Contractor OS Part 6: The Hiring Playbook

In this episode of Contractor Cuts, Clark and James break down Step 6 of The Contractor Operating System: The Hiring Playbook.

This is the full HR process for contractors — from defining the role, to finding the right person, to onboarding them well, to keeping them accountable once they’re in the seat.

They cover:

• why hiring too early usually creates more work, not less
• how to write a job description that actually sets expectations
• why your first project manager hire matters more than any hire after that
• how to search, screen, and interview candidates the right way
• what onboarding should look like in the first 30, 60, and 90 days
• how to maintain happy employees through support, accountability, and regular assessments
• why termination should never feel like a surprise

If you’re overloaded and thinking, “I just need to hire someone,” this episode will help you slow down, build the right process, and make a hire that actually helps your company grow.

If you're doing $350K–$2M a year in revenue, coaching pays for itself. A 5% efficiency gain alone covers the cost — and that's before we even talk about growth. 

We help contractors stop losing money on crews, change orders, and inefficient operations — and start scaling. 

Ready to have the conversation? Set up a free call at contractorcuts.com

Contractor Cuts is a weekly podcast for contractors who want to build a better business — covering sales, operations, hiring, finances, and everything in between.

🔗 Book a free call: contractorcuts.com 

🔗 ProStruct360 software + coaching: prostruct360.com

Transcript

ProStruck 360 Stage Six Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.

Job Descriptions That Set Expectations

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. And I am James McConnell. Thanks for joining us this week. So we have very slowly been walking through our ProStruck 360 contractor operating system. We started, when was it? I think it was like January 26th, it looks like, was the was the episode that we kind of started it and announced it. Might have been the week before that, but we are on stage six. Um, kind of walking through it, stage one through five is setting the company up for you to make a hire. Uh step so one is vision and structure, two is owners uh versus manager, it's your job description job roles. Uh we need to have a job role written for yourself and the different hats you're wearing. Um, because you, as a project manager versus you as the manager of the company, are two different jobs you're doing. And I want two separate job descriptions for that because when we get to step six, which is hiring, we're gonna start hiring one of those job descriptions out from underneath you. So, number two is job descriptions. Number three is your core process documentation. We spent many a week at the core processes. We've got eight core processes. Four of them in part one are kind of setting your company up as a one-man show as you're running it. It's the uh 10-step project management, it's the calendar, it's the um the product quality, and how do we how do we onboard vendors the right way and make sure the quality is not like all of the operations that the core processes that you are running your company in, those are the first four. The second four that we talked about uh last week, um, or a few weeks ago, I forget when it was, but the second part of that was um discussing the four processes when you're going into hiring. Uh, and so we kind of had one episode talking about those. And so then we went into uh the market incline acquisition, then we talked about our financial maturity, financial metrics, and data and dashboards that we're using, and that's step five. Step six is our hiring playbook. Um, and so hiring playbook is is kind of our HR process, how to make a hire is the right way, start to finish. And that's what we're covering today. Uh, step seven in the seven steps of our operating system is duplication and scalability. And that happens once step one through six are happening well and perfectly. Um, so today is kind of the the close to the end of walking through the operating system as we're talking about the hiring playbook and HR process that we use. Um so today, talking through that, we're gonna walk through from start to finish of hiring. We're gonna talk about job descriptions and pay scale, the search, interviewing, hiring, orientation, maintaining happy employees, ongoing assessments, and termination. That's kind of the life cycle of an employee. Um, and so we're gonna try and high-level hit some of these and dive into a few of them a little bit more in the weed. So if you miss any of those or want to catch up with those, please go back to the other podcast and listen. If we get all of that stuff set up, if we got our financial uh maturity happening, we're tracking our numbers and we know our dollars, and we can then you know look at how and when we're gonna hire and what it's gonna cost and where's that money coming from. Once you get through all of those other steps, we're getting to the HR spot, which is a fun spot. And a lot of people start here. A lot of people are like, let me just hire someone to help me. You're you're hiring an assistant at that point, you're hiring more work for you to manage. Um, so what we want to do is hire the right way, which is creating all of these first six steps or first five steps, having a job description, a job role that I'm hiring this person into, um, and then going from there. So that starts us into the HR process. Step number one of this is the job description and the pay scale. Um, James, when you're looking at a job description, when we're putting that together for our next hire, when we're bringing on normally the the first hire is gonna be a project manager, second hire is gonna be project manager, third ish hire is either gonna be an office manager or project manager, depending on this the company structure. Um, so usually when we're talking with guys, 95% of the time, it's a project manager that we're really starting to build out. So let's we're gonna use that as our example for this. Um, I'm going through it with one of our coaching companies. We're bringing on an office manager in the next month. Um, he's got three PMs, and we're about to do it, and it's very similar, it's just different job descriptions. Um, so sticking with the project manager role, how how do you define a job description for that project manager? How are you writing that out? And how do you compose it around the actual job that we're hiring for? Um ask that question again. So when we're putting together a job description, um let's talk about the differences in different types of project managers. Okay. Um, when you're composing a job description, um, and kind of on top of that, which is kind of going to step two, which is the search, who are we looking for? But the job description we're writing up and how we're composing that, really kind of how do you lay out the job description of what you're looking for, and that and uh in turn is what you're gonna eventually present to the person you're hiring, what should be included in that job description when you're putting it together.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah. Um again, if you're if this is your first hire, uh it's the most important hire because you're looking for somebody that uh honestly, that's the guy that you want to take your seat when you're ready to make that move. Yeah. Because you're gonna have the most time to train them up, the most time to understand who they are as a project manager, who they are as a person, and that gives you uh just a lot more stability when you're ready to step out of your seat and put that mantle on somebody else. So the first one you're looking for some more of those intangibles that um and this this is me. I'm looking for more of those intangibles than I am with the second and certainly the third, where I can kind of decrease my pay scale a little bit because I don't need the guy that's going to be thinking like I'm thinking and operating on the same level I'm operating. I'm looking for a guy that's like and he needs to know what what the deal is, he needs to know how to do his job or she uh but I don't need them to be the guy or the girl. Like it just it's a different, it is a different animal. It's the same position, but I am I am looking for somebody very specific for the first one, and then it gets a little bit easier to make that higher down the road. So the first person I need somebody that is process oriented. I need somebody with a mind for that. That needs to be I don't want to say it needs to be a natural uh like a natural thing to them, but it needs to be something that's very clear and apparent that they're very good at. That they you can send them an email with five things that they need to fill out, and your timeline is Tuesday next week, and they're like, I'll have it to you tomorrow. Yeah. Like that's the type of person that you're you're looking for. Yeah. You want somebody that has they need to have experience. Yeah. Um, and but this is also depending on the level of your operation at this point. If you have, you know, uh an established company and you're ready to make that next step, you're the person that you're hiring probably needs like 10 years of experience in the construction world, and that's like a minimum.

