You Don't Have a Hiring Problem. You Have a First 90 Days Problem.

Speaker A: Welcome back to the Lost Are the Skilled Trades podcast. I'm, um, your host, Andrew Brown. Today, I want to do something a little different. I just finished talking with a group of construction leaders about something I keep seeing over and over again. We spend a lot of time talking about recruiting, but I think we're missing what happens after somebody says yes. So let me start off with a question. How many of you have ever had someone leave your company, and honestly, you didn't see it coming? Maybe they never complained. Maybe they never told you they were looking. And then one day, poof, they handed in their notice and everybody looked at each other and said, well, wtf? What happened? I think every leader has had that happen. Everybody, whether it's construction or manufacturing, utilities, it doesn't even really matter. We've all lost someone and wondered if there was something we missed. And when that happens, our first instinct is usually the same. Like, we get everybody in the conference room, we get upper management, we get leaders in the room, and then somebody calls out, we've got to recruit better. We need a bigger pipeline. We've got to find better people. And maybe that does happen. I actually think that most of you probably do have a hiring problem. So I'm really not going to pretend otherwise. Finding good people isn't easy. Keeping jobs filled isn't easy. Everybody's competing for the same workforce. But I don't think hiring is the only reason. You're also trying to keep the people you already worked so hard to find. And those are connected problems, but they're not the same problems. And somewhere over the last few years, I realized I've been looking at the wrong one. When I started this podcast, I thought I was going to learn how companies recruit better. That was honestly the goal. I figured if I interviewed, uh, enough contractors, enough CEOs, enough foremen, enough apprentices, I'd eventually discovered what separated the companies that attracted people from the ones that didn't. So I started asking questions early on. Why did you choose this career? What made you take the job? Why did you join that company? And after interview 10, I still thought I was researching hiring. Interview 20, same thing. Interview 50, probably still the same thing. Then, I don't know. Somewhere along the line, I noticed something a little bit out of the ordinary. People kept answering a question I wasn't asking. I'd ask about the job, they'd tell me about a foreman, I'd ask about recruiting, they tell me about a mentor, I'd ask about the company, and they'd tell me about one conversation during the first few weeks, that changed everything. And at first I thought maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe I happened to interview a few people who had great mentors. And then I heard it again. Different company, same kind of story. Then again, different trade, same lesson. After a while, I started paying less attention to where people worked and more attention to who they talked about. And that really surprised me, because I wasn't asking, who changed your life? I was asking, tell me about your career. And somehow the conversation kept finding its way back to one person. Different companies, different trades, different states. People who had never met each other. But somehow they kept telling the same story. Not the same facts, but the same pattern. And then one conversation kind of stayed with me. This was really early on. I podcast was with Nate Bowman. Nate is, uh, a welder. And when he talked about the early part of his career, he didn't spend all his time talking about a welding technique. He talked about an instructor. And that instructor noticed something early on in Nate. He saw that Nate cared, that he was taking the work seriously. And I remember one day, he gave Nate his own welding helmet. Now think about that. Out of all the classes, all the projects, all the things he learned, that's the story Nate still tells. And it wasn't really about the helmet. It was, uh, what the helmet represented. Somebody noticed him. Somebody believed in him. Somebody looked at him and thought, you know, this kid's got something. And years later, that moment still mattered. Not because of the welding equipment, because of the person behind it. And I remember sitting there thinking, how many leaders have moments like that and never realize they're creating them? And here's what surprised me. Nobody ever sat back and said, you know why I stayed here for, like, 20, 30 years? Because the application process was incredible. The onboarding process was incredible. Nobody, not once. What they remembered was a person, a foreman, a superintendent, an instructor, a mentor, someone who noticed them, someone who corrected them, someone who trusted them, someone who made them feel like they belonged. And that's when I started thinking, maybe I'm not studying recruiting anymore. Maybe I'm studying leadership. And that completely changed the questions I started asking moving forward. So instead of, how do we attract more people? I started asking, why did you stay? And that turned out to be a much better question, because almost nobody answered with recruiting. They answered with people. One guest talked about expectations. Another one talked