Employee Training Challenge

AndyG

Because some other guys are perverts
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I am a remodeler and face one huge challenge in training employees- variation. We never do the same house, layout, style, design, material, dimensions, etc- the judgement calls on what will fly are endless.

A good, willing guy is a 1-2 year project at the minimum to become productive, profitable and proficient.

Any ideas?
 
Ya, treat your guys well enough so you don't have to deal with training new ones often.
I do that for sure- my lead guy has made $ 12,500 in bonuses year to date and will make 2500- 5000 more at least , they all can start and stop when they want to, any overtime is optional and pays extra, all fuel is paid for.

We need more hands- skilled hands. He is getting older and feeling it.
 
Your problem is going to get worse. Your "old"guy will retire. The young have (or had) the energy needed to keep the pace. In 1950, the average testosterone level in a 25yo male was like 1700. 300 is considered normal today. We are creating low energy sissies who A) do not know how to work B) do not want to work C) want lots of money to be present. When you find the guy who wants to work, the bonuses work. Cheaper than training really.

If your business is doing like mine, you need twice the guys or more to fill your projects, all new hire/help, all new problems and excuses.

I am just ranting. Sorry I have nothing productive to add.
 
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For me it's both ends of the spectrum. the younger guys need kid gloves and the guys ready to retire need kid gloves. They both have the mentality of 4 year olds.
 
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Your problem is going to get worse. Your "old"guy will retire. The young have (or had) the energy needed to keep the pace. In 1950, the average testosterone level in a 25yo male was like 1700. 300 is considered normal today. We are creating low energy sissies who A) do not know how to work B) do not want to work C) want lots of money to be present. When you find the guy who wants to work, the bonuses work. Cheaper than training really.

If your business is doing like mine, you need twice the guys or more to fill your projects, all new hire/help, all new problems and excuses.

I am just ranting. Sorry I have nothing productive to add.
That is a good post and a very interesting post with some cool data-

A buddy of mine hired a kid and he was 18 and did not know how to pump gas

Another reason that fascinates me is physically crashed in about 2013 and they did a lot of blood work and my testosterone was terribly low , something like 1500 (just kidding, like 275-300) - When I get that back in line if the cops pulled me over I would give them a ticket.
 
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Your problem is going to get worse. Your "old"guy will retire. The young have (or had) the energy needed to keep the pace. In 1950, the average testosterone level in a 25yo male was like 1700. 300 is considered normal today. We are creating low energy sissies who A) do not know how to work B) do not want to work C) want lots of money to be present. When you find the guy who wants to work, the bonuses work. Cheaper than training really.

If your business is doing like mine, you need twice the guys or more to fill your projects, all new hire/help, all new problems and excuses.

I am just ranting. Sorry I have nothing productive to add.
Another thing I like about your post is the mention of bonuses

The reason I like bonuses is they change behavior and the other reason he is they don’t lock me into a higher rate of pay- Good stuff and I really appreciate you posting because I can tell where you’re coming from
 
A buddy of mine hired a kid and he was 18 and did not know how to pump gas

Was this kid from Oregon? I was up there for a wedding and my mind was blown when I wasn’t allowed to pump my own gas.

I don’t have anything useful to add about hiring and retaining people, it’s something we struggle with too. But in tech sometimes the biggest raises are changing jobs.
 
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Was this kid from Oregon? I was up there for a wedding and my mind was blown when I wasn’t allowed to pump my own gas.

I don’t have anything useful to add about hiring and retaining people, it’s something we struggle with too. But in tech sometimes the biggest raises are changing jobs.
For me the challenge is not as much finding people it is getting the people I have trained now due to all the variation of the work that we do- Companies that just do one thing and train someone sometimes in 15 minutes

It takes a long time to train someone and get them to the point where they can handle every challenge they run into
 
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Have you considered a qualification standard tied to pay raises. In the Navy, we called the qual standard Personnel Qualification Standard. While that wasn't necessarily tied to pay (pay is rank based), it was a prerequisite to achieving rank.
IF you had a written program tied to definite pay increases your gogetters would train themselves with a quickness.
Say- cutting crown molding on a 90 and 45 degree angle- a sign-off sheet for the guy that does it now to witness. Watch one, do one under supervision, do a few more, then teach one- just like the doc that did my vasectomy (he was on do one). Then once a dude is qualified, you send him out as head trim guy on the next job, then (if he doesn't screw up) you give him a raise that means something.
It takes some significant investment on your part to set up the qual and tracking system but I've seen it work well and we still use it in our civilian job here.
Alternatively, you could fund trade school for your best workers- pay their fees for contracting exams if they want to level up. You're creating some of your own competitors but the relationships and karma definitely pay off in the long run.
 
strangely enough, though most of these conversations are focused on the trades, the same thing happens at the professional level.

When I want to hire an engineer, I don't give a rats ass whether he or she can integrate a trig function. I want them to be able to think critically. To look at a system and think through what might have gone wrong, or what could go wrong, and how to fix it at the root cause level. If they can do that, they can learn the refrigeration cycle. They don't need to be able to write software, but if they can break a process down to the steps a computer needs to execute it, they'll be able to figure it out.

If they have that critical thinking mindset, then training is easy because all I have to really do is start off with simple stuff and then gradually increase the complexity, because as long as they're not overwhelmed, they'll think through it and figure it out themselves, which sticks in the brain way more solidly than just being told.
 
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strangely enough, though most of these conversations are focused on the trades, the same thing happens at the professional level.

When I want to hire an engineer, I don't give a rats ass whether he or she can integrate a trig function. I want them to be able to think critically. To look at a system and think through what might have gone wrong, or what could go wrong, and how to fix it at the root cause level. If they can do that, they can learn the refrigeration cycle. They don't need to be able to write software, but if they can break a process down to the steps a computer needs to execute it, they'll be able to figure it out.

