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Summary
Across SMACNA shops and job sites, most mentoring still happens the way it always has: organic, informal, and dependent on whoever happens to take a new worker under their wing. This New Horizons Foundation report makes the case that contractors are leaving real money on the table by stopping there. Drawing on practical examples from contractors across the country, it shows how structured mentoring builds the foreperson and superintendent pipeline, reduces costly mistakes, and keeps the people contractors most want to keep.
Inside you’ll find a side-by-side comparison of formal mentoring, informal mentoring, and knowledge transfer, a seven-step implementation roadmap, debunked myths about who makes a good mentor, and a toolkit of low-cost shortcuts. Whether you run a small shop or a multi-state operation, this is a field guide for turning mentoring from a happy accident into a competitive advantage.