Hiring People, Not Roles: Prioritizing Training in Project Controls

Hiring and training for project controls can be a challenging experience. We’re often pressured to find the perfect candidate as quickly as possible and toss them right into the frying pan. After all, our projects are often on tight timelines and budgets and – particularly for those of us working on government projects – we don’t have the luxury of restructuring a project to accommodate extensive training for new hires. At MRC, we firmly believe that training can make or break a new hire’s experience, and ultimately the team and project. Though the status quo has told us otherwise, investing in long term training for your team is key to success. Here’s our recommended approach. 

Hire people, not roles 

Project controls is certainly a specialized field. However, you don’t have to come from a specific background to be successful. At MRC, we have folks with backgrounds in engineering, journalism, literature, bartending, and more. Instead of searching for folks with a very niche set of skills or educational background already in place, consider the type of person that is a great fit for the role outside of technical skillset. Depending on your project this might include excellent people skills, conflict management, organization, etc.; all things that aren’t exclusive to the project controls world. Outline what type of person will thrive in the role and on your team, then search for them. Consider project controls experience a bonus. 

Extend your idea of “onboarding” 

In many traditional workplaces new hires have a 90 day (or less) onboarding period that may include some initial training. After that, team members are cut loose to the wild, frequently creating a “sink or swim” mentality. Some industries don’t have any true training up front, expecting team members to have the background to jump right in and understand. Even the most adept project controls analyst can struggle in such an environment. Our approach considers an employee’s first year to be a training period, when team members settle into MRC and learn specialized skills they may not have yet. Why not invest in each individual person you hire, ensuring they are fully ready to spread their wings once on their own? A year gives people a chance to really learn in an environment that accepts mistakes and shows them the organization supports them.  

Support continuous learning 

After the initial year is over the new team members will still have loads to learn on the job. Our field is an ever changing and evolving one, particularly when considering AI and technological advancement. Investing in training for your entire team on a yearly basis is critical to keeping everyone up to date. Don’t stop at broad training for the entire team; after spending the initial year in training, you should have a detailed idea of team members’ strengths and areas of opportunity. What individual training are your employees interested in and what knowledge gaps exist on your team? Look for opportunities in related areas. 

Implementing a stronger focus on training for new team members may require a mindset shift at your organization. However, the work to do so is worth it. In our experience, team members who are hired for who they are versus a role, given a year to onboard, and supported in ongoing education are people who stay with your organization long term and consistently impress clients and partners. Lots of organizations claim to be “people-centric” yet face difficulty in making that a reality. Making training a priority is one way to truly “walk the talk” and put your team first.