Holiday Happenings  I firmly believe a sign of a great manager is not just how they handle the hectic times, but how they maximize the value of their labor hours during the non-busy times. Through the years I have found great service managers all have the ability to plan and organize profitable activities for their staff to complete during times of slower customer-generated service calls. With the holidays almost upon us, it’s a good time to review how effective managers are going to allocate their workers’ time. Let’s first discuss the five days of Thanksgiving holidays. Yes, five days, because many of our clients begin to close on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, starting at noon. Working in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, a 100 mile get-out-of-town traffic jam prevents my field techs from being able to travel to most of our customers after noon on this Wednesday. Often the clients we manage to drive to have already gone home for the extended weekend, despite the fact dispatch calls ahead to double check our clients will be open until 5pm. A great manager understands the Thanksgiving holiday must be dealt with starting on Monday afternoon. Return calls, emergency parts requests and overnight orders must be prioritized and scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Incoming service calls received on Tuesday and Wednesday must be asked or re-contacted to confirm what time they plan to close on Wednesday, specifying ‘the day before Thanksgiving’. Many callers will then remember they are closing early or will also be closed on the following Monday. Those clients who do request service do so on the following Monday. They do not want to get stuck in the office on Wednesday afternoon waiting for the tech to complete their service call. Beginning on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week we are already prioritizing the calls and parts orders that will be scheduled for the week following Thanksgiving. With proper scheduling, by noon on Wednesday you can have all your first calls for the Monday morning after the Thanksgiving holiday confirmed and assigned to the appropriate tech. The same principle holds true for the end of the year holidays. Many of our clients close their companies, schools and government offices between December 24th and January 2nd. Many of these organizations mandate their employees must use vacation days during this period of holiday closure. This in turn lowers the amount of service calls received during this period. If your company requires holiday time off, make sure the specific terms of the time off procedures are stated in your policy and procedure manual. Reference to dates of December 21st through January 2nd may be more appropriate than referring to the time off in terms of religious occasions. When reviewing your policy and procedure manual check to see if there is a stipulation that if any time an employee calls in sick the day before or after a paid holiday, they will forfeit their holiday pay. Many companies will allow their employees to use an additional sick day (when available) to get paid in lieu of holiday pay. A proactive manager will remind all their employees of this company policy before a holiday. In many cases it will encourage employees to act responsibly during their time off so they are able to return to work the day following a paid holiday. Or they will have no grounds to complain or feign ignorance of the company’s policy when their next paycheck is missing a day’s wage. Managers who actively plan to minimize the negativity of vacation time still must struggle with the 3 to 5 weeks vacation time earned each year by long tenured service staff. This will require additional creativity in effectively allocating use of vacation days. Managers can actively encourage voluntary use of vacation days during those times of year when service calls are historically slow. Depending on how you accrue your vacation time, usually a few technicians will have excess vacation time that has to be taken before the end of the year. Depending on the size and scope of your service department you can make a general announcement at your next service meeting or talk to techs on an individual basis. Encourage your staff to take that Wednesday before Thanksgiving as a vacation day. If you don’t have a lot of takers you can always offer a bonus that Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Techs can take the full day off and only use 4 hours of vacation hours. This equalizes the fact that your office will probably be closing early that day. It’s also a great opportunity for your staff members who are planning an out of town holiday trip to leave early. Taking the day before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve as a vacation day will eliminate being stuck in holiday traffic. Whatever the case, proactive managers encourage their staff to use some of their vacation time over the holidays when service labor needs are low. Anything that encourages taking time off during historically non-busy days will maximize the value of having a full staff during busier times. When encouraging the use of vacation time is not practical, it is the manager’s responsibility to structure the use of service staff labor hours in other ways. Rather than just shrugging your shoulders and having everybody kick back for a couple weeks, great managers plan ahead and maximize the use of the labor hours of all employees. Keep in mind you pay the same amount of hourly wage on December 24th as you pay on January 24th. Here are some activities techs can do when they are not busy with service calls: • In house technical cross-training on equipment • Research and evaluate new vendor opportunities for compatible products • Read and report to peers on industry trends, new equipment and software • Prepare used equipment for your MPS fleet • Clean the shop • Inventory parts in service vehicles • Inventory warehouse parts • Remove usable parts and assemblies from ‘graveyard/junk’ equipment • Recycle or throw away obsolete equipment • Reorganize and label off-lease equipment waiting to be returned • Prepare for CompTIA certifications • Service and sales staff sit down together and discuss mutual needs • Clean parking lot and exterior of building • Detail and wax your company vehicle You get the idea. Have a plan. During non-busy times, assign some techs to stay in the office and work on an assigned project. Each hour of a service employee’s time should be used to maximize their value to your company. When an hour of paid labor time is wasted it can never again be resold. Great managers plan activities that are always moving the competency and earning capabilities of your staff forward. Ronelle Ingram, author of Service With A Smile, also teaches service seminars. She can be reached at ronellei@msn.com