If they have that critical thinking mindset, then training is easy because all I have to really do is start off with simple stuff and then gradually increase the complexity, because as long as they're not overwhelmed, they'll think through it and figure it out themselves, which sticks in the brain way more solidly than just being told.
When I hire engineers I mostly discuss their hobbies because I want people who think the job is interesting. I figure if they have the degree they can usually do the work.
 
When I hire engineers I mostly discuss their hobbies because I want people who think the job is interesting. I figure if they have the degree they can usually do the work.

exactly! I pay much more attention to their hobbies and extracurriculars than I do their GPA. The ones we've hired with near 4.0 GPA's are always just ok...our best AND worst engineers graduate sub-3.0 and it's not hard to predict which one they'll be. If they like working on cars, screw around with Arduinos, or grew up on a farm, they usually know how to think. Working on cars has become less predicting though because anybody can go get wrong answers on a FB group and say they work on cars.
 
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exactly! I pay much more attention to their hobbies and extracurriculars than I do their GPA. The ones we've hired with near 4.0 GPA's are always just ok...our best AND worst engineers graduate sub-3.0 and it's not hard to predict which one they'll be. If they like working on cars, screw around with Arduinos, or grew up on a farm, they usually know how to think. Working on cars has become less predicting though because anybody can go get wrong answers on a FB group and say they work on cars.
It's the streetsmarts they gain from those things that can't be taught. It all adds up to problem solving capability and that's what is needed.
 
It's the streetsmarts they gain from those things that can't be taught. It all adds up to problem solving capability and that's what is needed.
Exactly- when people don’t let college interfere with their education it makes a difference- people that know the theory and the field side are typically the most valuable of all.
 
I have a 17yo son and he has a great work ethic, works hard, volunteers to do more, etc.... but he scares me because he can't figure out things on his own. If you explain it to him, he does it, does it well (a little slow), and does it exactly as you told him. If you don't explain it to him, he can't figure it out on his own. I was talking to my 68yo neighbor about how I was worried about my son since he can't figure out these things on his own and he said "don't worry, he has never seen these things before and as he experiences them he will place them in his memory bank for next time". We unfortunately have a generation of kids (at least kids that grew up in the suburbs and cities) that have never had these experiences because they are being raised by parents who were told that "college" is the most important thing and the focus has been on school and preparing for college.

Unfortunately, you are going to have to make the 1-2 year commitment. You need to find a kid(s) with a good work ethic and the ability to learn then invest the 2-3 year time in them. Then hopefully, those kids will be able to teach the next generation.

As far as engineers go, I have hired a lot of them over the years and I am happy that in my current position I don't have to hire.
 
Another thing I like about your post is the mention of bonuses

The reason I like bonuses is they change behavior and the other reason he is they don’t lock me into a higher rate of pay- Good stuff and I really appreciate you posting because I can tell where you’re coming from
Spot on! It is sort of like putting a title on their business card. Around here, we don't wait till the holidays. We do project, performance bonuses. My favorite (of course) is "vacation" bonus. When I go on vacation and put my shop manager in charge (doing my job and babysitting the sales reps, my wife's job) We give him a big cash bonus if it went well. We usually produce more than when I am on deck. LOL. There is happy motivation with those surprises.

Strangely, we had out best month ever in September. I did not have to do the 16hr days either. 10hrs usually. I suppose it is just constant fine tuning. We have been doing automated welding since 1993. Like the kid who works on cars, I love it. I may gripe and moan about the business end but I love the job.
 
I have a 17yo son and he has a great work ethic, works hard, volunteers to do more, etc.... but he scares me because he can't figure out things on his own. If you explain it to him, he does it, does it well (a little slow), and does it exactly as you told him. If you don't explain it to him, he can't figure it out on his own. I was talking to my 68yo neighbor about how I was worried about my son since he can't figure out these things on his own and he said "don't worry, he has never seen these things before and as he experiences them he will place them in his memory bank for next time". We unfortunately have a generation of kids (at least kids that grew up in the suburbs and cities) that have never had these experiences because they are being raised by parents who were told that "college" is the most important thing and the focus has been on school and preparing for college.

Unfortunately, you are going to have to make the 1-2 year commitment. You need to find a kid(s) with a good work ethic and the ability to learn then invest the 2-3 year time in them. Then hopefully, those kids will be able to teach the next generation.

As far as engineers go, I have hired a lot of them over the years and I am happy that in my current position I don't have to hire.
Really good post and I see that on the training curve-2-3 years.

Problem Solving is interesting - I see challenges with that in my industry and most importantly what we want to look for is does this person even recognize that there is a problem-

And also I will add to that that the speed that you can make decisions and solve problems at can have a huge impact on your career.

I have a 23 year old that is great- He ultimately will figure things out and wants to be successful but I don’t think he works through problems as quickly as my 17-year-old.

Also I think it is absolutely awesome that you care and that you recognize it and that you see the importance of this- I love that because I know you love him- And that you’re looking at something I feel very strongly about- you know one day you may not be here and you want a child to be able to survive.
 
It's the streetsmarts they gain from those things that can't be taught. It all adds up to problem solving capability and that's what is needed.
Streetsmarts is a form of common sense. I am training a new guy right now. I went against the grain on this one (and have caught a lot of flack for it). I hired a felon with no drivers license or transportation. I cannot say exactly what it was that I saw, but that common sense/streetsmart persona came through. He is not perfect, but he has not made the same mistake twice, so I see that as a positive. He is here every morning and does not complain about anything.