Field vs. Office
For instances where the motivation is healthy, placing former owners in the right positions is needed for good performance. Former head honchos will be looking for a certain level of autonomy and leadership opportunity. Their experience should be acknowledged during new-employee training.
“Anyone who’s been doing something for a long time will have their own way to do it,” Wiese says. “But they’ll still need to get a feel for our processes and paperwork and what we expect from them as far as materials ordering and project management.”
All three of the former owners on Wiese’s team were hired as lead carpenters and all spent time shadowing another lead. Head-butting hasn’t been a problem. “The former owners we bring on love the industry and may have great skills and ideas, but we don’t see a lot of process issues,” he says. “When we’re hiring someone whose business didn’t work out, process was usually part of the failure, so we illustrate a more effective way to work.”
Connor agrees, noting that any personality issues should be easily identified during the interview process. “If hiring a former owner or any potential employee can bolster us in areas that we’re weak, we need to listen to those ideas and fold them in,” he says. “Especially if we’re talking about a salesperson, a designer, or even a project manager with tons of experience, there’s probably a place for us to accommodate their experience. But in the case of a field position, I’m more inclined to say, ‘no, here are our systems.’”
Isaacs also has had great success blending former owners into his sales staff. “We do have policies to follow, but we ride that fine line by giving them enough freedom to where they feel like they’re the boss,” he says. “These guys were owners and salespeople, so they have connections. Not only do they understand where I’m coming from, but they don’t come to me looking for handouts for leads. They go out, they generate their own leads, and it’s just wonderful.”
Isaacs has expanded his business by purchasing companies that are folding, and bringing those former owners on as new salespeople. He says that keeping those individuals’ leads safe is key. “It’s not in my interest to waste the work that these guys put into their own businesses,” he says. “We’ll pick up their contact lists and they’ll still have all the leads that come into our office, and they’ll have confidence that our system tracks each lead so it won’t end up on someone else’s desk. We track the lineage of leads as well, so if a referral comes in from one of his past customers, the lead goes to him.”
This kind of sensitivity to a former owner’s hard work helps keep the new relationship strong and lets the employee thrive. “Like any other employee, you have to think of retention and be in tune with why these guys will want to stay with you,” Isaacs says. “It goes beyond money. They have to feel that they’re adding value to the new company, that they’re developing relationships beyond the work aspect, and that they’re finally able to capitalize on what they really wanted to get out of the industry in the first place.”
—Lauren Hunter, associate editor, REMODELING.