about honest feedback. I remember another one talked about a foreman who never let him wonder where he stood. Another one talked about being trusted with responsibility before he thought he was ready. Think about that. These People were all over the map. Different jobs, different backgrounds. Most of them, I don't know. Actually, they never met. But I kept hearing the same things. And then I had one of those aha moments. We spend a lot of time talking about how to get people in the door and not nearly enough time talking about what happens after they walk through it. Because here's what I think is happening. When someone starts with your company, they're not just learning the work. They're learning whether they belong. And I think belonging gets misunderstood. Now, belonging doesn't mean everybody become best friends. It doesn't mean lowering standards. It doesn't mean making the job easy. I think that belonging means I know where I fit. I know who I can ask. I know what's expected. I know somebody notices whether I'm here. Now, think about your own career. I bet there was a point where you stopped feeling like the new person. It probably wasn't because somebody announced it. Nobody gathered up the whole company and said, you know, congratulations. You know you belong here, Jake. No, I don't think that happened. Something just changed. You knew the rhythm. You knew the crew. You knew where the tools were. You knew who to call. You started understanding what a good day looked like. And without realizing it, you started thinking, I belong here. And that's what I think every new employee is trying to figure out. The question is, how quickly do we help them get there? Every day they're paying attention. How mistakes are handled, how people talk to each other, whether anybody notices improvement, and whether anyone actually. Actually knows their name. And here's something I don't think we talk about enough. While you're deciding whether they're a good fit, they're deciding whether you are. They're asking themselves questions they may never actually say out loud. Did I make the right decision? Can I really do this? Who do I go to when I get stuck? Like, does anybody actually care I'm here? I don't think those are HR questions. I think those are leadership questions. And I think that's why the first 90 days matter so much. Not because somebody becomes an expert in 90 days. Somewhere in those first few moments, they start deciding, uh, is this somewhere I can build something, or is this just another job? Now, before I move on, I want you to think of the newest person on your team. Not your best employee. Not the person who has been there 10 years, 15 years, the newest one. Now, I want you to start to think on a scale from 1 to 5, how confident are you they know they belong? I want you to think about that for a second. On a scale from 1 to 5, how confident are you that they know they belong? And as you're thinking through that and coming up with a number, if it dips below 5, well, let me get. Let me start with this. That's exactly why I think this conversation matters. Because if the answer isn't a 5, the opportunity isn't just recruiting someone else. The opportunity is in how we lead the person who's already there. So if that's true, then the question isn't how do we hire better? The question becomes, what do leaders or great leaders do during the first 90 days that everyone else misses? And that's really what I want to spend most of my time talking about during this podcast. So if people are spending those first 90 days deciding whether they belong, here's the first place. I think leaders either help them or lose them. Expectations. Now think about your newest employee. If I pulled them aside this afternoon and asked, what does a great week look like here? What would they know? Not guess? Actually, no. Think about that for a second. Most experienced leaders know exactly what good looks like. The problem is they've known it for so long, they forget what it's like to not know. They know the pace. They know what matters most. They know which mistakes are a part of learning and which mistakes cannot happen again. The new employee doesn't know any of that. One of the, uh, workforce leaders I interviewed was Glenda Rohn. And I asked her specifically what companies were missing. And I expected her to talk about recruiting, and she didn't. She immediately started talking about onboarding, training, mentorship, making expectations clear, helping people understand where they fit and where they can go. And then that kind of stayed with me because she said she doesn't believe work ethic has disappeared with the younger generation. She believes there's a disconnect on expectations. Think about the difference. If the problem is work ethic, we blame the person. If the problem is unclear, expectations leaders have something they can actually fix. Then I interviewed Liam. Liam is, um, a Gen Zer, mid-20s. He's a young project engineer. I asked him what companies can do better for people entering the industry. And he thought, and he thought, and he thought, and I waited. And honestly, I expected him to answer and say, oh, you gotta raise the wages or flexibility or maybe some benefit companies assume younger workers care about. And that wasn't his answer. He said, tell me exactly what's expected of me and be honest with me. Like, don't