Filling all the positions in your construction company with the right players is a constant struggle. The right players are the best individuals available in your market who want to improve, perform, and achieve results. They are not those who disrupt or impede the productive workflow, cause problems, complain, disrespect others, make the same mistakes over and over, are unwilling to learn new systems and processes, do not follow standards and rules, and cannot work or communicate well with other employees or customers.
Hire slow, train hard, fire fast
First, build a great winning team by hiring the right players who have the right attitude and character. Experience counts only if your candidates have positive winning attitudes, integrity, and put the team ahead of their own interests. The right players are also the best available who can grow with your company.
Second, commit to train and mentor players to become the best they can. This takes a dedicated investment of time spent with your top players who have the highest potential to make a difference in your company’s future. Most contractors do not have a formal training program or career development ladder. In fact, most contractors do not do any training with employees; they hope employees improve while learning on the job. This lack of employee training keeps companies stuck at a below-average level of results as they continually hope things will get better.
Third, fire fast. When players do not perform, play within your core values, or have the wrong attitudes and character, they must go. Do not waste time keeping the wrong players you cannot afford to lose. Remember, one bad apple rots the entire bushel. The question we use at our mastermind peer group meetings I host for construction business owners when an employee question comes up is “Do you love them or just like them?” Everyone unanimously responds: “Keep them only if you love them.” Keeping the wrong players shows the true strength and character of the leader. If you are unwilling to make tough decisions, employees will not respect you or give you their all. And they will never perform at their highest level.
Focus on your best
Common business knowledge is to focus on your “A” players, train and mentor your “B” players to become “A” players, and eliminate your “C” players as fast as possible. “C” players should not work for your company. They do not fit in; they are like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. They are not happy. And, as their employer, you are not happy with their performance, attitude, or abilities. The wrong players include those with bad attitudes, those not willing to continually improve, and those who are not team players. The solution? Free them from working for your company and let them move on to where they can thrive.
Business owners and managers have lots of things to do every day to keep their ball rolling toward the target. They often get overloaded and do not take enough time to do everything perfectly as they know they should. After a while, they get in the habit of doing things the easy or fastest way and take short cuts to get things done. This reduces their bottom-line net results. Think of the little things in your business you know you should do to make each day your best. When you do not follow sound business principles, added costs or small or costly mistakes add up and significantly weigh you down. This drags your bottom line lower than it could be.
For example, when you keep toxic employees on your payroll too long or continually tolerate poor performing players, this saves you time but costs you money. Whether you are too busy, stressed out, or overloaded, you have many options and choices available to do a better job or make more money. Here is one tool to help you work to your full potential all the time and increase your production, performance, and bank account.
Clear the deadwood
Who on your crew or staff causes you the most grief, does not do a decent job, or has a bad attitude? These poor performers are infiltrating everyone on your team and bringing them down. Poor performers should be cleaned out, fired, and removed fast. Think of employees as trees in the forest. When they die, run out of life, or stop growing, they become deadwood. Deadwood gets in the way; it is a fire hazard and causes you to trip or fall as you move forward. When you let the deadwood remain, you tolerate substandard performance. When you do not remove or clean out deadwood employees, other employees put up with them, work around them, and cover or make excuses for them. Additionally, your good employees lose respect for you, as the boss, who will not do what is right in a timely manner and accept less than the best from your people.
I know you are too busy to get rid of your deadwood employees and find some new hires to do a better job. I know you struggle to find good help. However, by doing nothing and ignoring poor performers, you are avoiding tough decisions and losing more money than you can imagine. One dead tree can reduce your crew efficiency by as much as 25 percent. Make a list of your employees and rate them on the skills you need them to have to be efficient and proficient in their duties. Rate their talent, experience, attitude, teamwork, and ability to grow, and rate them on their desire to take on more accountability, responsibility, and leadership. Through this process, you will discover your valuable employees: those who can improve and those who cannot (i.e. should not work for you). Who knows? You might also find that a few “old timers” or relatives are not on your “keep” list either.
It is not your fault that as many as 10 to 20 percent of your employees might not be the right fit or suited to work for you or your company. Do not feel bad about realizing not everyone you hired was the right employee to work for you. You did your best hiring them; some individuals eventually did not fit the required job description or aspire to excellence in your company’s environment. In other words, these individuals are working at the wrong place. They need to move on and find a place where they will contribute in a positive way. Feel good about cleaning out the deadwood. It is good for you, your employees, and those who will be leaving your company. Get out your axe, trim out the deadwood, and find positive individuals who will help to grow your company and make it even better.
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 at HardhatBIZSCHOOL.com online university for contractors, visit his website @ HardhatBizcoach.com, watch his videos on YouTube, or email GH@HardhatBizcoach.com.
