13 Small Simple Actions to Change Your Company Culture

Being an owner or manager in a service business is fast paced, grinding, and can be total consuming

of all your faculties and inter-resources. This also holds true for your inside staff and your field Technicians. So here are 13 tips to improve the culture in your company by small things you as a manager or owner can do on a regular basis.

1.       Morning Greeting

As you walk in and some of your staff is already at the office, greet each one by name and with a positive greeting. I know you often come in with things on your mind, or lack of sleep, but this can give your staff a boost which can carry over to the customers they touch that day.

2.       Feed the Crew

Having a meeting? Stop at Mickey D’s or Dunkin Donuts and bring in something for them to eat. It doesn’t need to be exotic or expensive. They will feel you care about them. Be sure to recognize any food allergies or dietary issues and take care of those individuals also.

3.       Acknowledge

Acknowledge years of service with your company for each employee. You can do this on social media, send them a card, post it on the company bulletin board, have a cake with their name on it,  or even have something like a special hat or jacket for 1 year of service, 5 years of service, 10 years of service and so on.

4.       Celebrate

ALWAYS celebrate wins. When you reach a goal within the company such as meeting the monthly budget for sales and profit, reaching a specific number of Maintenance Agreements, excellent customer reviews, or a successful change within the company celebrate. This can be as simple as an announcement at a meeting or something more like lunch for everyone. Be sure to include everyone and show the benefit of the success to the employee.

5.       Orient

When a new employee comes into a company, they have a great sense of uneasiness. Introduce them to every employee you can. Let them know who to go to for payroll, uniforms, truck issues, in the warehouse and so on. When they agree to come on board, send them a letter welcoming them and their family to your family (company).

6.       Suggestion Box

Have a suggestion box where employees can express their ideas on improving the company. When a suggestion saves the company money or greatly improves customer service and revenue, acknowledge that suggestion and reward the employee. Incidentally, all suggestions must be answered by management within 1-2 weeks with an answer why or why not the suggestion will be implemented. If you don’t, the employees will stop giving suggestions.

7.       Ring the Bell

Have a bell and ring it when a replacement system is sold, a maintenance agreement is sold, or an add-on sale by a Technician. People like wins so celebrate wins. Casinos have bells, sirens, lights, and other devices to acknowledge wins.

8.       Post Results

Post goals and employee results to meet those goals. This could be sales, maintenance agreement sales, CSR sales, number of customer calls vs. closes and so on. This will increase sales just by posting and create some competition among employees. Also post a simple monthly company financial statement for all employees to view.

9.       Play Games

With the daily grind, employees get bored and their job becomes a heavy task each day. Have some games from time to time. Have everyone bring in a baby picture and post it. See if someone can guess whose picture each one is and have a small prize for the most correct guesses.  There are books with ideas for games that companies can play.

10.   Think Family

Each employee has a family outside of your business that is very important to them. Many employees are lost because of issues outside of work that deal with family. Look at your company policies and view them from an employee and family perspective. When you have a company activity, such as a Christmas party or picnic, think about making them family focused to include spouses, important others, and kids.

11.   Safety

Be sure to have a safety manual for the company and be a stickler for safety in the office, warehouse, and on the jobsites. Think of safety as an employee benefit that is reasonable to conduct and tells each employee that you care about them. If you bypass safety issues they feel you don’t care for their wellbeing and will not give their best to the company.

12.   Image

The image of your company is displayed every day by your trucks, employees and building. Employees don’t want to work for a company with dirty bathrooms, messy warehouses, poor uniforms, filthy office carpets, and so on. They want to work for the companies with the best images because it is a direct reflection on them. This is not an overnight or cheap change for some of you but if you make strides in the right direction without back-sliding, they will notice the change.

13.   Career

Most employees are looking for a career not just a job. For each employee, layout a career path they can achieve over a period of time. I would suggest over the next 5 years. There should be title changes as they advance, improved compensation, company provided training, and direction for them. They should have specific goals and skills to reach in order to move to the next level. They should be evaluated at least yearly but I would recommend semi-annually. Your employees are being enticed by other companies with opportunities. What are their opportunities at your company? Show them!

14.   Bonus Idea

A simple “Thank You” to an employee for doing a great job or going beyond the call of duty, goes a very long way!

Change Starts

Change starts at the top. These are “nice ideas” but if you don’t change and implement them or other cultural changes, your company will not change for the better. The culture will not improve and you will continue to struggle with many more employee issues and greater turnover.

Help

Need help with change? Give me a call or email me, I can help if you are ready for cultural change.

You can get more information at our website www.SayYesToSuccess.com 

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com

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Finding the Right Technicians

Finding Technicians

Last time I gave a list of ideas for finding that "right Technician". My definition of "the right Technician" is one who can consistently produce profit for the company with a minimum amount of drama. I mentioned several ways to do this and I would like to expand on one in this article.