bullshit me. Don't blow smoke up my ass when I ask how I'm doing, introduce me to people, give me a mentor, help me understand how the company operates. And I was like, okay, he's 22, 23, mid-20s. I was like, I didn't know what I was doing in the mid-20s. But look what he's asking. And that surprised me because he wasn't asking for less accountability. He was asking for clearer accountability. He wanted to know where he stood while there was still time to improve. Not six months later, not at a review. He wanted to know now. Now. Glenda was looking at it from the workforce side. Liam was looking at it as a young employee. They don't know each other, but they were describing the same problem m about. People can't succeed at a target they can't see. So here's something every foreign superintendent and project manager can do. Don't just say, work hard or pay attention or take initiative. Those sound clear to the person saying them, right? They're not always clear to the person hearing them. Tell them and say, hey, John, by Friday, here's what I want you to understand, John, by 30 days, here's what I want you doing with help. And by the way, by 90 days, here's what I want you to be able to do on your own. And guess what? Here's how we'll know you're making progress. Clarity doesn't lower the standard. It gives people a fair chance to meet it. And maybe we don't have a motivational problem. Maybe it's a clarity problem. I've discussed this before. If you've been following my content. The second thing I kept noticing was where leadership disappeared. Now, most companies do a really good job on day one. Safety, paperwork, benefits, intros, company policies, swag, shirts, a hot lunch. Look, all that's important. But orientation isn't onboarding. Orientation isn't, is one day. Onboarding is what happens after everyone goes back to work. Orientation answers the basic questions. Where do I park? What time do I start? Where do I find safety equipment? Onboarding answers, who do I ask when I get stuck? How do I know if I'm doing well? What happens when I make a mistake? Is there a future for me here? Those are very different questions. Then I happened to interview Barry Zecelman. Now, Barry Zecelman is the CEO of Zecelman Industries. Barry's a multi billionaire and he leads a company with thousands of employees. And when I asked him about leadership, he didn't start with a program. He didn't share me his screen and show me his dashboard. He talked about Walking the floor, understanding what frustrates people, making sure they have tools they need. Also removing barriers so they can succeed. And that, that really stayed with me because you can't understand someone's first 90 days from behind a desk. You have to go where the work is. You have to see it. You have to ask questions. You have to notice when someone who's normally engaged suddenly gets quiet. Because that could be a red flag or even a, a yellow flag. Now, we all look at spreadsheets and I could tell you someone left a conversation might tell you they're thinking about leaving. That's a big difference. Here's the question I started asking myself. Who owns day 27? Everybody owns day one. HR is there. The paper book is ready. The supervisor knows a new person is starting to. But who owns Day 27? Who notices if someone is struggling? Who notices if they're improving? Who asks, how's it really going? These are basic questions, right? Like, uh, who asks if anything is anything different from what you expected? Do you know what you're working towards next? And this is super important. Don't only ask the supervisor how the new person is doing, ask the new person. Those answers may not be the same. Sometimes one five minute conversation changes someone's entire experience. Not because you solved every problem, because they realize someone cared enough to ask. That's onboarding. It's a relationship. It's not an event. So before your next person starts, I suggest putting three conversations on the calendar. Day 14, day 30, day 60. Not an hour long conversation, just a 15 minute or 1015 minute conversation. Just a real open and honest conversation before a small problem becomes a larger problem and that larger problem becomes a resignation letter after a few months. The third pattern kind of took me the longest to recognize, and that was confidence. We talk about confidence like people either have it or they don't. Some people walk in confident. Some people need to tighten or toughen up. Excuse me. I don't think it's that simple. I think leaders build confidence or they quietly tear it down. I've seen it both and I really thought about this. Confidence grows every time someone succeeds at something they didn't think they can do. Every time they're trusted. Every time someone notices progress, Every time someone says the little things like, nice job, here's what you're ready for. Next. I had a chance to sit down with Boyd Worsham. Now, Boyd is the CEO of nccer and he shared a story with Stay with me as well. That's why I'm sharing it. He Talked about an instructor he had early in his life. And that instructor never said, I'm, um, teaching you carpentry. He said, I'm, um, teaching you the business of construction. Carpentry is the path. Think about the difference. One leader teaches you how to complete today's task. Another leader helps you see where today's task can