Our Welcome Program
Our first Welcome Program cohort.
Today Pine Energy's first cohort of new hires completes our Welcome Program. It's a good moment to share what the program is and what we've learned.
The Welcome Program pairs every new Pine Energy employee - a “New Hire” with a current employee - a “Guide” - for their first month. The Guide is selected because of his or her commitment to our values of safety, kindness, and professionalism. Their job is to help the New Hire understand what it means to work at Pine Energy. How do we behave? How do we treat each other? How do we do our work?
The program has two handbooks - one for the Guide and one for the New Hire. Both start with the same principle: skills can be taught, but values and culture have to be shown.
The Guide reaches out before the New Hire's first day. They work alongside them. They meet weekly. The Guide submits a weekly report to his or her superintendent on site. At the end of the month, they have a close-out conversation. The New Hire also submits their own feedback on the program and on their Guide.
After our first cohort, here's what we've learned:
Current employees want to lead. The Guides have been engaged and motivated. Being selected as a Guide is a recognition of who you are on the job site, and people take that seriously. The program has also helped us identify future leaders we might not have seen as clearly otherwise.
New Hires feel the attention. Multiple new hires have shared that they appreciated having someone specific looking out for them from day one. Construction is a tough industry and rightfully so. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t simultaneously care about our team and be kind. We want to show that even before the first day.
And we've gotten sharper on fit. When someone has a dedicated Guide paying attention, problems surface faster. That's better for everyone, including the New Hire.
We're proud of the Welcome Program. We'll keep improving it. And we'll keep building a company where people feel welcomed from the start. That’s the way to ensure our values of safety, kindness, and professionalism as we grow.