I remember my first time. It was special like many first times. This was my first close call miss and if I could do it again I would do it all differently. We were building a big Victorian home in Pemberton on a flood plain. We were installing the top plates on the outside 3rd floor wall pushing 30 ft up. My journeyman was casually walking around the walls one hand on the nailer the other holding a 2x6. I was trying to impress him showing that I could copy what he was doing. After all I was a rock climber regularly hitting the granite in Squamish. It was my first job as a framer. I wanted to build my resume as a builder using the important framing skills to round out up my finishing experience. As a new worker my training consisted of a brief safety meeting. "Be careful up there" the journeyman joked.

 

I think the nailer hose caught on a corner. I pulled hard to free the tangle when I lost my balance and fell. I frantically grabbed for the top plate and managed to just hook the wood with one hand to change my trajectory and fall through the recently framed picture window landing on the inside plywood floor. My journeyman seemed impressed. "Dude that was amazing! You had moves like Spiderman. I told you to be careful..."

We continued working but after the miss I was hesitant to climb back on the top plates resulting in a tentative crawl/crouch technique. I ended up using a ladder. My journeyman didn't say much at the time but when we moved to a new site I wasn't invited and ended up loosing my job. I thought I had picked it back up and rocked the work installing the trusses and roof but the only feedback I ever got was the journeyman telling me that he needed someone "more comfortable with heights."

I never went back to full time framing and now when teaching I always remembered that almost fatal lesson. When I mentor new and young workers I want them to be the very best that they can be and be safe at the same time. I want them to be able to go home to their life.

Mentoring new and young workers is vitally important to the workers, the business and industry. I like to think of mentoring as a type of gardening. We start with just a seed and with proper care we end up with a mature, robust plant.
The cornerstone of any mentoring relationship is based on caring and compassion and this becomes difficult when we have a large crew or a revolving door. Building a mentoring relationship – like our gardening example, takes nurturing, proper care; good location and exposure to the right conditions that will help the new worker thrive in the environment.

To effectively mentor we need to look at several key components.

1. Goal: Be clear to your purpose- What kind of worker are we trying to grow- Hopefully one that will have all the skills to do the job but also one that will move the company forward and contribute to the profitability. Ideally we also want a worker that will, in their time, mentor others. These effective workers will contribute to their community by remaining a long term and productive member of society.

2. Teach through role modeling and patient explanation: Explain the reasons of why we are doing what we do. Demonstrate and observe but go back and check in- hours, weeks and months later. In the rush of the job we can often overlook those important lessons. A plant like a new and young worker needs constant care

3. Ask questions -build understanding: "I thought they understood, they nodded their head, they agreed and the next thing I knew there they were..." Keep checking through questions. Breakdowns in communication can lead to grievous misunderstanding. As we all learn differently and at different rates, understanding and imparting knowledge may take an approach that you may not have considered or tried.

4. Identify what kind of mentor you are, whom you work best with, your communication style, your feeling around power and control, and your techniques for creating buy-in. What do you like in a strong leader? What kind of mentor do you want to be?

Solid mentoring starts well before the person is promoted -it starts on an employee's first day of work. Mentoring empowers employees to make their own safe decisions and encourages them to practice to become effective mentors themselves. By following these 4 simple techniques you are on the way to developing a culture of safety on the work site so that the new and young worker's first time with you will be special in a good way.