Same Supervisor Title, 2 Different Companies, But Expectations from Different Planets!

The Challenge

I can tell you firsthand that one of the biggest lies in construction is that a title means the same thing from one company to the next. 

Here’s my story. I went from superintendent at my first company and took a super role at my second company assuming the job was essentially the same. It was not. What my second company called a superintendent was closer to what I would have called a foreman at my first company. And what my first company expected from a super was functioning at a level that looked a lot more like a project manager at the second company! 

Confusing right!! Now picture being the person living that confusion in real time, on a live jobsite, with a crew waiting on direction and a schedule that does not care that nobody handed you a roadmap. That is EXACTLY what is happening to your people right now and most of them will never tell you. This is especially true if you’ve been growing your leadership bench lately. 

The Impact

Some companies have estimators handling all vendor and sub buyouts. Others put that squarely on the PM. Some have a procurement manager who owns it entirely.

Some companies expect estimators to manage submittals from start to finish. Others would never let an estimator touch one.

Some have foremen calling in concrete orders. Others say that is strictly the superintendent's call and nobody else makes that move.

Some companies have supers ordering all materials on a job. Others hand that responsibility to the PM. Some put it entirely on the field engineer.

Some companies have supers running the full schedule. Others have PMs owning it top to bottom with supers executing only what is in front of them.

Some companies expect PMs to be on site every day. Others have PMs managing entirely from the office and showing up only when there is a problem.

And I could keep going because this list does not have an ending. Every single one of those differences is invisible to your new hire until they get it wrong, and by the time they figure out how your company actually operates, you have already lost weeks of productivity, created unnecessary friction on the job, and quietly shaken that person's confidence in ways that take a long time to rebuild.

Every construction company runs projects differently and that is what makes this industry unlike anything else out there. But that same uniqueness becomes a serious liability the moment you hire someone from a competitor and ASSUME they are going to hit the ground running. The duties of PMs, supers, and foremen get layered and blended differently in every organization, and when a new hire walks in carrying 15 years of experience from another company, they are carrying that company's way of doing things, NOT yours. The result is a talented person spending their first 6 months trying to decode your operation instead of contributing to it, and a leadership team wondering why this proven hire is not performing the way they expected.

I can promise you, if any of this resonates, you’re most likely spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lost productions just for this exact reason! 

The Shift

The resume gets someone in the door but it does not tell you how they are going to function inside your specific structure and culture. The companies I work with that scale without losing their minds are the ones that have built an intentional onboarding process that closes that gap fast. They do not leave a new hire to figure things out the hard way and they do not assume that experience alone is enough to create alignment. They have documented expectations, defined roles, and a structured entry point that gives every new team member a real shot at performing at the level they were hired to perform at.

The Closing

Hiring great people from great companies is a smart move and I am not telling you to stop doing it. What I am telling you is that without intentional onboarding, you are leaving that investment completely exposed. Your people deserve a fighting chance to succeed inside your company and not just a shot at figuring it out on their own. Have you seen this play out in your organization? 

Hit reply and tell me how it showed up because I guarantee the story is more common than most owners want to admit.

Want a free 30 minute diagnostic on where your onboarding process is breaking down? Reach out directly at jerry@pro-accel.com

Gerard Aliberti
Pro-Accel, Owner

EXCITING NEWS

Patrick Shurney and I are thinking about building a Builder to CEO Peer Group helping self perform labor intensive construction business owners transition from the builder o CEO mindset and help with financial and operations. If you’re interested, please join the interest list by clicking here https://waitlist-builder-to-ceo-peer-group.scoreapp.com/

ALSO, check out the new updated website at www.pro-accel.com. We updated the training page, pricing, speaking, and more. 

Ways We Can Work Together

Role Specific Training Bootcamps  — Pro-Accel offers role-specific training workshops for Estimators, PMs, Superintendents, and Field Engineers focused on accountability, decision-making, and ownership. Reply if you want to talk about your team.

Bid Handoff Accelerator Process — A structured handoff system that closes the gap between estimating and field execution, dramatically improving project success.

Consulting & Strategic Advisory  — From organizational assessments to strategic planning and leadership development, we dig into how your business actually operates, identify where the breakdowns are happening, and build the systems and structure that drive real growth.