Pay Scales And Objective Raises

Where To Search And Screen Resumes

SPEAKER_00 7:56

I I think you're hitting something right on the head, is the very first your second person in the company, you're number one, and you're bringing in your first project manager is a totally different hire than your third project manager. Yeah. Um, because we have made a game plan in our coaching sessions and us with you and kind of taking our processes and procedures and we're molding them to your company. But the game plan of how we're going to run them from the pay, from the weekly management, the Friday meetings, all of the stuff that we've got in place needs tinkering once we get off the ground. And so you this first person, if they come in and you know, it's hard for this first hire to be a 60-year-old vet who's been doing this for 30 years because you're kind of um pressure testing some of your processes and learning on the fly, even though you've got a game plan of how to do it that's different than actually executing. And so when you're bringing in uh someone, and and again, I've I I love the the 60-year-old vet who's been doing this for 30 or 40 years. I got no problem with them. They just are more of a challenge on the first hire because they've got processes in place and they know how to do things, and there's a reason and and kind of a built-in uh I just do it this way. Yeah. And so that that brain wrinkles deep. Yes. And so if they're coming in as your third PM or your second PM, sorry, this is our processes, let me train you up and I know exactly how I do this. On your first hire, you don't know exactly how you do it, you kind of an idea, we've got a game plan. And so bringing in a five to eight year um experienced guy, late 20s, early 30s, that has worked for a couple companies, um, that has the experience, but also a little more entrepreneurial and really wants your leadership and to really kind of grow with the company and be part of the foundation of the company in the future. That's the ideal because they're gonna give you, they're a little more forgiving. They don't know what is working and not working in terms of I can tinker with my process with them and they're okay with it because they've you know, some sort of organization is better than none that they've ever had before. Um again, I'm I'm naming ages and perfect perfect looks, but uh at the same time, like it really is, I need to find someone. We've we've hired guys that are older that are are this way as well. Like, hey, I I love the processes you guys got here. If I would have had this in place 40 years ago, I'd be killing it by now. Um that's great. It's more of the can I can I kind of assemble the plane while we're midair with this person? Um, and the way I always kind of the metaphor for it is we've got a full play planned out. We've never done a test run of the play. So we're gonna keep everything behind the curtain. We're gonna have on stage and show that that new hire. We got all uh all of our stuff together. We know exactly what it is. Here's your shirts, here's your business cards, here's your computer, this is how we're gonna go, you know, get get you launched. Um, we've got a kind of a game plan of what your onboarding looks like, and we'll talk about that in a second. And so we're kind of showing them the best of us, even though maybe behind the curtain, it's like, okay, crap, okay, we're gonna do this differently. And oh, what if we switch this around and I'm gonna start meeting them on Thursdays instead of Fridays? All of that needs to happen, but that's behind the curtain. And so it's it's this first hire. I need to have a fully fledged game plan and an assessment of it. That's what I mean. Honestly, one of the best parts of our executive program is this is we've done this a hundred times, and so we help choreograph this part for you and with you. And then I'm sitting there beside you, all right. What if you did this differently? That seems like it's not working. What if you change this? And so we're custom building this process around your company as you're bringing on these hires. Um, all that to say, the job description where we're laying out everything they need to be doing is custom built for that job. And every single time we're hiring someone, we're editing it some, right? We've got different types of project managers. We've got turns between tenants where they're managing 10, 12 houses at a time. We've got full-scale renovations where they're managing three to five at a time. We've got new construction where you're maybe doing one to two at a time, depending on what's starting and what's closing. Um, you've got commercial where it's like uh you're running one, maybe two projects at a time, but you've got a lot of moving parts. So there's a lot of different styles of project manager depending on where you're what direction what you're hiring for. And that's going to change your job description, right? Yeah. All that to say is in that job description, we need to have an exact full scope of what they're doing. And if it's if it's on their plate, it needs to be on that job description. I always say, I can expect zero from my employee outside of what is on their job description. That's what they're getting paid for. I owe them the money we agreed for if they do what's on their job description. They