I love this forum! Its like having a bunch of brothers and sisters that will help you when you need it and call you on your **** when you need it. Thank’s everyone!!!
Tory,
You may just be expecting too much from an employee or maybe not. I try to duplicate how we do things in my business as far as what is expected day in and day out from most of my customers. Its very hard to duplicate service no matter what type of service company you are running. If I send out a crew in the Spring that does a top notch job and send a different crew in the Fall that does things quickly and doesnt detail as well, I hear about it. There is nothing wrong with setting high standards that can easily be met on a day in day out basis.
The only thing that I saw in your post (just an observation) was that you may have a way of approaching the problem wrong and failing to correct the situation/problem.(?) I will say again, there is nothing wrong with setting high standards that can easily be met with just a little effort. It goes along way with keeping the referrals coming in and job security for them in future cleans. Good quality work = Win -Win for both parties. You have to convince them of that. Just my 2 cents.
Good luck to you.
Steve
When I’ve paid by percentage to a crew of more than one (having worked with each of them at one time or another, as any responsible owner/manager should have) I split up their percentages based on how well they do, taking into account the total time taken on a given job.
For example, one might be experienced and does a speedy, quality job and rarely has to go back and do touch-ups. He will get say 20%. The other might be inexperienced and makes a lot of mistakes, causing both to have to go back and touch up. He would get say 10%.
It’s always a judgment call, and should be an easy one for anyone with experience to make.
I truley regret making this post. This was a few months back, and re-reading it now, I see how inexperianced I was…even tho I still am. Things have GREATLY changed, even tho I still find people who have a ton of problems. Things are going so much better, and I have found that really it was NOT them that needed to change so much as it was ME that needed to change.
They still had to go, they WERE horrible. BUT, I know so much more now that I truely believe that a monkey can be trained to do the work if PROPERLY trained.
Tory,
We’ve all had similar troubles with employees. I have learned to step back and look at things from all perspectives before making a decision (AKA Blowing UP!) like firing, and writing someone up. Its just part of the business. You’ll get better at it over time with ‘how to deal with employees’ just like you did with dealing with customers. Steve
Tory - I hope you don’t regret it too much, it sounds like it helped you, along with helping other people.
Tory, from a legal standpoint how are you dealing with the fact that your employee(s) use their own vehicles?
Great point Scott,
I use to work for a large carpet cleaning company and the best part of your system is that the workers would let the owner know who the slackers were.
Sometimes the workers would refuse to work with a guy who didn’t do their fare share.
Everybody had a grace period for training where they got hourly pay. We trained the new guy and any work that he got done was gravy. If he didn’t look like a worker early on the guys would let the boss know, because down the road we knew he would be on percentage and hurt our wallet.
This was a big multi truck company. I did a lot of training and sales work. He switched to a percentage system because of the reasons on this thread.
For legal reasons workers can’t do any over time if you go percentage.
If there are any redo’s or they are a really slow worker they have to make at least minimum wage. 
Hey Tory,
Two months should be enough time to know if he’s a keeper, don’t ya think?
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]When I first started a guy who owns a big window cleaning company told me the really good guys that have a lot of common sense and really know how to work, usually go out on their own. It doesn’t take them long to figure it out. So you end up training your competition. He tries to find people that are good enough but not to good. He hates all the baby sitting and refereeing but that’s the nature of the beast. Same deal at the carpet cleaning company I worked for.<O:p</O:p[/FONT][/COLOR]
It simple…
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle]Peter Principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Great point Seth,[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]<O:p</O:p[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I guess this peter principle could apply to a business owner as well. Sometimes business owners build their business to a point where they become an incompetent owner because it has expanded beyond their personal ability to manage. I speak from experience. My janitorial/window cleaning company had 15 people working for me back in the 80’s. It got of of controll because to much was going on for me to handle.<O:p</O:p[/FONT][/COLOR]
This is the beauty of commission based pay scale. The employees will report back to you if jobs are quoted wrong and need to be price adjusted. They will also report back to you when the jobs are sweet and have a killer profit margin. Hourly cant do that for your business. An employee that milks the clock day in and day out will go unnoticed unless you see a problem with them. I lost so much freakin money when I was paying hourly over the years its sickening.
Steve
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]There is a down side to percentage pay. Sometimes the guys will get greedy and the quality suffers. But it’s pretty easy for the owner to just swing by occasionally after the jobs are completed and spot check their work.[/FONT][/COLOR]
<O:p</O:p[/FONT][/COLOR]
Well Dan, I never thought it was a problem. I never really thought about it at all to tell you the truth. Is there something I dont know about?
Now that I think about it, should I be paying wear and tear? I remember when I was using my car to work for other people, nobody gave me anything at all. It was just part of going to work for me.
I know that my old boss what she was doing was illegal, but she payed so well that once I knew it was illeagal, I didnt want to lose my job so I said nothing. I dont immitate her. I do immitate those that are successful tho.
So tell me dan, am I missing something?
Tory,
My wife is in the social work field and she only gets mileage through the county she works in. No wear and tear allowances at all. I dont think you can claim both as a write off.
Tory,
I think if your employees are using their own vehicle, they can write off the mileage using Form 2106 “Employee Business Expenses”.
If you give them a vehicle allowance, I think that may have to be reported as income. (Not 100% sure on that)
As for auto insurance, my commercial auto policy covers my van and also protects me if an employee causes damage with his personal vehicle on the job site and even traveling to and from the jobsite. Of course, they need to have their own personal policy on their vehicle.
This is for my situation. Your employees situation with vehicles may be different. Just check with your agent.
My agent loves taking my calls. Every time I talk to him, its more money coming out of my pocket for some increased coverage. …oh well. :rolleyes:
I wonder if we are legally obligated to pay any commercial auto insurance for employee vehicles that are not owned by us?
In my case the answer is yes. On jobs that require me to have commercial auto, I have them ride with me.
Since what you say is true, I’ve developed a somewhat different approach. When I first broke in to the local market here the various companies regarded each other warily, and jealously guarded their customers and lists.
As a result, most were shocked when I’d walk right up to them with my card in hand, a smile, a handshake, and a friendly, “Hey! How’s it goin’? I’m…”
Now, we’ve built a network of quite a few contacts that all call each other to cover for em, if someone isn’t available at a given time. We all respect each others’ pricing and customers, being sure to let the customer know that we really appreciate so-and-so letting us cover for them. Loyalty is a big deal to us, and we let folks know.
Many people I’ve trained have gone off on their own, with my blessing, and they often call back to ask for a hand on a job. My current position with Legacy is just such an example. The owner and I have pooled our resources, making us both all the stronger for it.
The logistics are simple, with a little communication beforehand, such as deciding who the check gets written to, who is the #1 for the customer, and who the customer will call for future service.
Much of it is honor system, but you get what you give. Respect is a two-way street.
