Editor's Note: This article is the ninth in a series of twelve to lead you toward entrepreneurial excellence by our regular contributor George Hedley, owner of Hedley Construction and Hardhat Presentations.
How many times have you said to yourself: "It seems like workers don't care." "Can't anyone take some initiative?" "No one accepts any responsibility except me!" "It seems like people don't get excited about doing a good job anymore!" "If only we could find some decent help!"
At the same time, your employees are thinking: "They don't know how to run this place!" "They never give me any authority to get the job done right!" "They tell us what to do and then change their minds!" "I feel like a number around here!" "I do all the work, and they make all the money."
Are People Your Top Priority?
As your business grows, you set goals and begin to make a profit by installing field, management, financial, marketing and sales systems. (See previous articles in this series at www.constructionbusinessowner.com.) The next logical step in the "Business Success Blueprint" is to create people success and training systems to get your business to work for you. Perfect operational systems without people won't work! Your talent must become your top priority to hit your goals. The "war for talent" is real, and your only solution is to become the "employer of choice" by building a great place to work that attracts, retains and trains the best people in your industry. Does this help wanted ad attract you?
Construction Help Wanted
Some days it'll be freezing cold and others it will be hotter than hell. When it rains or snows-too bad; you go home without pay. The job starts at 6 a.m. and ends when we run out of work. Most days, you'll be dirty, messy and working in dangerous conditions. You'll do heavy lifting and get real tired. When we're slow, we'll send you home without pay. We'll train you, but you better do it our way. The pay is average and as you get older, you'll become less valuable and might be replaced by a younger or faster person. We are desperate for good help, so give us a call and apply for this job.
Most construction workers are underpaid, under-appreciated and under-trained. Most ministers, school teachers, nurses, garbage collectors, mail carriers, and office managers make more money and have better benefits and training than construction workers. Ninety-nine percent of all high school graduates do not want to work in construction. This makes it harder and harder to attract workers to your company. Younger workers want jobs that pay more than average. They want to work in a comfortable environment, sit at a desk with a computer and don't want to do any heavy lifting. In reality, there are enough workers-they just don't want to work in construction field or for your company! This makes it imperative to install people and training systems to build entrepreneurial excellence.
Remember your first job? When hired, you were excited to do a good job, respected your boss and were willing to do anything you were asked. What happened over the next few months happens every day at companies like yours. Employees lose their enthusiasm when they get to know their boss and aren't treated properly, are taken for granted, aren't given proper tools, aren't provided unclear directions, aren't allowed to offer any input into decisions, are told what to do and treated like hired hands. Good employees begin to act poorly. Then the boss complains he can't find any good help!
People who work for you are different than you. They are not machines and need to be treated as individuals who have lives, families, dreams and priorities other than work. Remember the old management style? Managers do all the thinking, supervisors do all the talking and workers do all the doing. The