owe me nothing more than that. So if it's not on there, I can't expect them to do it. Um, that also means you might be editing that job description six months in and having a secondary conversation. Hey, this is kind of on your plate now. You're doing this now. Um, I just want to make sure we're clear on what your job description is. But that job description is a full accountability of everything that they're required to do, their expectations. We have on there, I need to do X amount of um at the minimum of revenue per month as a project manager. Here's our expectation of average per month. I'd like to get you to here per month. Um, in a year, you need to be managing X amount of dollars. All of that stuff is spelled out, so it's a pass fail for them. It's not, well, Clark is just a mean boss. No, uh, this is what you agreed to when you started, and I'm here to help you get there. So that's the job description. Our pay scale with that, um, I'm not gonna go deep into it, but we we give raises every six months, and that pay scale is determined by your revenue, your profitability, and your pal grade, which is your project manager action list grade, which is a once-a-week grading system that we do on every job as the boss for the project manager. And that is really our client experience of our company. Um, if you're doing everything to check those boxes for your pal grade, our clients are extremely happy. And so those three things combine and can be assessed every six months, and it is a very objective review every six months. It's not like, well, I, you know, I pissed Clark off yesterday, so I'm not getting a raise. Shoot, that was bad timing. That's not how it is. It's it's not subjective depending on if I like you or not. It's all built around you earned it or you didn't earn it and your exact value that you're bringing to this company, you're gonna get paid for. So you get a raise every six months if that's happening. So in our HR process, step one is that job description and how I'm gonna pay and give raises, where I'm gonna start them, who I'm looking for, what they're gonna be doing, what they're not gonna be doing, what price point I need to be at, depending on who I'm bringing in. Um, step two after that is we're gonna go to the search. And so, step two of being the search is how are we gonna find them? We post on Indeed, potentially Facebook and also LinkedIn, um, but Indeed's a good spot for us. Is monster.com still a thing? I don't I don't know. I haven't seen it. It's monster.com. What did I say? No, that's from uh the office where he searched monsters. He has monster noises coming from the computer when he's looking for a job. Um, the search is really kind of putting together who I'm gonna interview, what I'm looking for. Um, when we put out the job post, usually we use Indeed. We'll we'll get some job posts. Again, not a sponsor, but we're open to it. Uh we use Indeed. Uh for the last hire, we we just made a hire out in uh out in our Austin branch uh for a project manager. We got 45 to 50 resumes that that were submitted to us uh for the very defined job description that we put out there. Um we went through every single resume and started fit picking out hey, who do we want to have a phone call with? And so we narrowed it down to about 20 people, 22 people to to have a phone call with. Um and those were the guys that we went through and set up 30-minute phone calls with, had a phone call to you know, tell them about our company, hear about their experience. And if on that phone call we were vibing with them, we set up an in-person interview. If it was, if we weren't vibing with them, it was a great, sounds good, thank you so much for your time. We'll let you know in the next week what the next steps are gonna be. Um, and so we narrowed it down from about 22 phone calls to about five people we were like, these guys are worth interviewing. Um, and so before we get to the interview stage, the search is it it's this is I think one of our most developed things that wasn't this way when we started looking for employees, but who we're looking at and how we're looking at resumes has changed. Um I think one example that that we've talked about is we had one guy that we interviewed, um, his resume was not a resume I would have picked up five years ago um uh to to do an in-person interview with. He was he ran a um high-end animal dog resort um as a as the general manager of it. Um, and then for the last five years after he moved to to uh the city we're hiring in, he he moved there and he worked for a builder. And so he in the animal resort, uh, he was managing, you know, there was dogs coming in there for$100 a night. It was a high-end, and he was dealing with the exact same people that you're gonna deal with when you're renovating a house. Yeah, this is my except it was their fur baby. It was their fur baby, it was like the most important thing to them. And when you're renovating someone's kitchen, they're looking at it every day, and it's the most important thing. And one little thing that goes wrong, it is an emergency in their mind. And that's the same thing with the with with your animals, and so that experience we're like, I like that. I like that he's worked there and he grew it and he's work worked his way up at that.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

