Onboarding Built Today, But Designed for the Future

Since 2003, Fortis Construction, based in Portland, Oregon,has experienced unprecedented growth. The company started with just sixemployees and grew to 210. As expected with a company that grows quickly, thisresulted in some growing pains.

For the last five years, Fortis has struggled with how totrain, communicate, and organize operations. Even more important to Fortis waspreserving its unique culture that the company characterizes as “the magic thatunifies us”; it is intentionally different. Given the dispersed job sites,consistency of operations is key for successful outcomes for customers, as wellas for the bottom line. Fortis hired me to identify the operating gaps andsuggest a strategy to move forward. One of my first tasks was to develop a formaltraining strategy and structure that offers consistency and prepares employeesto embrace future challenges.

The Fortis culture truly values employees who are able to “figureit out.” The mantra “51 percent responsibility” is prevalent in the sharedlanguage and on the physical walls in the main office. The expectation is thatemployees will seek out what they need, and not wait for someone to tap them onthe shoulder with direction. It’s a flat organization without a traditionalhierarchy. Owners sit alongside employees, and every single person has a say inhow the company moves forward. Therefore, learning methods need to be engagingand unexpected so that employees’ curiosity is piqued and they’re empowered to learnevery day. Training must also stay relevant and at the forefront of theemployees’ minds.

An additional challenge was that the existing learning managementsystem (LMS) was clunky; signing up for a course was cumbersome, and trackingwas spotty. Employees without access to email could not access the LMS. Forexample, 70 percent of employees did not have access to safety training. Contentwas housed in ShareFile in no logical manner, so finding information was difficult.Also, there was no tool to enable shared learning. So lessons learned on onesite were not shared across the organization. The ability to share bestpractices and lessons learned could prevent mistakes from being repeated, aswell as enable successes to be replicated across the organization.

After interviewing stakeholders and completing anall-employee survey, I designed a strategy to meet the organization’s needs. Ialso interviewed existing software vendors that Fortis was engaged with todetermine tools and resources available. Finally, I researched constructionindustry trends including the US Construction Industry Talent DevelopmentReport and the American Subcontractors Association (ASA). Once this backgroundwork was complete, I assembled nine employees with varying levels of tenure in theorganization. Their role was to brainstorm solutions, validate solutions that werein line with the Fortis culture, and be ambassadors for the onboarding programonce it was completed.

Once all the research was complete, I recognized fourcritical areas to address:

1. Content development
2. Content delivery and storage
3. Customized learning plans
4. Onboarding

Content development: Force-rank course needs and hire team to develop

We created three content tiers, including software, process,and role materials. Subject matter experts (SMEs) were identified, andfreelance instructional designers were paired with each SME in order to developthe content in a timely manner. Each piece of content is being designed inthree different modalities (face-to-face, eLearning, and self-directed) so thatlearners don’t need to travel to the main office. And even though the contentfor onboarding has been the primary focus, any employee in the organization,regardless of tenure, can attend the training; in other words, new hires arenot the only ones who get to learn! Additionally, a new process was added: Priorto the first day of employment, new hires complete the new-hire paperworkonline and some pre-work for the onboarding content.

To help with the massive undertaking of content development,I decided to capitalize on vendor resources. For example, Viewpoint ConstructionSoftware has a customer portal called ClearView that houses comprehensive trainingmaterials. Training content has been created for a variety of learning styles,and on-the-job (OTJ) situations were captured and used in the materials. A jobaid for each software and process accompanies the training material. Becauseculture is so important at Fortis, special focus has been given to culture andhistory throughout each training and in stand-alone sessions.

Content delivery and storage: Simplify tool

Content delivery and storage is in the process of beingdeveloped. Fortis will be adopting a SharePoint platform to house andcommunicate all content. This tool will allow us to create groups in order toshare successes and pitfalls across the organization. This will help with“cross-pollination” of information and will serve as a knowledge repository, toshare frequently asked questions and what’s been learned in general fromprojects.

We’ve identified a variety of on-the-job situations thatcould be used for training content in an engaging, sharable manner. Everydayoccurrences could be used to educate and communicate in a fresh way to helpemployees gain new knowledge and skills. Search functionality is robust, soemployees will be able to find resources and information easily.

Customized learning plans: Give employees a road map

I created a learning plan form and process to help directemployees in their skill development. The learning plan outlines requiredcourses and suggests additional courses for career development tied to corecompetencies—including internal and external training options. The learningplan is updated annually during an employee’s performance appraisal. Alllearning is documented in the performance appraisal.

Rethink onboarding: Extend onboarding period and give employees usefultools

In the past, onboarding was regarded as the phase in which newhires completed their paperwork, got their computers, and then proceeded to thejob site. Employees were expected to master nine different pieces of software,with no formal training to support them.

I recommended rethinking onboarding as a chance to immerse thenew hire in the dynamic and unique Fortis culture by extending the onboardingperiod and giving them the proper tools to be successful on the job. I’vedeveloped 101-level training for each software and process. Once 101-leveltraining is complete, then 201- and 301-level training content can be much moretargeted. I have structured the onboarding so that the new hires attend fourfull days of training in their first week on the job. On the fifth day, they goto their site, where an on-site sponsor meets them and familiarizes them withtheir specific site and their role on the job. During weeks two and three ofthe onboarding training, new-hire training takes place on the job. They’regiven tailored activities to practice skills learned during the first week offace-to-face training. Finally, during the fourth week, new hires return to themain office for some additional content, with time set aside for writing theirlearning plans. Games and welcoming events are sprinkled throughout the four-weekperiod.

Overall success of this massive undertaking depends on somekey underlying strategies:

• The training needs to be compelling. Each pieceof content must answer the question, “Why do they need to learn this?”
• The simpler the training, the better; think “easyand accessible.”
• The content should be focused and task oriented.
• The content and the training should be flexible.Our sites are fast moving and dispersed. Our training needs to support theseparameters.
• Managers should be involved in the developmentand delivery of the content. And, of course, they should be modeling theexpected behavior.
• Carefully and thoughtfully determine what needsto be “learning” and what can or should be “performance support.” Performancesupport is great in three scenarios: when trying to remember, when thingschange, and when something goes wrong.

We piloted the new onboarding program for four months, and plentyof valuable feedback allowed me to improve much of the content and theprocesses. Reaction from employees and new hires has been ecstatic overall. Newhires are impressed with the quality of the training and how prepared they feelto do their jobs. Existing employees welcome the additional resources and theability to be involved in the process.

Of course, for me, this is just stage one. Ultimately,as more content is created, the goal is to allow the employee to have multipleways to learn—whether face-to-face, sharing a best practice online, or takingan immersive eLearning course. I have so much more I want to build, and I feelfortunate that Fortis wants to invest in developing its employees to meet thegrowing challenges of the future for the company and the employees.