A question of incentive. (Starch)

Starch

.....is beginning to get grayer than usual.

Here's the problem - each week when he is reviewing completed work orders in preparation for sending out invoices, he always double checks to make sure there are no errors - the labor hours match what's on the time sheet, all material is listed, etc.

We have company meetings once a month. At each meeting, we always remind the service men how they should be checking in with dispatch between jobs, doing their paperwork correctly, along with a monthly safety topic. Because of the holidays, we didn't have a meeting in December. The joke around the office is that you can tell when it's time for a company meeting because the techs start to "slip" a little in their communication with dispatch.

Lately, it seems the errors on the work orders are becoming more common. It's mostly little things, like, "replaced non functioning fill valve in client's commode" as the labor description, and not listing the fill valve in the materials section. Our January meeting will be this friday, I'll remind everyone AGAIN how important it is for them to fill out their work orders accurately, and then things will improve for awhile.

I realize that no-one is perfect, and that mistakes are bound to be made, particularly if the tech has a stack of work orders to try and complete during the day, but I'm tired of having to constantly remind these guys about little stupid things.

My idea to fix the problem? Tie it to their wallets! In other words, I'd like to come up with an incentive program to encourage accuracy in the paperwork the techs turn in. We will begin emphasizing more of an effort in collecting on the spot, but many of our clients have seasonal homes in our area, and simply aren't home when we are there.

Ok, coming up with the idea was easy. Now I have to try and figure out a way to implement it. Hmmmmm...............OK, I have no idea.

Is anyone else out there in Wallie-world doing something like this, and if so, would you mind sharing your system? I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Thanks,

Starch

Bill_14

My first reaction to your post.

Not sure how many guys you have in the field Starch, but I think you need to meet with your men once a week, such as every Monday morning for 30 minutes. Once a month is too long in my opinion to go without training and "atta boy" time.

Bill

John Starcher_4

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the reply. We are a fairly small shop - three servicemen. We had tried weekly meetings a couple years ago, seemed like it got to be very monotonous (sp?) going over the same things each week, and I had a heck of a time trying to come up with things to keep the meetings "fresh" each week. That's when we switched to the monthly schedule. Maybe I should shoot for the middle and do bi-monthly meetings.

This brings up a good question for all the other wallies - how often do you have company meetings, and what sorts of things make up the meeting agendas?

I still like the concept of some sort of incentive plan for the techs to encourage them to be more accurate with their paperwork. It wouldn't have to be anything exotic - but should be enough of a carrot to make them really want to improve.

Hmmm....

Starch

RB_2

Make them accountable to each other...

One idea...when I played hockey or football...the pressure was on the team to do as required...one guy has a hard time following orders...everyone sucked it up...didn't take long for the slow learners to feel the pain...make it fun...make it rewarding...make it team oriented...make them accountable to each other.

RB

Bill_14

Even better

with fewer guys. This gives you more 1-on-1-quality time with the men. Someday, you may have 10, 12, 15 or more guys and the meeting experiences now will help you later.

We have always scheduled weekly meetings with the idea of continuing education and customized training. We try to be very interactive in order to get involvement from the quiet guys.

We will ask questions of the men in our meetings...we will answer questions and we never go over 30 minutes. We follow a tight agenda and everything is organized. If we didn't finish or if interest was high, we continue over to the next week with the same theme. We will sometimes cancel a weekly meeting due to various reasons, but do not make a habit of doing that.

There are just so many things that you can learn about your guys and things they can learn about you if you promote involvement in a team setting.

We always talk in general terms to the group when we are trying to get administrative problems solved, i.e., sloppy paperwork. We always talk privately with any tech having trouble understanding what we need from them in terms of paperwork.

We give various things to guys all the time for doing good things…these can range from movie tickets, gift certificates to a nice restaurant and cash awards. I would be careful about over-doing and would concentrate on rewards special things…not expected or easy to do things.

As far as work orders lining up with the time cards man-hours, materials being accounted for on work orders, job descriptions being accurate on the work order, etc., you might as well accept the fact that some guys are better than others when it comes to paperwork.

I always felt that someone in the office needed to take the time to audit the work orders and figure out what might be missing. These trouble work orders are set aside until you can get with the tech and ask questions. This office guy or gal has to be able to notice that 4 hours of time on a job without any materials listed, might be a red flag. The major things the men fail to list are the small things that really add up. Also, be wary of seeing 100 feet of pipe with no fittings shown, etc.

You just gotta train the office person real good. Sometimes it is wise for this office person to have 5 to 10 minutes of time in those weekly meetings “re-training” the men on proper paperwork habits.