That has nothing to do with what we're doing, but and he did during the process of the interview, there was no, yeah, man, that was so hard, blah blah blah. It was all that's just that's the gig. Like that's making sure that they're comfortable with this, that, and the other. It was a really good mindset, like the way he like he didn't take 10 minutes to you know crap all over clients. Yeah, it was a very that's what I'm pay for measured response.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

That's right. And so when I'm searching, I'm looking for not necessarily experience in construction, though that's that's a plus, obviously. Um, and it can turn into a negative also if they've been doing it for 25 years on their own and now they're coming to work for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

And they they need some ex they need construction experience. Yes. You're not gonna go maverick and be like, I'm gonna this guy's last job was his only job ever was working at their pet resort.

Phone Calls That Reveal Temperament

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Um not usually. No. We we hired someone for one of our uh I was in the hiring process interview process for one of our executive clients. We hired uh uh mid-20-year-old kid that uh grew up in construction doing with his dad, I think, but he'd never worked for a construction company. Yeah, he was a car salesman. Yeah, but he's got he's got the he's got experience. He lives the construction. That was we brought him in for a lower price point, and it was a when I was I was dealing with the uh business owner, uh the coaching client, it was like just so you know, this is a six-month, not a two-month onboarding. And that's the sacrifice you're getting giving to get this guy in. And it was a his first hire and it was a long-term vision because he liked the dude and thinks he can take us to the next level, and he sees him here in 20 years as helping me run the company. Cool, then that's worth the sacrifice of six months of onboarding them to really help him understand the construction process and what's needed, and how our footers poured versus the foundation, and what is like all of that education you got to do was worth the sacrifice for the long-term vision of where he was coming. So there has been hires of guys not working, not much experience in construction. Um, but then the other side of it is we've interviewed guys that have had 30 years. And now what I'm looking for in that guy is a lot of the dudes that have worked for themselves for 30 years and are looking for a job are looking to downshift and put in minimal amount of time to get paid for their for their experience. And that's not a great hire for me. Um I don't what we've hired guys. Oh, we we've got an employer now that that ran his own stuff for 20, 30 years. Um, but his mindset wasn't downshifting. It was like, I just want to do this better, and you guys have a really cool system of how you're doing it, and I love to do it with you. Um, so it it there's not a right or wrong resume, but they're all giving us information about the person and their mindset and who they are. Then I get them on the phone. And so the the next step of that of the search is kind of the initial interview, um, which is the phone call. And on that phone call, I'm telling them about myself, I'm hearing about them and their journey to get to where they're at, and then kind of talking through what the job entails and their experience and doing that. Um, but I'm really trying to understand their mindset, their temperament, how they're talking. I I take a note when I'm writing resumes to their demeanor that just comes across because however they're talking to me, that's how they're gonna talk to my clients at best.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah, they're they're on their best, yeah, they're their best self right now.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

