In this week's tripodcast at www.tripodcast.com I talk about how we sometimes send our technicians out to the job without the proper instructions or tools and supplies to get the job done promptly and professionally. We use our old nail in the board example to show how easy it is for us to expect our employees to do the job but we have forgotton some very basic rules for success on the job,
1. Have we thoroughly trained them in the task we are asking them to do?
2. Have we explained what end result we are expecting to attain?
3. Have we provided the correct tools for them to get the job done safely and correctly?
4. Have we provided them a budget for the job we are expecting them to accomplish?
5. Do we compliment them if they do a great job?
6. If the job doesn't turn out the way we want it to, how do we proceed? Do we analyze if we provided them everything they needed to do the job correctly or do well yell at them for doing a bad job?
Let's look at each of these points.
By now you know I am a fanatic when it comes to assuring that all of our employees receive the proper orientation and training prior to an assignment. One of the top reasons why employees quit this profession (yes, it is a profession) is that they don't receive the training they need to do the job and then get criticized if it isn't done correctly. What's your policy?
Knowing what the end result is supposed to look like is an important part of the job. It isn't enough to say "clean it" but it is important to instill in each employee your company's way of doing things and what you expect the end result to be.
In the pod cast eluded to above I give a good example of a bad example. I ask the participants to put the nail in the board but, among other bad information, I don't give them the tools to get the job done. I have witnessed people ruining a shoe trying to hammer the nail in the board. Some try to use their notebooks to hammer with. To make matters worse, I don't explain to them where in the board I want the nail to be put. What about you? Do you have a listing of tools and supplies needed for each cleaning task you ask your employees to perform. Here again the initial training will help get those points across and then follow up with a refresher course at regular intervals.
Do all employees have a budgeted number of hours for the task(s) they are being asked to perform? I find that usually the regular nightly work is budgeted pretty consistently but many times the crews that are doing the project or tag work are sent to the job without a work order explaining EXACTLY how many hours we expect it to take. I learned this the hard way. If I sent a crew out to strip and recoat a floor, they many times did the job in the hours their shift was for. If I sent them out with the understanding the job was to be completed in "x" hours, that's also how long it took. Funny how that works. Until I got wise to this concept, I was paying for a lot of hours of wasted time. I especially learned this when doing summer project work in the schools we cleaned and also in the project work at manufacturing plants during Christmas holiday shut downs. One of the reasons, I believe, that so much time is lost on special projects is that the managers themselves don't know how long it should really take. That is why it is important to know the industry time standards for each task we have to perform. Most software programs have it automatically set but if you don't have software be sure you have the time standard books published by ISSA or BSCAI. It will save you bunches of dollars.
Do you make it a habit of complimenting the crews on a job well done? This is another one of the major reasons people leave our industry is that they only hear when the job goes wrong and never when it is done right. I know, I know, they are being paid to do it right but all of us like to be told from time to time that we are doing a good job, provided it is a sincere compliment and not a contrived one that many times will do more damage than good.
What if the job doesn't turn out exactly right? Our first order of business should be to have a show and tell training class to assure that the technicians know how to do the job correctly. If they don't know, then we need to retrain. If they do, and just didn't do a good job, then we have a discipline issue we need to deal with. Be sure you know which it is before you start blasting them for a poor job. Sometimes we just maybe haven't taught well or we haven't had a refresher lately.
Well, there you have it. Some quick refresher points to make sure our valued employees have what they need to do the job we want and expect. Let me suggest you review each of the items and see how your company measures up. Take the time now. It is much better to do it now than to jepordize an account with poor workmanship.
Hope your summer is going well. Till next time.
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