If you are a time & material shop, you are just throwing money away if your paperwork system is not managed in a first-class manner. The time card is the source for preparing payroll and it is critical that a proper audit between the time card and the work order is completed. This is an office administrative task and when the man-hours do not jive, you need to get it resolved before you make your weekly payroll and before you prepare your T/M invoice.

Just a bunch of thoughts…hope this helps some.

Bill

PS…just think of all the training material for meetings that you could borrow from The Wall.

Dan Law

incentives

Starch,

I'd be carefull on the incentives for what is expected. In my opinion any incentives should be saved for effort above and beyond the expected. I run a shop of 23 field guys - all union, and all pros. I make a good profit with them, but I'm clear I expect profesional performance for profesional pay. If you've reached the point that an extra spif is deemed appropriate for minimal expectations, you have to ask yourself, "What am I really telling these guys?" Aren't you lowering the bar rather than raising it? Who handles the corrections when they're needed? I have an office gal (who IS exceptional) check all the paperwork. She corrects the easy ones, and calls the men for clarifications if needed. If they get too large or too frequent, I get involved myself, first over the phone -calmly and quietly - in fact, very quietly. Fewer words here have more impact than many. The message he gets becomes "My paperwork has gotten bad enough that the boss (who I expect to be out geting me more work)has to take his time to run me down to get it fixed" Isn't this the message you really want to send? If it's bad enough, YOU have to up the antee - Take the time to get in your truck and drive to his jobsite, have him get into the front seat with you and sort out his mistakes. Make sure he knows you made the trip specifically to see him, and it's the only reason your there. Also here's another barb -Make sure you give him a separate, special job number to bill this "truck time" to. Have him make a separate work order (while your in the truck with him) and in the description of work have him write "paperwork corections with boss". Tell him your doing this because it isn't fair for the customer who's site your at to be billed for this paperwork correction time. Make sure you sign the work order where the customer usually does, and take the copy he normally leaves with the customer with you. Have him tear it out and HAND IT TO YOU. Instruct him to show this time on his time card and submit this invoice in order to get paid. MAKE SURE YOU PAY HIM FOR THIS TIME - EVEN IF IT'S OVER TIME. Put yourself in his shoes now. If this had happened to you when you were working for someone, what would your next weeks paperwork look like after this exchange? Do you think he got the message better than with an incentive? It requires the investment of your time, but you only invest it once. If he still doesn't come around, you have a clearer perception of whether you want to keep him on or cut him loose. And in his heart, he knows it too. Just some thoughts on management styles, it's not for everyone.

Bill NTSG

Starchie...

I was an owner, now I am a tech. I see both sides of the paperwork thing. The thing I don't like about dispatchers is they don't like to admit they kept the tech "hanging" for twenty minutes because they forgot to arrange something with a customer or this or that. The tech shouldn't get docked because management can't line up work. All this to say there is always down time. It is almost impossible to bill for 8 every day unless you a doing new construction or installs. On the other side, does the tech really know how important his paper work is? Tell him exactly what you told us. Show him where the paper trail goes and what the billing person needs. Tell him his next raise is dependant on proper billing and making a profit. My shop is a little casual, too casual for me, 3 techs 3 different styles.Some times you have to show them EXACTLY what you expect. Maybe a sample bill from your billing dept.? Hey if he don't comply show him the door.

Earthfire

time sheets

Take a page from the trucking industries HR book. If incomplete paperwork ( incomplete or blatantly falsified logbook, missing or unsigned bill of lading, missing fuel ,toll tickets, etc.)no pay for the trip until all paperwork is correct and double checked. oh and they don't bother telling you about it . you have to realize your pay is short& contact payroll.usually takes 2/3 wks to get paid on a screw up. you learn quick. No signiture on the delivery receipt, no pay without dispatchers authorization #, & you get to try and get the signiture on your own time.been there, dealt with it,learned quick!!!!

Starch

Thanks to you all.....

....for your insightful replies. I am considering EVERYTHING you all have said.

Anyone else care to chime in?????

Starch

Terry

What worked for me

I experienced similar probs when I was dispatching. Some of the Techs were great, others were terrible, especially at the paperwork thing. I incorporated an incentive program as follows;

I gave all techs 500 Points to start (a point is equal to a dollar i.e. $500)

I made a list of the no-no's (i.e. not listing material, wrong hours, holding onto paperwork, etc) & assigned a PENALTY $/point amount. During the Year I would DEDUCT these points from the original 500. At the end of the year, the Techs remaining points were the amount of x-mas bonus he would receive. IF he had a 100% record (500 points - no deductions) then his name would go into a hat for an aditional $500. so the Incentive was a possible $1000 bonus for perfect paperwork, etc.

I found this worked wonderfully.

Regards,
Terry