I I had one guy that I that I I got on a phone call with for uh our last hire. On paper, I was 99% sure he was the guy we're gonna hire. Like he had exactly what we were looking for, the amount of experience, but also, you know, he was he was looking for the entrepreneurial spirit, wanting to team up with someone, you know, like perfect. And the demeanor on the phone call ended it for me. Like I he was he was he would have been our hello. No, it was just like what it was. Very monotone and very like he didn't want the job, but he was testing out to see if he liked us. He's playing coy. A little little coy, but it was a little like, yeah, all right. Well, let me let me chew on it. Um okay, that's interesting. Um, like all of his it was just very introspective, which I don't mind, but it was not like this guy's not gonna get it our clients excited about working with us.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

That's it's sad to think that if he was on the other s other side of that phone, like before he answered it, like okay. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

No, it was it was not that. I felt like I was boring him. And I'm like, all right, so this isn't the guy, right? And so it's it's a combination, it's an art hiring, and it's a combination of what I can see, what I'm looking for, the right questions. One of my favorite questions that I ask is, all right, if let's say you're working for a general manager, um, and we hire you in, and in six months, we um, you know, I I call my my general manager and say, hey, how's it going with Steve? And he says, Man, Steve's awesome. The only thing, there's one thing that really kind of we're rub rub butt butting heads on um is X. So Steve, what is X? What would be the thing in six months that my general manager says that you guys just aren't seeing eye to eye on? And every single time it's like, ooh, because that's that's asking their weakness, yeah. Right. But it's not, you know, uh, it's not like, well, I try too hard and I care too much. I I'm I'm really a workaholic. I'm a perfectionist, so I spend too much time making everything perfect.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

I just got it's got I I like to spend so much time tweaking things and making sure everything's just so and that's when people get frustrated with me. Yeah, I I I feel like there's 70% of the time people try to skirt the weakness question, which is so weird to me, but I guess it makes sense. People don't want to be viewed as weak, but like my favorite thing in an interview is when they try to skirt that like staying on that question somehow. Yeah, because that you've got you've got to answer that question.

