Integrating New Staff into Your Office
April 25, 2016
Presented by: Eric Stanley of GSBS
Length: 45:29
Bringing new LAs into your design firm presents some inherent challenges. For example, how can you establish what your new employees can expect and what will be expected from them? This webinar, presented by Eric Stanley of GSBS, will provide important pointers for creating a positive open dialog so new employees can feel value – and feel valued. Eric will provide a technical road map for the initiation process and go over a few integral tools that will help get your new landscape architects caught up and ready to do their jobs.
Webinar Contents:
Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)
- Intro/TOC
-
Establish Expectations for New Employees and Employers
- Mission Statement
- The First Few Weeks
- Mentoring: The Long Game
- Ready Tasks for New Employees
-
Provide Technical Resources and Tools for People to Be Successful
- Overview of Resources Provided by GSBS to New Employees (18:25)
- Graphic Standards
- CAD Standards
- Quality Control
-
Creating a Positive Open-Dialog Work Environment With Opportunities for People to Feel Valuable
- Corporate/Company Culture
- Creating an Environment Where People Feel Valued
Mission Statements (4:15)
Vision + Action = Mission. Should be clear, memorable, and precise.
Examples:
- Smithsonian: The increase and diffusion of knowledge.
- AARP: To enhance quality of life for all as we age. We lead positive social change and deliver value to members through information, advocacy and service.
- GSBS Architects: Transform through sustainable design excellence.
- TED: Spreading ideas.
The First Few Weeks (6:05)
“Your job is to make your boss look good.” –Mark Hieber
“Your boss’s job is to give you a chance to make him/her look good.” –Anonymous
- Production and learning curve
- Billing goals (%), timeline
- Who is your go-to person for questions?
Mentoring: The Long Game (13:12)
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” –Xunzi
Ready Tasks for New Employees (14:50)
- As-builts (or supposed-to-be-builts)
- Detail updates and organization
- Materials samples library
- Create project templates using Land F/X
Overview of Resources Provided by GSBS to New Employees (18:25)
- Internal and external resources
- Landscape resources folder
-
Project template folder
- File structure
- Consistency
Graphic Standards (26:10)
CAD Standards (27:07)
(See our Improving CAD Standards webinar for information on setting up CAD standards for your office.)
Examples:
- Creating new drawings from templates
- Layer standards
- General look of drawings (examples: plants & plant labels, irrigation callouts, standards for details)
- Preference Sets: Can set up for specific clients, specific types of projects, etc.
The importance of setting permissions (or lack thereof) for overwriting preferences – set up by IT administrator (30:40)
Remember to save and back up your projects and Preference Sets often, and in multiple locations (32:00)
Note that there isn’t a quick way to back up Layer States. Remember to save Layer States when you create them. (32:50)
Also consider a Cloud Data installation, which stores your data on the cloud (online) (33:40)
Corporate/Company Culture (34:00)
Creating an Environment Where People Feel Valued (34:50)
- Small/large recognition
- Company events
- Work reviews and goal setting
- Opportunities for improvement
- Training and conferences
- Constant Learning
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD®, Revit®, and SketchUp® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.