Step #4: Orient Your DNA
How Do We Welcome Them?
The first 90 days of employment are critical, yet are often overlooked by LBM companies. Orientation for new employees should be far more than filling out forms and getting them on a truck. It should be about your company culture. It should be more about teaching them your business plan than your insurance and medical plans. And it’s ultimately about training your new hires about what it takes to achieve great results in your company.
Grayco, a building supply and retail firm in the low country of South Carolina, takes a very progressive approach to new-employee orientation. One of the first things a new hire experiences at Grayco is “Breakfast with Herb,” a full morning session with company president Herb Gray during which he shares the company mission and vision, introduces the new hires to his senior management team, and reviews his expectations for their performance and contributions to the success of Grayco.
There’s more. After 60 days of employment, Grayco’s human resources department sends a letter to the employee’s home thanking him or her for their contributions and tells the family members how important the new employee is to the Grayco team. From the start, Grayco employees are made to feel like an important component of the company, they know what isexpected of them, and they have a solid foundation to help them become adjusted more quickly and comfortably.