In Person Interviews And Final Choice

SPEAKER_00 25:29

So I I asked that uh a great example on on the on one of the calls. I asked that question six months from now, what it and it was like, I don't know, man. Like that's a great question. I just I'm really good at uh like being a follower and doing what my boss needs me to do, but also uh executing my job. So I don't I don't really see any any any issue that we couldn't overcome um to where he's gonna be frustrated with me because I'm really good at taking feedback. What if he wants you to be a self-starter? Yeah, well, no, and and so I was like, I was like, to be honest, man, that that question is me trying to figure out your weakness. Um, I'm trying to understand because everyone's got them. I need to understand like where I gotta put uh guardrails and that I know that you're working and you're you you you know that you have the weakness there. So, like, what weakness do you think you have? Like in this job position, what's the spot that you need to work on? And if they still like he still didn't give me an answer from that. It was like, I mean, it's the perfect I'm a perfectionist, so sometimes I spend too much time on a job to make it perfect. I hate people. Yeah. No, it wasn't that. That'd be great. Uh and and so I I literally will say, after I've asked twice and I don't get an answer, I'll say, I just want you to know I never make a hire unless I know that person's weakness and I know that they have self-awareness that they know their own weaknesses. You said that to him. Yes. Nice. And and and like, I need you to have self-awareness to know because we all have weaknesses, and if you don't know where it's at, then you're not working on making it better. And so if you don't, like if you can't find your weakness, then that's concerning for me as a as a potential employee. And at that point, it's like he's in the confessional at at mass. Like, uh, well, uh, I did cocaine once and I uh like it's like whoa, whoa, come now, come now, not not all that. But you know what I mean? Like you call it out to where they they're they they see it as a as a benefit to tell you. Um, because it's true, like we all have it. And and it's also true, I'm not gonna hire someone unless they have a unless they are self-aware that like like for me, my go-to is always, and I'm not a great project manager, right? And so what I always say to the guys, if they can't get an answer, I'm like, listen, I like mine, I'm unorganized. And if I don't follow my calendar, nothing's getting done. And I my weakness is organization, and I've put these and this stuff in place to help me keep organized on a daily basis, right? Like, that's when I want to hear from a guy. Like, this is what I'm weak at. This is what I do to to overcome that struggle, but I still struggle with it. But this is this is uh my goal of how I'm fixing it and what I'm working on. So, anyways, little interview one-on-one. But that's kind of the next step is going in, we're we're narrowing it down. We went from 45 to 50, down to about 22 phone calls that we made, and then we ended up meeting in person with it, it was gonna be five, ended up being four people. Um, and they were kind of our tier one people that we met with. Uh, and so for that interview, we sat down and literally to be honest, and he's probably gonna listen to this, so I don't want to be be too open about, but uh very transparent about like the guy that we ended up hiring was not my number one on paper until we sat down and met with him. Um, he was he was in my top tier, the top four that I thought any of these people that we hire, I'd be happy with. Um, but we sat down and met with each of them and really kind of dove into the job and their experience and what it'd be like and day in and day out, spent an hour with them. Um and really understanding what I'm looking for and the personality type that that we need before going into it is the most important part because then it's like that's a problem, but that doesn't matter in this job position, so I'm okay with that problem being being here. This other thing he's not good at, and that's a problem. So that is a problem for this job position, so that's gonna be an issue here.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

One thing that I did this go around that I don't think I'd ever done previously was I spent a lot of time journaling about frustrations. Like what am I looking for? What are what are the gaps in the uh in the process? What are the frustrations that I'm dealing with on a day-to-day basis? And it wasn't even something that I had like written out specific questions that I wanted to ask which you should, but I'm saying uh when he was responding, there was a lot of things that he was saying that were speaking to uh my frustrations and the things I had journaled about. And so there was just like these key phrases that he kept jumping out, and like yes, yes. And so without without me asking or doing any sort of leading, there was things coming out because I had spent time just thinking through what would be ideal. Yeah. And it wasn't something that could really this is a job role or this is a job description. It was just more amorphous.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

And so it was really cool to hear some of those things like without any provocation, uh he was speaking my language, which made me feel really good.