The ability to find a profit producing Technician is difficult at best and probably impossible in your service area. The old ways of a newspaper ad for a Technician with 5 years of field experience in the service business are no longer productive. It's finally time you groom your own. This can be a long and arduous task and sometimes the results are poor. Here is a tip you can use to have greater success and cut the time for that new Technician to be a profit producer for the company.

Go to School

The tip is simple. Get involved! Yes, get involved with every college or trade school that has a program for young people to get into the trade. Be sure to include local high school programs. All of these schools are desperate for company owners and managers to advise on improving their programs so their graduates will be successful in find high paying jobs in your trades. This normally is a morning or afternoon each quarter so the time commitment is really minimal. By being involved, you will know the instructors and other staff. What does that do for you? That's simple. You can have access to the best students, those with the best attitude, skills and desire to improve themselves. With a basic instruction and knowledge of the trade, they are more prepared to start fast. They may be willing to intern at your business which will give you an even better picture of their attitude and skills. You may be able to hire them on a part-time basis if necessary to assist during busy seasons. This could be in the field or as support in your office or warehouse.

At Graduation

When they are ready to graduate, you will be able to cherry pick the graduates and as an added bonus train them in your culture and systems. This avoids that baggage problem you can have when you hire a Technician "with experience". Remember companies don't let go of profitable Technician without baggage. Those looking for a job often have issues that will cause trouble or divert your focus of serving the customer.

 

How to Start

Start with one school or college and give it a try. Meet with your management team and explain why you're doing this, the benefits, the challenges, and the overall reward. Put together a plan for this new Technician so you can measure the progress and make a quick decision if it is or isn't working with that individual. If necessary, fire him or her, wish them well, and move on to someone who has all the characteristics to quickly become a profitable Technician.

Stay Tuned

Stand tuned for the next article on some additional ideas to overcome some of the issues listed above.

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com

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Where am I Going with you?

Losing key people in your business is always difficult. It could be a senior Technician, a Service Manager, or an important Office Staff Member. They may leave your business for any number of reasons. Many of those reasons you believe you do not have any control over and so you just to “buck it up”. Here is a partial list of reasons employees leave our type of businesses:

·        Moving out of the area  

·        Family issue such as divorce, new baby, or family illness

·        Pursuing another career

·        Health issues

·        Distance from the office

·        9 to 5 Hours

·        Not really suited for the service business

·        Pressure for change from the spouse

·        Benefits

·        Pay

·        On call

·        Going into business

·        Being a stay at home parent

·        Conflict with other Team Member or Members

I know there are others that I did not include but these are the ones I hear about the most. From owners I hear that it is often a total surprise that the employee is leaving. They had no idea it was coming. I don’t accept that in many cases. To me it is a fundamental issue the owner has failed to address in their business. That issue is communication with each and every employee on a regularly scheduled basis to discuss that employee’s performance and future with the company. Every employee should know how well they are performing and what the future for them with the company looks like. These are not the sit downs to discuss a pay increase, although those do need to occur. These are quarterly sit downs to discuss the progress the employee has made in the previous three months and what is expected in the next three months, one year and even five years. At these the owner should get a sense of where the employee is in their position at the company. Employees want to know how they are doing, what they can do to be better, and what the future holds for them.

Here is a method you could use. Get out your calendar and write in a ½ hour block of time for each employee sit down each quarter for the next twelve months. On your calendar mark ten days prior to each sit down with a note to give that employee an evaluation form for them to fill out and return to you at least two days prior to your sit down. Your will review the form and add your comments (constructive comments) and a plan of action for the next quarter, year and perhaps five years to the form. When you have the sit down with the employee you will review that form together, come to a consensus of the review and plan and have the employee sign the form and provide them a copy. Regular communication about their future will provide a way for the employee to be more open about what’s up in their head. Each time you meet you will use the previous meetings form and the new form to conduct the review and plan. This process goes hand and hand with a specific blueprint for each employee’s progression within your company in career development and pay. I call it “Blueprint for Success”. Between the reviews and the blueprint the owner will have reduced much of the “Where am I going” uneasiness of the employee. There are no magic bullets but regular communication and a plan will provide a more stable environment for the employee thus reducing the chances they will seek other opportunities and be lost to your company.

If you would like a copy of a form you could use in these sit downs and a sample of a “Blueprint for Success”, email me at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.comDan@SayYesToSuccess.com and I’ll send you a copy.  

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.comDan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

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Are You a Half-Hearted Kamikaze?

