Working with an expert to help you staff your shipyard makes a lot of sense. But have you considered the impact on the temporary staff that comes into your marine environment? Managers don’t often consider the importance of employee onboarding for someone who is a contractor and not intended to be on permanent staff. But onboarding is critical for everyone, including short–term staff. Here are a few things you can do to ensure your contractors feel welcome when they start their new assignments.
Involve Your Staff
Your permanent team can hold the key to creating a comfortable environment for contract workers. Before a new person starts, talk to your staff about who will be joining the team and for how long. Make sure everyone knows what the contractor is there to accomplish. Often, permanent employees feel threatened by short–term workers. They may be afraid they’ll be replaced. By including them in the onboarding process, you can assure them temp employees are there to make their jobs easier, not harder.
Give and Receive Feedback
You’ve trusted your staffing partner to provide you an employee who knows what they’re doing and can hit the ground running, but that doesn’t mean you can be hands–off while they’re on–site. Feedback, both to the contractor and their recruiter, is an integral part of the process. For example, a negative situation can get out of hand if you don’t address issue right away. Also, be sure to provide positive feedback when your contractor is doing a great job.
Assign a Mentor
Trust your team members to help introduce new contractors to the work in your shipyard. Assign a mentor to help your new temporary employee learn about the workplace and be available to answer questions. Mentors can also check with contractors and become someone they can trust to answer important questions and help them through their assignment. This also gives some responsibility to your team member to let them know you value their work and trust them to train a contractor on the job.
Are you looking for more ideas to onboard contract staff? The team at Hutco can help, so call today.