Offers Paperwork And Hiring Checklist

Onboarding Timeline Before Running Jobs

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Yeah, I think that's good. I think the other thing, James and I sat down and interviewed all four of them in the same day, which is super helpful. Um, and we left both knowing there was one person that we want to have this job. Um there, if we wouldn't have interviewed him, we would have started this process over. We would have gone back, reopened the job uh on Indeed, got another 50 resumes, and started all over. Um, we're not going to pull the trigger with the best possible candidate. We're gonna wait for the perfect candidate that we're looking for. Um, and we we left there saying, okay, this is the dude, this is who we're gonna offer it to. How are we gonna do that? Um, and so we started putting some stuff together for it. Um, he was the first and one of two that followed up after it with us. Um again, ding. Yeah, like you're following up after the because you're excited about the job position too. Um, and and what we say is the next after that first interview, the next interview is I want to talk this guy out of working with us. I want to scare him away. If I can tell him the worst parts of this job and how hard it's gonna be, and he says, That's perfect, that's what I want. He's the guy. And if I can talk him out of working with us, he's not the guy. Um, so the next part is that secondary conversation. Afterwards, really, really getting in the weeds about the job uh and then going into the job offer. And if he would have gone somewhere else, or you know, we couldn't have come to an agreement on pay or something else, we wouldn't have hired the next guy. It's not the next man up type hiring. It's we've got to find the absolute perfect person for this. And if we're good, if it takes us six months or a year or one week, it doesn't matter. We're gonna wait until we get the right guy in the seat that we need. Yeah. So that's the interview process. Um, next, that's step three, interviewing. Step four is hiring. Uh, and so the hiring process is making the offer, having all the conversations of when we're starting, kind of all the formalities that we need, the forms that you need to fill out, the the I9s and the like everything else that we have together. The W4, I-9, background, drug. Yeah, we we have a packet that's a orientation checklist that that you need to need to fill out. You know, we put their uh computer on there, everything that we're giving them is on there, passwords and all that stuff is on that. Uh, but that's that's going through the actual hire, picking out a date, and also planning out the training. So the next step five is orientation. And in that, we've got a very defined orientation. It is down to day one, we do this. Week one, we got to get this stuff done. Month one, by the end of month one, he has to be here. By the end of month two, we got to be here. And by month three, we're launching and what that looks like and how that handheld uh actually happens. Um, so we have a very defined orientation onboarding to where you know, day one, it's like forget everything you know. We're gonna run you through our 10-step project management process and our core values. And I want you to understand how we run jobs. Now, if you run differently, interject, ask questions. Maybe you can help our process get better. That's great. But what we need by the end of the day is for you to say, I can run my jobs that way. Uh, and so that's how the orientation goes is I want them to erase their knowledge and say, put that on the shelf, understand how we do things, and then integrate it with the way you're used to doing things. And let's make sure it matches up. And anything that doesn't make sense to you, I want to make sure you you get. My job is not to get him running jobs by week two. My job is to get him understanding our processes, our procedures, and how he makes more money and is successful in this company. If I can set him up for that, it's gonna be it's gonna be great moving forward. Um, we don't want them running jobs until month three. Um, we want them assisting and following and helping and learning. This is not a I got I got 10 jobs and I can only handle seven, so I'm gonna hire someone to put three on their plate uh as soon as I hire them. That's how a lot of guys do it, and that's how you crash a company. Because then you're betting on that guy's processes to run your jobs. And if he had such good processes, he'd be running his own company. And so we need to make sure that his clients' experiences that he's running in our company is the exact same as everybody else here. And so we team up and we help them on that during the orientation. All right, that's step five, step six, seven, and eight are maintaining happy employees, ongoing assessments, and then termination and how we do that. I'm not gonna go deep into those. Everyone gets terminated. Everyone gets terminated.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Once a year, you got to pick someone, thin the herd. Uh it keeps everyone honest on their toes, and it's it's a sad fact of life, but it's true.