This term “Half-Hearted Kamikaze” comes from Tim Elmore a Christian Pastor and Speaker. I think it is relevant in today’s service business. First let’s look a definition of Kamikaze. As Tim Elmore puts it,” A Kamikaze is someone who (whether for good or evil) puts everything into one purpose.” Wikipedia defines the Kamikaze, literally: "God wind"; common translation: "Divine wind", were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks. Numbers quoted vary, but at least 47 Allied vessels, from PT boats to escort carriers, were sunk by kamikaze attacks, and about 300 damaged. About 14% of kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship.

So what is a Half-Hearted Kamikaze? My definition as relating to business is a service business owner who talks the story of improvement, change, and full commitment but does not consistently strive to achieve the goal of an extremely successful business with time for the owner to enjoy life.

So why are so many service business owners half-hearted? My observations of dozens and dozens of service businesses demonstrate several reasons.

1.   I often see is the owner has little or no experience to run a business. They are great technicians but have little skills to operate a business. They fail to hire the skills needed to operate profitably or to get the skills themselves. It could be as simple as working with an expert consultant to help him.
2.  Another reason is the owner just does not have the drive to take the business to success but is satisfied with a paycheck equal or less than they could make as a technician for a successful company. Perhaps their spouse works and provides the additional income and even benefits for the family.
3. Often an owner becomes distracted by the technical side of the business and shies away from the hard decisions, the “books”, margins, waste, and the changes needed to more the business to the next level. Not necessarily larger but more profitable.
4. Sometimes the distraction is something too big and too close to overcome easily. This could be a sick spouse, parent, child, or his own health. This is understandable and the owner needs to find an individual to operate the business while he gives his attention to the health need.
5. One last one I’m going to mention here is burnout. The business owner is just worn-out from the grind of business. If the business is barely making it, the stress and pressure is great. He needs time away and a regular plan to get some rest and relaxation. If he does not, the business withers away, or he relieves the stress with alcohol, gambling or other diversions to forget the stress and pressure.

The owner probably has little or no retirement fund when he retires. He may take cash under the table thus compromising his integrity. His business may be supported by his vendors who provide credit too easily. He owes more than the business is worth. He may have stress related illnesses such as heart trouble, high blood pressure, diabetes or another health issue. He retires to a life much less than a business owner deserves, if he is able to retire. Perhaps he works at a big box store like Walmart or Home Depot instead of enjoying retirement, hobbies, and the grandkids.

So what’s the answer? Either become fully engaged or work for someone who is and avoid the downside of being half-hearted. Don't be a Half-Hearted Kamikaze, make the decision today!

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. 
Contact him @ Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

Minor Leaguers

Spending the spring in Florida, there is a lot of talk on television, radio, and in the newspaper about the local spring training teams. They cover the players, are their stats, the schedules, the injuries, and the various teams expectations. Among the players are both “big” leaguers and the “minor” leaguers. The big leaguers are trying to get in shape for the season and keep their jobs. The minor leaguers are also getting into shape for their season and hoping to make it to the big leagues. But when I visit service businesses, I find something a little different.

In baseball, players are drafted just as we “draft” new employees into our businesses. Then the differences begin. In baseball, the new player is evaluated on his strengths and weaknesses and assigned to a farm club to improve his skills so he can play at his maximum capabilities. In many service businesses, we send the new “player” to ride along on a truck with another tech for a few days. We get a little feedback from the tech and then put the new “player” out to take care of customer problems and provide the excellent customer service we expect. Somehow we think the new player will do the job as well as we would ourselves.

We need a new paradigm; one in which we have a career plan for the new employee at least 3 to 5 years out. We do this by setting out expectations from the new employee to meet throughout their career at our company. We set increases in their income on gaining new skills that make them more valuable to the company. We expect them to achieve success in state and national accreditation such as a Master Plumber’s license, NATE certification, a manufacturer’s training program, or a degree from a college or association training program.

This career plan needs to be written and specific. It should be clear what needs to be done by the employee to move to the next level. Each level has a pay range, a list of skills need to be in that level, and what training or skills are needed to get to the next level. There is a pay range since an employee may be at a level for several years but after six months or a year has accomplished many of the skills needed for that level. There can also be automatic increases as a Technician becomes NATE certified or gets his trade licensing.

There are numerous benefits to a career plan for an employee. They know what they must do to gain a raise or move to the next level. There is a sense of a future at your company for the employee. There are some written metrics to evaluate an employee by at review time. When you hire a new employee, your company shows the employee is important and there is a future at your company.  You can direct an employee to the skills your company needs to better serve the customer and be more profitable.

Contact me if you would like a sample of a plan that you can use as a template to write your own career path for your employees.

Dan has been involved in the service business for over 50 years operating a successful plumbing heating and air conditioning business and consulting service businesses. He can be contacted at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.