lead. One gives you the work. The other gives you a future. Now, Boyd did say being able to build things gave him confidence to do other things. And that confidence didn't appear before the work. The work helped create the confidence. Someone gave him a, uh, path where he could succeed, then helped him understand that the path could lead somewhere bigger, which it did for him. Now, think about your own career. I bet someone did that for you. Someone trusted you before you fully trusted yourself. Someone handed you a little bit more responsibility than you thought you were ready for. Someone corrected you without making you feel stupid. Someone showed you the next step instead of only pointing out what you got wrong. You probably still remember that person, right? And here's the part leaders sometimes miss. They may not remember doing it. To them, it may have been a normal Tuesday. To you, it changed your career. That's how confidence grows. Not through speeches, through experience, through responsibility, through honest feedback, through encouragement at the right moment. Now, most new hires spend their first few weeks worrying about making mistakes. Great leaders don't ignore mistakes. The work matters. Safety matters. Standards matter. But great leaders also notice progress. They don't wait until someone is perfect to let them know they're improving. They give them a small or an early win. Something small enough to be safe, but real enough that the person can point to it and say, uh, I did that. And over time, that person stops wondering, do I belong here? And they start thinking, I can do this. Then, hopefully, eventually, I can build a future here. And that's one of the biggest gifts a leader can give someone. Not false confidence. Evidence. Evidence that they're learning, Evidence that they're trusted, that they have a future. So hearing all these conversations, I finally had to admit something. I wasn't studying hiring anymore. I was studying leadership. That wasn't because of one interview. It wasn't because of one company. It wasn't because somebody said something magically. And it was because I couldn't ignore the pattern anymore. Think about who we talked about already. We talked about Nate. We talked about Liam. We talked about Glenda. We talked about, uh, Barry. We talked about Boyd. They came from different industries, different companies, different generations, different parts of the US Most of them, or actually, none of Them have met somehow. They kept describing the same leadership behaviors, clear expectations, honest feedback. Someone who stayed engaged after day one, someone who noticed them, someone who trusted them before they completely trusted themselves. Someone who helped them see a future instead of just today's task. And at first I thought that, uh, okay, that's a nice story. Then I heard another, then another, then another. And eventually I stopped hearing stories. And realistically, I started hearing evidence. And that's when I stopped looking for better recruiting ideas and started paying attention to better leaders. Because here's what I realized. People don't remember processes. They remember people. Think about your own career. I don't know how many companies you've worked for. I don't know how many job sites you've been on. I don't know how many projects you've completed. But I bet if I asked you who had the biggest impact in your career, you wouldn't tell me about an employee handbook. You wouldn't tell me about orientation. You wouldn't tell me about an application. You would tell me about a person. And that person could be a foreman, a superintendent, a mentor, someone who challenged you, someone who believed in you, someone who expected more from you because they knew what you were capable of. And I think that's why this matters. Because somewhere on your crew today, there's somebody who's going to remember one conversation with you. And the question is, what kind of conversation will it be? So we've been talking about this, but I want to make this a little bit more practical, because if, uh, this doesn't change what happens Monday morning, then you're listening to this podcast, and it doesn't go anywhere. So here is my challenge. And that's three things. I don't want to give you 10 things, just three. Now, the first one. The first one is make success visible. Don't assume people know what good looks like. Tell them if someone starts Monday, don't just tell them to work hard. Tell them by Friday. Here's what I'd love to see by 30 days. Here's what success looks like by 90 days, here's what I think you'll be. And you'll be super amazed what happens when uncertainty disappears. Because people usually don't struggle because they don't care. They struggle because they are unsure if they're succeeding. Second, don't wait for a problem before having a conversation. The leaders who stood out didn't wait until something went wrong to talk to people. They checked in before there was a problem. Now, imagine you're the new employee. It's day 21. Nobody has said much to you. You assume everything is fine, or you assume you're doing something wrong and you don't know which. Now imagine your superintendent walks over and says, how's it going? What questions do you have? Anything surprising you? That's a five minute conversation. But it tells that employee, um, I'm not invisible. Third, give