Question: We are deep into our busy season. We have a team of techs who work out in the field. It seems like there is no recourse if they screw up. We, the owners, pay the price, and the techs just keep on going. What should we do?
Thoughts of the day: Make sure everyone understands what tasks they are supposed to complete. Go out in the field to evaluate completed work. Build a compensation plan that rewards good behavior. Weed out people who don”™t want to cooperate. Practice, practice, practice in busy and slow times.
Use a form to specify the steps of each job, showing the order in which tasks are to be completed. Require that techs fill out a check sheet for each job, signing their name on the bottom to indicate they completed the work satisfactorily. Collect these forms daily. Don”™t let people clock in again until they hand in the previous day”™s sheets. Keep signed sheets on file by customer, and by tech, to record what work was completed when. Use checklists in the tech file as part of each person”™s annual review.
Also make sure people have the time they need to complete every job correctly. If people are rushing to finish, they are more likely to make mistakes. Set a time standard for how long it should take to complete different types of work. Adjust for complications. Add time if the tech is new on the job. Make sure everyone knows it”™s more efficient and profitable to completely wrap up each job on the first visit, even if they need to go over the time budget to do so.
Start out by inspecting 100 percent of jobs completed by each tech. Get to the work site within 24 hours of the job being completed, before things change. Take pictures. If possible, ask customers for their opinion about the work. Back off to doing periodic inspections if the tech”™s work is at or above standard.
Review examples of good and poor work in team meetings. Acknowledge top performers. Pair them with techs who need more training.
Start a competition for jobs well done. Allow techs to build up points for jobs completed correctly, customer satisfaction, cleanliness, professionalism, ability to upsell customers, etc. Periodically award prizes for high scorers.
Dare to be different in how you pay people. Reward people for doing what you want them to do. Stop paying for people to just show up. Instead, pay people to meet or exceed benchmarks.
Give people a base salary. On top of that, pay weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual bonuses for those who meet or beat your company”™s established criteria. This is called pay for performance, and it”™s a great tool for getting individual and company goals aligned.
Also, keep track of the low scorers. Address subpar performance in one-on-ones. If low performance does not improve, put people on probation and start looking for their replacements.
Even though it probably takes a long time to train a tech, hanging onto someone who does not perform to your company”™s standard is a bad idea. It delivers a message that it”™s okay to slack on the job. It exposes your customers to work below the quality you promised. The cost of errors eats up profits that could otherwise be used to reward good performers. It”™s better to recognize there”™s a problem and start preparing new candidates who want the job.
Even the best performers can always get better. Have all techs meet for a few minutes each morning to discuss challenging jobs and innovations. Instead of scheduling techs in the field from sun up to sun down, use a half-day each week to bring people together to share ideas and learn from each other.
Set the standard for accountability, and don”™t blink. It”™s your company. Know what you want your customers to experience from your techs. Make that standard clear to everyone who works for you.
Looking for a good book? Try “Lean In Construction (Key to Improvements in Time, Cost and Quality)” by Ade Asefeso.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at 877-238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Send it via email to AskAndi@strategyleaders. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
