, written step-by-step plan provides detailed job descriptions and training modules for each step, and a senior manager leads monthly mandatory weekly classroom training sessions. At each level, there are tests and reviews to see if participants are ready to move to the next level. In addition, each advancement receives a standard pay raise along with the added responsibility. This training and promotion system has generated an ongoing supply of crew members wanting to improve, as well as a waitlist of potential hires seeking employment at this contractor.
In another example, a premier commercial general contractor with more than
100 employees in the Midwest has become the leader in their market because of the two owners’ visionary leadership, integrity, professionalism, insistence on expert craftsmanship, promotion of the highest safety standards, and focus on building a great workplace. Their success is founded on developing a winning team of estimators, PMs, superintendents, and forepersons to be effective leaders and managers. These players are tasked with taking full ownership and responsibility to manage projects as professionals; achieve on-time, on-budget results; and exceed their customers’ needs. In addition, they have a large group of crew leaders, journeymen, and apprentices who are excited about building great projects, do what is right, and do what they say they will do.
Invest in people for a return on investment
These owners’ business vision is to help employees become the best they can be and not hold back anyone from growing or accepting more responsibility. This commitment to invest in people is written in their company vision statement.
To accomplish their vision, they hold several half-day and full-day training sessions on a regular basis. They bring in outside consultants and professional experts as well as their managers to present on a variety of topics, including technology, safety, best practices, construction methods, leadership, and supervision. They also invest dedicated regular time to work with and mentor potential leaders to build a culture of excellence and promotion from within. For three days I worked closely with their senior leadership team, accounting staff, PMs, field supervisors, forepersons, and field crews. During each session, the multiple topics always included sessions on how to become winning coaches and team leaders, better managers, and inspirational results-driven supervisors.
Another contractor I work with encourages a culture of teaching and training subordinates. As part of their supervisor and manager review process, they assess their dedication and commitment to mentoring and training employees they oversee. As encouragement to participate in this program, they offer attendance at state and national conferences like the International Roofing Exposition (IRE), where educational programs, workshops, and peer sessions are available. When people see how other managers and leaders perform, it inspires them to also grow and improve themselves, and those who work for them.
Invest in people to achieve better results
As a construction industry presenter and business coach for more than 20 years, I have seen companies that invest in their people generally make more money, win better contracts, and have less trouble finding and retaining great people. When companies commit to a small investment in training, mentoring, teaching, and developing their people for only one hour per week, per employee, it costs only 2.5 percent of their total payroll expense. This is nothing compared to the potential return on investment (ROI). So, what are you doing about developing your future leaders and managers?
George Hedley, CPBC, is a certified professional construction BIZCOACH and top industry speaker. He helps contractors achieve their goals, increase profits, grow, get organized, develop accountable talent, improve field production, and get their companies to work. He is the author of Get Your Construction Business To Always Make A Profit! (available on Amazon.com). To get his free e-newsletter, start a personalized coaching program, attend his webinars and workshops, or get a discount for his online courses, visit his website HardhatBizcoach.com, watch his videos on YouTube, or email GH@HardhatBizcoach.com.
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