This newsletter probably isn’t for everyone.
But if you’re leading a construction company and feel like people issues keep showing up as schedule headaches, rework, constant rehiring, or leadership burnout, this one’s probably for you.
We’ve been working with a client for just under two years. Before we started working together, their situation looked like this:
- They were a 60 person company
- 67% employee turnover
- $750,000 spent on recruiting fees
- And most of those hires still didn’t stay
The work itself wasn’t the problem. They had good projects. They were failing because people kept leaving, knowledge kept walking out the door, and leaders were stuck filling gaps instead of running jobs.
What was hurting them was the constant churn. Losing people, retraining new ones, and asking leaders to hold everything together while still delivering work.
We’re not recruiters and that matters here. Our role was never about hiring faster. It was about helping them keep the people they already had and setting up the next wave of hires to succeed once they walked in the door.
Why they reached out
This company wasn’t trying to “clean things up.” They wanted to triple the size of the business over five years and they were one year in.
But leadership could already see the writing on the wall:
If they scaled the way they were operating, things would break… and fast.
In plain terms, they wanted to grow without burning out their team, killing margins, or turning every new hire into a gamble.
Our promise was simple (in theory): Help them put the people-side structure in place before growth made everything harder and more expensive. No fluff. Just:
- Clear expectations
- Consistent training
- Systems that didn’t rely on one or two exhausted leaders holding everything together
What they originally asked for (Year 1)
At the start, they wanted help with three very practical things:
- Training that didn’t rely on legacy knowledge
They were tired of people learning by osmosis, guessing, or pulling someone aside every time a question came up. - A rotational program to grow talent internally
With their growth meant an increase in hiring. Instead of constantly buying experience at a premium, they wanted to build it in-house, especially for early-career hires. - Better onboarding
Too many new hires were getting thrown into the deep end and expected to figure it out. Some did. Most didn’t.
What actually happened
Here’s what we built together:
- A fully built 3-year rotational program, including:
- A college recruiting strategy
- Training for managers on leading junior staff
- A two-week onboarding program scheduled hour-by-hour
- Job site exposure, formal learning, and relationship-building
- Monthly workshops taught increasingly by internal experts (so knowledge stayed in-house instead of walking out the door)
- Role-based onboarding across the company
Every role now has a clear onboarding path. Last year alone, we coordinated onboarding 55 times. - Training that started where it made sense
We began with monthly sessions during PM and Superintendent meetings. While that was happening, we were also building what they actually needed behind the scenes:- Career paths by role
- Clear skill expectations
- Visibility into company-wide gaps vs. individual requests
- Eighteen months in, those systems are now built — and training is aligned to both business priorities and individual development.
- Oh, and we also ran a 2-day leadership offsite.
What we’re focused on this year
Year two looks like this:
- 360 feedback rolled out to 8 leaders, each with a concrete development plan
- Year 2 of the rotational program, with the next cohort starting this June
- A true company-wide training initiative, built on last year’s foundation
- $123,000 in training grant funding secured, expanding what’s possible
- Individual growth plans and preparing the next line of leaders
So where is this company today?
Here’s the update:
- Turnover is down to 22% (from 67% as of July 2024)
- Headcount has grown by 57% and they’ve retained those people
- $100,000 spent on external recruiters over the last 18 months (Down from $750,000 the year prior.) To be clear, they also made a smart move and hired an internal recruiter, and we won’t take credit for that decision.
But the retention? The clarity? The systems that helped people stay, grow, and succeed once hired? That came from clearer expectations, more intentional onboarding, and systems that supported people instead of relying on individual effort to make things work.
Why we’re sharing this
Every company we work with is different. Some are growing quickly. Some are trying to stabilize.
But the pattern is consistent: when people systems are left informal, the cost shows up later in the form of turnover, frustration, and lost momentum.
If you’re curious what it could look like to get ahead of that, our 2-Day Thriving Teams Intensive is usually the best place to start.
It’s a working session, not theory, and it’s designed to give you tools you can actually use, without a long-term or six-figure commitment.
You’ve already built the business. This is about making sure the people side can keep up.
