The Onboarding Problem Nobody Talks About in Contract Interiors

One of my earliest memories in the office furniture industry happened shortly after I started my very first job at a Haworth dealership in Birmingham, Alabama.

I remember hearing people talk about laminate and veneer during a conversation about a desk specification, and I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

I didn’t know laminate was a surface material. I didn’t know veneer was actually part of a tree.
I didn’t understand the language, the terminology, or honestly… the industry itself.

And while that may sound simple, in that moment, I realized something many people entering our industry still experience today: the contract interiors industry can feel incredibly overwhelming when you’re new.

At the time, there was no internet to search for answers. No onboarding programs. No industry resources. The only way to learn was to ask questions, and ask lots of them.

Thankfully, I had two incredible mentors early in my career who changed everything for me, Milton Bresler and Meredith Rubar.

Milton was our local Haworth representative, and he took me under his wing. He patiently explained things like STC and NRC ratings, panel systems, acoustics, and countless other concepts that felt foreign to me at the time. More importantly, he created a safe space for me to ask questions without feeling embarrassed.

Then there was Meredith, a top seller at the dealership where I worked. She allowed me to shadow customer meetings, observe conversations, and learn the industry's language in real time. At night, I would sit at my kitchen table, practicing quarter-inch-scale drawings and working through price books page by page, trying to understand specifications, connectors, supports, and how everything worked together.

Whenever I got stuck, I’d leave Meredith a voicemail with another question.

And she always responded back, even late at night.

Looking back now, those mentors didn’t just teach me about furniture. They gave me confidence. They helped me feel capable. They helped me believe I belonged in the industry.

And honestly, I don’t know if I would have stayed in this business without people like them pouring into me early in my career.

Fast forward many years later, after starting my coaching and consulting business, I found myself helping a dealer onboard two new hires from outside the industry. The owner had hired smart, capable people, but when we started talking through the industry, I immediately recognized the same emotions I had experienced years earlier.

Fear.
Overwhelm.
Intimidation.

You could see them wondering: “How am I ever going to learn all of this?”

That moment stuck with me because it made me realize something important: The onboarding problem nobody talks about in contract interiors isn’t a lack of talent.

It’s that we often explain this industry as if everyone already understands it. And the truth is, most people don’t. Even today, when I tell someone I work in the office furniture industry, I still hear: “That’s an industry?”

Yes. It absolutely is. And it’s an incredible one.

But it’s also layered, specialized, and historically difficult to learn without access to the right people, mentorship, and experiences.

One of the things I’ve come to realize after nearly 30 years in this business is that we often underestimate just how complex our industry really is.

For those of us who have spent years in contract interiors, terms like ancillary furniture, specification tools, GPO contracts, dealer margins, ergonomics, acoustics, and vertical markets become part of our everyday language. But for someone brand new, it can feel like learning a completely different language.

And the reality is that our industry is an incredibly interconnected ecosystem of manufacturers, dealers, independent reps, designers, architects, installers, project managers, and end users, all working together in a highly collaborative environment.

Then you add in:

• pricing structures
• contracts
• long sales cycles
• workplace strategy
• building codes
• technology integration
• specification tools
• product applications

…and it becomes very clear why onboarding can feel overwhelming.

Historically, much of that learning happened through proximity. You sat next to experienced people. You shadowed meetings. You asked questions. You slowly pieced the industry together over time.

That’s how many of us learned.

But today, business moves faster. Teams are leaner. Hybrid work has changed how people learn. And many leaders simply don’t have the time to personally mentor and onboard new employees the way previous generations did.

That doesn’t mean leaders don’t care. It means the industry has evolved faster than the onboarding process has.

Over the years, I’ve had countless conversations with dealer principals, sales leaders, manufacturers, and business owners who all say some version of the same thing: “We’d love to hire younger talent or people from outside the industry… but onboarding takes so much time.”

And honestly, they’re not wrong.

Hiring someone without industry experience is a major investment. Leaders aren’t simply teaching products or sales processes. They’re teaching an entire ecosystem of terminology, workflows, pricing structures, customer expectations, and years of institutional knowledge.

That’s a lot to absorb.

And when onboarding depends entirely on individual managers or informal mentorship, the experience becomes inconsistent. Some new hires thrive because they happen to sit near the right mentor. Others struggle simply because nobody has the time to slow down and explain the basics.

That’s not a leadership failure. It’s a systems challenge. And I believe it’s solvable. Because the issue isn’t that talented people don’t exist. The issue is that we haven’t historically created a clear, structured, and accessible path to help them confidently learn the industry once they arrive.

That’s one of the biggest reasons CORE Foundations was created.

Not to replace mentorship. Not to replace company onboarding. And certainly not to replace real-world experience. But to help create a more accessible, scalable, and encouraging starting point for people entering the industry.

The idea for CORE Foundations didn’t happen overnight. It was built over decades of conversations, observations, podcast interviews, and seeing the same challenge appear again and again across every part of the industry.

I’ve watched smart people become overwhelmed simply because they didn’t understand the language of the business yet. I’ve seen new hires hesitate to ask questions because they were embarrassed they didn’t know what seemed “obvious” to everyone else in the room.

And I kept coming back to one thought:

Not everyone will have a Milton.
Not everyone will have a Meredith.

Not everyone will have someone sitting beside them every day answering questions and helping them build confidence one conversation at a time. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still have access to guidance, encouragement, and foundational industry knowledge.

I believe we’re at an important turning point in the contract interiors industry.

We’re watching experienced professionals retire, institutional knowledge leave organizations, and younger generations enter the workforce with completely different expectations around learning and development.

That can sound discouraging. But honestly, I see it as an opportunity. Because this industry has something incredibly valuable to offer people.

This industry is creative. It’s relational. It’s strategic. And it impacts how people work, collaborate, heal, learn, and experience the spaces around them every single day.

But for more people to discover the opportunities this industry offers, we have to make the path into it easier to navigate.

Imagine what becomes possible if leaders can confidently hire talented people from outside the industry because they know there’s a scalable way to help them learn the fundamentals faster.

Imagine helping new hires feel encouraged instead of overwhelmed.

Imagine creating onboarding experiences that make people feel supported, capable, and excited about building a career in this business.

Because when people gain confidence faster, everything changes.

They ask better questions. They engage more deeply. They contribute sooner. And they begin to see what so many of us who have spent our careers in this industry already know:

The contract interiors industry is an incredible place to build a career.

When I look back on my own journey, I realize how much of my success was shaped by people who took the time to teach me, encourage me, and help me believe I could succeed in this business.

That’s something I’ll never forget.

And while products, technology, and workplace trends will continue to evolve, one thing remains true: The future of our industry will always depend on people.

People willing to learn. People willing to teach. And leaders willing to create better pathways for new talent to succeed.

I don’t believe we have a talent problem. I believe we have an accessibility problem.

We have an opportunity to make this industry easier to understand, enter, and succeed in for the next generation of professionals.

That’s what CORE Foundations is really about.

Because the future of our industry won’t just be shaped by the products we create. It will be shaped by how well we develop the people who create, sell, support, and believe in them.

If your organization is thinking about how to better onboard new hires, attract younger talent, or create a more scalable learning experience for your team, I’d love to have a conversation.

CORE Foundations was built to support leaders who believe the future of our industry depends on developing people well.

Let’s talk about what that could look like for your organization.

Schedule a Conversation with Sid: https://calendly.com/sid-meadows-embark-cct/core-foundations-discussion 

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