The Why and How of Avoiding Constant Overtime!
Make service technician overtime the exception, not the rule (unless you just enjoy throwing money away).
KickStart: Overtime should be the exception in your company- not the weekly routine. Here’s how to get OT under control and still give fast service to clients.
I sometimes reflect on my first “real” job as a waiter in a Howard Johnson’s restaurant. And yes, this means I really am “old(er)”! 😢
All of us HoJo (we really did use to it HoJos) workers would crowd around next week’s new work schedule with one burning question, “How many hours did they give me?”🙄 And if memory serves, this eager-beaver attitude was at the great wage rate of $2.35 @ hour!
Nowadays? I’m guessing with today’s “Entitled Generation” of employees each new work schedule is met with howls of “Oh no, that simply won’t work with my schedule for next week! I’ve got…”!
And yet... this is the clay we must work with! 😱 Yep, as a residential services entrepreneur you face HUGE challenges. Think about it...
Customers want rapid, even immediate, service. Other clients will cancel on a whim. And our employees? While some are “entitled” other techs would constantly urge me…
“Load me up, Steve! I’ve got bills to pay, rent to come up with and I wanna buy Mama a new dress! So, the more overtime the better! Give me more hours!”
Of course, your temptation is to work these gluttons for punishment into the ground! And yet I urge all our HFS students and coaching clients to…
Make overtime work an occasional (and very profitable) adventure- not a weekly routine! Let me count the reasons why…
1. Overtime is very expensive. Adding in all the tax burdens (both for you and the tech) the 50% increased wage rate of OT will carve a huge chunk out of your net profit. 😢 Even worse…
2. You’ll have nothing in reserve. If next week is already overbooked with 60 hours per tech what happens if one gets sick, injured or (nowadays) deported?😮 Plus, if every tech is exhausted…
3. No one will be “hungry”. Keeping routine overtime to a minimum meant that when I needed volunteers for a super-profitable emergency services job, I had a dozen hands in the air! But if they are all exhausted…
4. Techs burn out. The old friend who performed Sioux’s and my wedding ceremony (over 50 years ago!)😮 counseled us, “Buy time.” Of course, due to youthful ignorance and love of the grand game of business I ignored this principle for far too long! So, show tough love to your techs and avoid routine OT. And remember…
5. Burned out techs won’t (can’t?) create Raving Fans! Sure, you’re focused (obsessed) on Service Engineering your company to create delighted Cheerleader Clients that will leave ecstatic 5-star reviews! WONDERFUL! But it will all be wasted with whacked-out techs! And finally…
6. Mama doesn’t like it. 🙎♀️Trust me, mama would much rather the father of her children to be home playing with his kids instead of out late on constant overtime. And when mama isn’t happy…
I can hear you now! “Steve, you are preaching to the choir here! I KNOW how bad constant overtime is! But what can I do? We make commitments and then my guys run late… HELP ME!”
I feel your pain so here’s some quick bullet points! (I’ll develop some of these tips in future KickStarts.)
Charge more! Theoretically your higher prices will slightly drop your number of booked jobs while still maintaining your volume AND dramatically increasing your net profits! NOTE: If your booked jobs don’t slightly dip? Then raise your prices even more! 💲 (We’ll definitely focus on this going forward.)
Pay more. I know, this is counter intuitive. “Steve, why should I increase pay rates when my goal is to add more to my bottom line?” Understood! But paying at least 20% more than “the going rate” for comparable work in your local area will attract a MUCH higher level of employee.👏👏 Then these Very Best People will dramatically increase morale and production rates company wide. Everyone will win! 😁
NOTE: Another way to “pay more”? Increase “call out” pay big time! We kept a rotating list of “on-call techs” who volunteered for emergency work. If they were called in during their off hours, we paid double time with a 4-hour minimum. (Between midnight and 6:00 AM we paid triple time!)Fire fast. Even with HFS recruiting and interviewing systems you’re still going to hire the occasional LOSER. 😡 Deep down inside, you know you've made a mistake right away, usually in the first two weeks. If so, respectfully but firmly move them out of your company ASAP!
NOTE: Many times you realize a tech won’t cut it on his or her very first day with you! This is why I BEG my coaching clients to do a “working interview” BEFORE you hire a tech full time!Hire more techs. I know, you’re worried about keeping them busy. I never advise reckless expansion. But invariably we find our new HFS coaching clients are running with a too-small skeleton crew. I teach them how to 1) raise their prices and 2) hire more quality people. Business becomes FUN again! 😃
Get more efficient. Our HFS “efficiency drives” may include reducing your service area, dropping some of your low-profit services or developing step-by-step production procedures for the residential services that you do keep.
Sell more Additional Service Options. (ASO’s) It is a no-brainer. It is so much more efficient (this word just keeps popping up) to do one big job instead of investing huge amounts of windshield time chasing small jobs!
Test a 4-day work week. Many of my clients have found four 10 hour shifts to be more productive. You see, inevitably there is “lag time” getting the trucks out in the morning. So a 10 hour day means your per hour pro-rated production will go up. (Plus, your workers will love the chance to recharge every week with a “long weekend”!) 😎
So did I deliver or not? Six reasons WHY you should avoid routine overtime and seven bullet points on how to do it! But hey! Enough about me! This is about YOU and YOUR success- so right now- pick just one of my tips above to implement and test TODAY! Let’s “git ‘er done”… together!
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