When hiring, or looking for talent, many companies focus on the actual hiring process, but what happens after? Are employees left to figure out company culture and normal practices on their own? Do new employees meet and interact with company leaders? W. M. Jordan Company believes that better employee engagement and a structured onboarding program not only leads to happier workers but more productive workers.
Sydney Galoozis, W. M. Jordan’s Employee Engagement Coordinator, focuses her time on ensuring employees have a smooth transition after they are hired, as well as expanding the talent pool that keeps WMJ among the top contractors in the business.
Galoozis has indeed enhanced and streamlined WMJ’s new employee on-boarding process. “Our on-boarding process used to be very dependent on your manager,” said Galoozis. “We now plan out the first three days an employee is with us. This gets people up to speed faster which allows them to get to their job faster.”
New employees go through a defined on-boarding process. Galoozis has worked with a committee of senior managers from every department across the company to form a curriculum of what new employees need to know. The result has been a smoother transition as new employees join their teams.
New employees also attend an orientation. The idea for this came to Galoozis after several new employees had questions about W. M. Jordan that she felt should be addressed as part of their new hire process. W. M. Jordan’s new employee orientations allow recently hired employees to meet with W. M. Jordan leadership, hear firsthand about the history of W. M. Jordan, while also meeting department heads who give a brief overview of what their role is at WMJ and what their department does.
W. M. Jordan Company’s employee engagement extends to our intern program as well. Galoozis has worked to expand WMJ’s intern reach to over fourteen colleges and universities. This lead us to our largest intern class to date in 2019. Galoozis has also worked to engage WMJ’s interns beyond their project. Two new classes were developed for our interns based off feedback they gave Galoozis.
“Our interns wanted to know more about W. M. Jordan than just the project they were working on,” said Galoozis. “Based on what I was hearing from them, I worked with WMJ’s Marketing and Business Development team and Estimating teams to put together classes that educated our interns on those specific aspects of our company. Everyone loved it.”
The efforts of our employee engagement and learning and development departments have paid off as W. M. Jordan Company was recently named one of Virginia Business magazine’s best places to work for 2020.
W. M. Jordan Company believes that keeping employees engaged and involved leads to a happier workers and greater job satisfaction. It is our goal to equip our workers with the tools they need to be successful both on the job site and in the office. W. M. Jordan’s Employee Engagement team is an asset that allows us to continue our relentless pursuit of excellence.
