Help Tim Faller Help You Uncover Potentially Great Production Workers

Editor’s Note: We are publishing this because we want to see Tim’s project succeed, but we don’t play any role in the management or ownership of the project or of the information Tim will collect. Send your questions or comments directly to Faller at Tim@LeadCarpenter.com.

It is clear to everyone that hiring the right person for a lead carpenter, project manager, or production manager job is very difficult and often takes two to three tries to find the right person. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a measuring stick that assesses an individual based on basic, innate qualities? Wouldn’t it also be nice if the measuring stick was based not on the perception of a few but on a nationally devised sample?

One of my talents is strategic thinking, and so I am trying to put together a way for remodelers to use a standard testing mechanism and select new employees for their field staff based on just that kind of thinking.

A few years ago, I read a book called First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham. The book cites Gallup Organization interviews and studies conducted over an extended period of time regarding what makes a company a place where people want to work. Gallup also investigated what it is that great managers do that sets their work apart from others. From this research came a series of “talents”–what I call “intrinsic qualities.” If a person has certain talents, it can be understood that they will be good at certain jobs. It is also understood that if these talents are missing, then that person won’t be able to that job effectively.

A couple years later, I found a companion book on a bookcase at a friend’s house called StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. In this book, Rath underscores the need to hire people for jobs that align with their “talents” for that job. There is a code in the book allowing the owner to take an online test and find out what their talents are. So I did. I found them to be very interesting and very precise.

So, I am looking for volunteers to help establish a more defined “talent pool” based on the StrengthsFinder testing for the Lead Carpenter, Project Manager, and Production Manager positions within remodeling companies. Here’s what I would like you to do:

1. Identify your best in each area. They have to be good at the job, not simply have the title. They also have to meet my “qualifications” listed below.
2. Have those people go online and take the test at www.gallupstrengthscenter.com. It costs $15 per test and some time. You will incur this expense.
3. Send me, via email, the top five results and the position that person holds. Please send to tim@leadcarpenter.com and put Talent Search in the Subject line.
4. Use my designations listed below for identification of job positions, not what you call their role internally.
5. Wait. I hope I get feedback very quickly but I am leaving a six-month window to see if I can get a large sample size.

Here’s what I will do.

1. Tally all responses. The greater the participation, the better the results. The tally will be a simple spreadsheet which adds up the number of times each talent is represented in the sample. I believe that some will stand out with a large enough sample.
2. Everyone who participates will receive the results via email for their own interpretation.
3. I will interpret the results and give my responses via email.
4. At the end of the study, I will put all company names that participated in a hat and give away one of my Production Management CD sets.

Definitions:

• Production Manager: A person who manages the production department of a remodeling company. In general, this person manages the people and the systems of production, not the day-to-day work on jobsites. Among their basic responsibilities are: hiring, training, and firing personnel; managing the financial success of the department; managing customer satisfaction through their direct reports; and managing the systems that allow jobs to move freely from sales through the completion of the jobs. Production managers spend 90% of their time in the office and 10% in the field for jobsite visits.

• Project Manager: A person who is directly responsible for managing jobs on a day-to-day basis. Typically, they use a number of subcontractors as site labor but may have some in-house labor. They spend 80% of their time in the field and 20% in the office. Actively meets schedule, budget, and good customer satisfaction. Knowing that in part these are related to estimating and selling, if they are unable to meet these goals it is part of their makeup to do whatever it takes to try.

• Lead Carpenter: An individual who is on site, managing the project and using tools on a daily basis. Actively meets schedule and budget, and generates good customer satisfaction. Knowing that in part these are related to estimating and selling, if they are unable to meet these goals it is part of their makeup to do whatever it takes to try.