When it comes to onboarding P6 schedulers, most companies are in a rush. The demands of working in a projectized world lead to feeling like we’re always 3 steps behind where we want to be; effectively productive. And when we’re onboarding our newly hired P6 scheduler, sometimes we have tunnel vision and miss the bigger picture.
Here are some recommendations you can use during your onboarding process to help your newly hired P6 scheduler land in their role and get productive, while not forgetting the long-game.
Let’s break it down into 30-day phases where each phase has its own goal.
For instance, the goal in the first 30 days is to help your P6 scheduler learn as much as possible about their role. The next 30 days focus on helping them to use their learned skills to contribute, and the last 30 are about demonstrating skill mastery on a job and to become a productive member of a project team.
The First 30 Days
Let’s consider what could happen in the first 30 days.
Yes, we want to get your people productive. But some companies act too quickly to put new hires on projects. The first 30 days of their employment is about learning systems; your company’s systems and industry systems you adhere to. The first 30 days is the perfect time to deliver training on systems & processes.
Set Training Goals
Help your new hire transition by setting goals for them, clearly outlining what they might be expected to learn & master in the first 30 days of their new job.
Safety Training
Most company’s have mandatory OSHA training that all employees must attend. Give your P6 scheduler time to complete the training. If it is online self-paced training, help them set a deadline to have completed the training.
Primavera P6 Training
The first 30 days is the optimal time to put your new hire through Primavera P6 training. They will ultimately become masterful with the Primavera P6 software and training them during onboarding will set them up for success in their role.
Wait! I hired a P6 scheduler who has experience – why would I waste time training them?
I can think of a few reasons why you might consider this approach.
Level-Set Your Team’s P6 Skills
In the same way everyone has to complete the standard OSHA training, many companies are establishing standardized training for P6 schedulers as well. Everyone goes through the same training to ensure they are all at the same skill-level from the start.
Kiewit Corporation, for example, uses Plan Academy’s Primavera P6 Foundations course to level-set their new hires. All of Kiewit’s new P6 schedulers must complete our Primavera P6 Foundations course before they can move on the Kiewit’s own internal P6 training.
Another client of ours, Count & Cooper, a project controls consultancy based in the Netherlands, employs a similar strategy. They’ve established a gate system; for their entry-level Project Coordinators to be promoted to Project Manager, they must complete Plan Academy’s Primavera P6 Foundations course.
Validate Your New Hires P6 Skills
Did you have the opportunity to see your new hire’s P6 skills in action during the interview?
Many companies don’t test their schedulers’ skills outright during the interview, which is very understandable. But during onboarding, you’ll have the opportunity to validate their skills during a P6 training course.
How?
Well Plan Academy handles that part for you; we give homework in our courses and then we mark it. In any of our P6 courses, we issue challenging homework assignments that our students have to complete and submit to us.
We have an expert P6 marker, Gowtham, who opens everyone’s file, reviews and validates the assignment was done correctly and completely. He even provides feedback via our learning platform.
Demonstrating Your Commitment to the Hire
Good P6 schedulers are in high-demand; there’s a shortage out there.
By delivering training to your new hire during the onboarding process, you’re demonstrating your commitment to their development which can translate into loyalty on their part.
If you’re more focused on getting a butt-in-seat for the project, you’re sending a message to your new hire that they are here for work only and their development isn’t a priority.
But if you deliver training, even Advanced-level training, it shows them that the company is willing to invest in them from the start.
Second 30 Days
Day 31 to 60 of your new P6 scheduler’s onboarding is focused on helping them use their learned skills to contribute. In this phase, we ease them into a more productive role.
Here are some considerations in this phase:
Designate a Mentor
The benefits of mentoring are vast, for the person being mentored, the person doing the mentoring, and the companies they work for. Many studies have been carried out on the positive effects mentoring can have, from confidence, to mental health, to promotion likelihood.
Some stats on mentoring
- 84% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs, and 100% of Fortune 50 companies (Source)
- Of those with a mentor, 97% say they are valuable (Source)
- Yet only 37% of professionals have a mentor (Source)
- 89% of those who have been mentored will also go on to mentor others (Source)
Designating a mentor for your new hire in this phase of the onboarding will go a long way to their success on projects and in the company.
Learn from Past Projects
There’s so much value in lessons learned from past projects. Let your new hire dive into a recent project so they can start to envision their own completed work. Let them review documentation, P6 project schedules and drawings. Guide them to speak with other schedulers to review the challenges of these past projects.
Final 30 Days
The last 30 days are about demonstrating skill proficiency on a job and to become a productive member of a project team. So yes, let’s get your P6 schedule assigned to a project. By now, they should be ready to transition from new hire to P6 project scheduler.
While it seems like we’re ready to reap the benefits of our hard work onboarding, that’s mostly true but keep in mind that our newbie will still need support as they get accustomed to the demands of the project.
Ongoing Support
Continue to check-in regularly with your new P6 scheduler, especially during their first 30 days on the project. Ensure they are not overwhelmed and help them meet their deadlines.
From a P6 perspective, Plan Academy offers ongoing support for P6 & project controls related questions to ALL of our students for 1 year from their date of signup. We’re here to help everyone be successful with P6 and the demands of project scheduling. Our experts provide support through our online Community area, where students can ask questions, post-screenshots and get unstuck.
Conclusion
As a manager, it’s difficult to measure the happiness and effectiveness of your team, but theses are important aspects of a productive team.
While every company does onboarding in their own way, hopefully there are a few ideas here you can incorporate into your own onboarding process to help your new P6 schedulers land in their new role.
If you have questions about our training, we have probably answered them on our knowledgebase. You can also leave me a comment below!