Accountability Support And Clean Exits

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah. No, I I mean, honestly, like the termination for me is so important because if you were doing your ongoing assessments, your performance improvement plans, all of that stuff that we have spelled out, a termination shouldn't be a bad thing. It's usually a conversation where it's like, hey man, you don't enjoy this job. Like, I'm looking at your numbers, you're outworking every like you're doing a ton of work and it's not showing. Like you're just not built as a project manager. Like, do you enjoy what you're doing? Nobody enjoys what they're doing when they're failing at their job when it's time to get fired. And so usually if you start the termination conversation, like, are you enjoying this? And they're like, No, like, why are you here? Well, I need the money. I get that, but there's plenty of jobs out there paying. Like, why don't we find you a job that fits you? Like, I just feel like this isn't the spot, right? And so the termination is not if done well, and if you did the ongoing assessments and the maintaining happy uh employees, it is always a conversation that's on the table of what where they're at performance-wise, right? Every six months we're assessing, do they get a raise? And that's a great spot to be like, bro, you're you're working hard, but it's not showing on paper. What's going on? Right, those type of conversations happen every six months. Um, and so the the termination, I don't think if you surprise someone that they're getting fired, you've done it wrong. It should never be a surprise. It should never be uh showing up Monday Friday and see me in my office and being blindsided outside of the company is not doing well and we're having to shut it down, uh, an arm of it or something. Outside of that, your job as the boss is to make sure that they understand where they're at at all times and what we're working on, what we're improving. Hey, let's write this out in the next month. Let's get you having X, Y, and Z completed, right? And so your job is that support to push them. That's maintaining them, that's helping them, that's growing them. Uh, and then we have assessments that we give you. We have how to do a every six-month assessment, how we're measuring that stuff, how we um measure the week in, week out performance on jobs, all of that. Your job is to maintain that. Um, I think one of my flaws in hindsight when I was as the general manager of our company is nothing. I knew you were gonna say that. No, I I I think my uh my biggest flaw is that I would I hated holding people accountable. And so I'd be like, hey, can you do this? Great, you can do this. And working as your boss at the time, you were great at that because you were very independent and didn't need me me holding your hand. And so that was kind of the bar I set um of like, cool, you got this, cool, we'll see you next week. And it was more partnership in this, and so I'll see you next week, and we're game planning the next steps. Where a lot of like the right way to manage an employee is I gotta hold their feet to the fire, I've got to do these assessments, I've got to do a weekly, and they need that support and feedback, even though I'm like, this is a waste of my time because things are going fine. But instead, I didn't at all engage in a weekly conversation of support of this is like, how's this going? Great, awesome. What about this? Perfect, let's do this a little bit better. I I just you're good, you're running it. Awesome, see you next week. Uh, and I didn't take the time to go through and give them the support that they actually needed and the feedback of even if the feedback's like, you're killing it, keep doing what you're doing, let's look at these jobs. What else can I help you with? Like, those didn't happen. And so I think that's the that's the ongoing support, the maintaining happy employees that I'm talking about, where um your job is not just to make sure they're doing the right things, but they've got an extra brain around their projects and an extra support, because the you're these dudes get beat up by the clients, they get beat up by their crews, they get they are they are a punching bag often. And so if there's not a spot to come and take a deep breath and get an attaboy and hear, like, hey, let me help you. Like, that's what that's what your job is, is to be a supporter of them and and to grow them. So if you're not doing that on a consistent basis, they're all they're doing is getting beat up all week and then showing up for an assessment where you're beating them up more. Instead, it's a I'm building you up. It's not a principal's office grading system. It is a hey, I feel like you're getting 80s everywhere. You're drowning, man. Like, let's get your head above the water. What's going on? How can I help? Right? That's the that's the engagement as a boss that you need to maintain them long term and not burn them out and grind them into the ground. Um so yeah, that's maintaining happy employees. That's our HR process. Anything I've missed. Come on. Um snacks in the break room. Snacks in the break room. Snacks are need to be in the break room. Um, there's a bunch of stuff that that we can dive in. I mean, like I said to James when we were prepping for this, I could do an hour on each of these step stages. Um, but the the important thing is this isn't a quick decision. Hey, I'm overloaded. I'm gonna hire someone to come help me. That is not the way to hire. That is not how we do uh that's not in the playbook of hiring. That is a reactive hire that is not going to help the company, it's just adding more in your plate. And you're still the main artery that everything has a pass through. These are just guys helping you and their your assistant.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

But now it's another person's uh life. And like they're setting their life up around their job, their career. And it's a big, it's a big decision. It's not something that it's really not something you need to look at lightly. And I think the bigger you get, the easier it is to uh kind of diminish the weight of each hire because there's just more you're spreading your uh risk out amongst many. A little more of a commodity than and it's that's not good. No. You you need to put uh barriers in place and and checkpoints to make sure you don't end up going that road. Yeah, that's good.

Next Steps And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 41:06

All right, so that is pretty much the end of our operating systems. Um I know it's been a number of months going months going through it. The only thing we haven't covered in is step seven, which is duplication and scalability. That is a customized step in the operating system that we do around your your company. Uh duplicating you and scaling the company is a per company build and it's not a cookie cutter thing at all. So those are our seven steps of the operating system. If you have any question about hiring, you're thinking about hiring, or you're in a spot where it's like, I feel like I need to, I don't know how to do it, let's have a conversation. Go to contractorcuts.com, set up an appointment with me. I'd love to have a 30-minute phone call with you, help you give you advice. If you're in a spot that you want to bring us on as consultants, love love to do that. If you just want to have a 30-minute conversation, awesome. Let's let's do that. Um, James and I will love to engage with you, have a have meetings. Uh, and if if you need something that ProStruck can help provide, let us do it. Um, we we wanna we wanna build you to the next next level and uh be a support for your company growing the right way. So please reach out. We'd love to talk to you. All right, thanks so much, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.