people a chance to succeed. Now, I believe responsibility is one of the fastest ways to build confidence. Not throwing someone in the deep end of the pool, giving them something meaningful while letting them know you're there if they need help. Think about your own career. I bet somebody trusted you before you felt completely ready. That's probably how you grew. That's probably how you got confidence. Confidence usually follows experience, not the other way around. Now, m, I want to ask you something else. Which one is hardest in your company right now? Is it clarity, relationship, regular check ins or giving responsibility early? I'll say that again. Is it clarity? Is it regular check ins or giving responsibility early? I'll give you a second just to think about that. But what's interesting is there's never one answer. Every company is different, but, but every company has one area where leadership can get a little bit better. And here's the good news. None of these require a bigger recruiting budget. None of them require a new software platform. They don't require reorganization. They require leaders paying attention to the people who already said yes. Because that's where I think the biggest opportunity is. Now. I'd like to leave you with a picture. Think about someone who starts with your company next Monday. Maybe they're 20 years old. Maybe they're 35 and changing careers. Maybe they never worked in construction before. Maybe they have. It doesn't even really matter. They're excited, they're nervous. They're hoping they made the right decision, just like every one of us did at some point. Now fast forward to Friday. They get in their truck, they drive home. Somebody asks, so, George, how was your first week? What story are they going to tell? Are they going to say, everybody was too busy to really talk to me? I still don't know if I'm doing a good job. I wasn't sure who to ask. I don't even know if this place is for me. Or are they going to say, yeah, you know, I learned a lot. Oh, my foreman checked in with me. Uh, they explained why we do things that way. They trusted me with something. Uh, I think I found a place where I can build a career. Think about the difference. Probably isn't the work. Construction is still construction. The tools didn't change. The equipment didn't change. The project certainly didn't change. But guess what changed? The experience changed. Somebody noticed, um, him. Somebody explained things. Somebody answered a question before it became a real frustration. Somebody remembered their name. Somebody made them feel like a part of the crew. Leadership isn't one big speech. I feel it's dozens of little moments. A five minute conversation, a little more responsibility, even just a simple nice job. Those moments don't feel very important when they happen. But years later, those are the stories people tell. Now, before we move on to the last part of this talk, I want you to think about one person on your crew. I don't want you to think about 10 or 20 people. I want you to think of one who's still in their first 90 days. What is one thing you can do this week that would make their story a little different? I, uh, want you to kind of hold on to that thought. So I'd like to kind of finish where we started. Most of you probably do have a hiring problem. The industry needs more people. There's no question about that. We need more young people to choose construction. We need better recruiting, we need stronger pipelines. I will not argue any of that. And if you've sold me for a long time, you know I've been out there advocating for the trades. But after spending the last handful of years talking with hundreds, if not, uh, thousands of people across the skilled trades, in all trades, I really come to believe our biggest opportunity doesn't begin when someone applies. It begins after they say yes. Now, I've had the privilege of sitting across from contractors, owners, foremen, superintendents, project managers, apprentices, aircraft mechanics, manufacturing leaders, educators, people from all across the US and after a while, you stop hearing individual stories and you start hearing patterns. Nobody ever told me I stayed because orientation was amazing. Nobody said the paperwork is incredible. Nobody said, the application process changed my life. What they remembered was a leader, someone who believed in them, someone who challenged them, someone who taught them, someone who gave them a chance before they had completely proven themselves. Think about your own career. Who's the first person that comes to mind? I bet it isn't the name of a company, it's the name of a person. A, uh, foreman, a superintendent, a mentor, an instructor. Somebody who changed the direction of your career without realizing they were doing it. Years from now, every new employee who joins your company is going to tell a story about their first 90 days. They're going to tell somebody what it felt to work there, what it felt to be new, what it felt like to make mistakes, what it felt like to learn. And somewhere in that story, there may be a leader. The only question is, will it be you? Because recruiting gets people in the door. Leadership determines whether they stay. And this is important information. So that is today's podcast a little bit different. I will check back in with you next week with another podcast.