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I have specific ways I want the carpets cleaned and I tend to be almost anal on super quality and until I feel unless the employee can prove they can do the job I expect by himself with me just helping out with the furniture and small stuff he doesn’t go out alone. I have to have 100% confidence they can do it or I’ll fret all day about it. I have had some employees that I would never let out by themselves, and others that I would let go out all the time. The problem is however, getting them to show up for work. Had to let them all go for for quality or attendance issues.
So my question is, Loren, how long did it take you before you went on your first job alone?
I see both of your points; however I tend to agree with Loren. I want to know that my employees have the necessary knowledge before letting them loose. Employees do not have a vested interest in your company; therefore they will not always have the same appreciation for pleasing the customer. The more knowledge they have the more at ease I will be as an owner
I agree on the knowledge, but just as we headed out with some knowledge after training, it was trial by fire for a while. If we hire quality people, they will want to do a good job. As the owner, our responsibility is to be sure that they did. Or we will be forever cleaning carpets.
A good employee will feed on compliments. The more you compliment them, the better they will perform. The better they perform, the more you must compensate them. A good employee is hard to find and hang on to. We all know this is true because our previous employer no longer has us. I feel if I had Bryan Ferris as an employee, I could make money paying him $20 per hour. As for the original question, There are as many variables as there are people. Good teachers combined with bad students or bad teachers with good students. I have never had a full time employee but I know after nearly 3 years, I am still learning! I think 6 months with a bright employee should be minimum.
We have a 6 week training program. Each day is mapped out in advance, so that the trainee knows what is expected of him. We evaluate the progress each week to ensure that the program is being followed.
We don’t have much problem with quality, or with keeping people. It is all a question of how you compensate people – if you pay them to act/think the way you want them to, people generally will respond.
Dennis,
I went out alone the first time out and was scared to death. I really did’nt know what I was doing even though I had the training in Rexburg. I’m sure the first jobs were not the best but I more than likely compensated by over cleaning. I think it was 6 months before I thought I was doing an adequate job.
The problem is I have the vested interest and not the employee that does less than high quality work. I had even offered to set him up to operate in part of my area that had some real potential but one must have some drive to work on one’s own. I received some feedback yesterday about the employee that I allowed out alone. Seems the customer wants me to do the work this time and not any one else. He may have just had a bad day or I had a couple other similar conversations. He usually did great work and he knew I liked him and his quality of work. He wasn’t always the fastest but I wanted quality and not quantity. If he could show up for work or just call in he would still be with me. He was paid well for his service and is now flipping burgers at the local Dairy Queen. We visit occasionally and if I have a really big job I have him help out. He still gets his old pay when he does.
My Dad’s favorite animal was a turtle… He maintained that it taught each of us one of the most important lessons in any business, and life for that matter. It has to stick its neck out in order to go anyplace. If you notice, the further it sticks it out, the faster it usually goes. Dad was right.
I thought the above might be appropriate as my son will be going to Rexburg in February, get a van and be on his own after 7 months training and working with me. Will he make mistakes??? Yep. Did I? Yep. AND we all learn from them.
Like my grandfather, a high school chemistry teacher used to say “show me someone in a lab who never broke a test tube, and I will show you someone who never did much in a lab”.
Hey Sutton . . . I’ll take the $20/hr job, I usually work for food!
Employees . . . a necesssity if we are going to grow. I don’t think time is really the deal. Let them go when they can do the adequate job. It may take 6 weeks, 2 weeks or 6 months. I think that when we do turn them loose, they get better quicker than they would with us over their shoulder. People like responsibility and to be trusted.
Hey Ferris, i will pay you in food plus beer if you’d like to work here.
Good words of wisdom about how long it takes before we turn guys loose. I think as well, we should be picking the jobs carefully. mix it up for a few weeks, some times solo, some times teams. Once we get the taste of freedom that not doing the work gives us, we become more motivated to send them out. In turn, we spend more quality time with each phone call, thereby booking more work for our guys. We do better follow up, seek out some commercial work, and before we know it, we have to go back to work because its so flipping busy. By then we are so acustomed to not cleaning that we hire another guy, train him, set him free and play golf, go fishing or go to hockey games.
It took me 2 years to train myself because I had a problem hitting the ball with a power fade. Once I started hitting the draw I gained yardage and the scores got much lower… Never work to much to lose track of your game….
found out yesterday that I’m going to get another shot at training and setting them free. this is just great 🙁
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