In this edition of Junk Removal Made Simple Lee talks about the proper way to manage your junk removal team members. www.junkremovalauthority.com www.junkdrs.com Subscribe to this channel for all the best junk removal industry info Like and follow us on Facebook at Junk Removal Authority
Alright, guys, another episode of Junk Removal made simple by the Junk Removal Authority.
Today we are going to talk about team member management.
Remember, what we always want to talk about here at Junk Removal Authority is building a business. No serious business does not have team members. So, if you’re not going to have even 1 team member, then you’re not a serious business. At Junk Removal, you’ve got to have somebody to help you. You could do some jobs by yourself, but there are more jobs than which would not require a helper. With this, you’ve got to have team members.
Now, when you first started, your life would be on the truck. Depending on the situation, most of you will start on the truck. At least some in the very beginning, as you get everybody hired and train people to do what they need to do, one of the key things is what happens when you are off the truck. Doing your most profitable work which is sales marketing and your work behind the scenes of your business. This includes being the face of your business, doing the long-term planning of your business, making sure that your equipment and requirement is excellent condition. The most important thing is getting out there and getting more sales or your business.
Get Great People
Right from the start, one of the keys of team member management is to hire great people. So, if you want your organization to have a reputation of having amiable people work form, then you should hire friendly people. That is the entire key to having great reviews on having how friendly your people are and hire great people. Hire personality first, and appearance second. What I mean about appearance is, are you going to allow visible tattoos? Junk doctors do not allow visible tattoos because if you have one, then you have to be willing to cover it everywhere like long sleeves or whatever. Apparently for the hair is how long your hair is you going to allow. Talking about your uniform policy, I like to make sure that everybody is up to your appearance standards which are also in the second.
The third thing is to hire strength. A typical interview is going to last about 15 mins, but if your interviews are lasting any longer, then you are wasting time. You will not know how somebody’s going to do with Junk Removal until you’ve actually gotten them out the truck and see what they’re made of. Guys, they say that in the corporate job, you are not interviewing somebody to lead your marketing team or to do some IT work. You are also not interviewing an executive for your position, but you are interviewing a truck team laborer. You can tell that somebody has a good personality if first when somebody comes in and they’re right and not looking at you. If they came late at all, even a minute late, they can’t interview with us. They’re done if somebody was going to be late on an interview then they are going to be late for the job, and you can’t tolerate tardiness. You give the appearance right, then hire the strength third. Let me tell you that some small guys are very strong that’s not going beat up a lot. So, one thing you can do is keep some bulky items like a rear projection screen, tv or whatever kind of stuff around the office and you can try them out. We’ve got a waiver that they actually sign before they are lifting saying they are not working for us. They’re trying out to potentially get a job which we need to see if they have the strength to do it. They wave and releases an emphasis on reliability, should they get hurt while they are lifting the heavy items. That is not a bad thing to do until you have to get them out of the truck, you are not for sure of what they’re made of. You can kind of make judgments here and take them out there, you’ll not know.
What we generally recommend doing is day 1 after you hire them is get their paper works done and then give them the operation manuals. Now if you partner with JRA, you already have a complete set of operations manual for them to go through. So, you’ve got your entire business package for JRA, everything that needs to be done is documented. If you start your own business and you chose not partnering with JRA, then you need to develop some operations manuals. When you are fertile or new, you’re not going to know what you are doing anyway. But develop some basic operations manuals out of what you expect and then just amend those operations as you learn what you’re doing. So, you want to give them the operations manuals and do the paper works. This is going to be your NC 4 for North Carolina is NC4 which will be your state’s tax form, W4I9 and make a copy of your driver’s license, social security card, and all that good stuff. If they are going to drive, send over there the information to the insurance company for driving. You should have a checklist of what you need to do, and again, partners of JRA will have that. They’ll know everything that needs to get done from start to finish. I am hiring somebody, but you need to develop your own checklist about your hiring procedures. Don’t spend a lot of time talking over on this first day or what you expect on the operand and operations manuals. Like when for a long time, we used to spend 2-3 hours on their first day of training. They were going through operations and a couple of people when I spent spend like 2-3 hours of my time covering what is expected, or what they would show for the next day. Things might happen like they work 1 day and they’re done so they won’t give up man to do paperwork.
Then, we also recommend a 2-week probationary period. During that 2 weeks, either us or them could basically cut loose at any point. Now you might be able to do a 1-week probationary period because, after 2-3 days, the majority of team members will know if this is the kind of work they can do or they want. On the first day, have them start out with nothing to prove. You might want to do this for 2 days unless they just hit the ball out of the park. The first time, your team members are going to be happy with the saying that they know exactly what they’re doing with no issues or whatsoever. You also might able to turn loose on the second day, but it’s always a good idea to work them as a third person for the first couple of days. Because they’re more likely to no-show their first few days. If they get out there and their works too hard for them to strain, it’s too hot, encounter something nasty they don’t like, and they’re more likely drop out in the first few days and then later on. Once they’ve worked a full day, at that point, you need to meet with them and go over the operations manuals and really train them up. At that point, you really need to make sure that they’re going to be an excellent, valuable team and perform for you. Yes, they are going to put much effort as you can into making sure that they need to know what needs to be done and how to do it.
You need to be strict on tardiness. Our tolerance to tardy policy is that you’re allowed 3 or 4 quarters, anything more than that is you’ll have a meeting with the GM and this case Christian. And if your tardy on the day or quote you’re going to lose, 1 minute late is considered tardy. If they show up and they don’t have their shirt tucked in or wrinkly, they are not dressed in uniform or haven’t eaten, that’s also considered tardy. You’re tardy unless you show up to work on time ready to work. You are not prepared to work if your shirts untucked and all that kind of stuff. You must be very strict on this because if you don’t, the team members that you’ll have that are getting on time and doing their part and working on time. Let’s say, for example, we’ll notice that Joe keeps coming in and he is late all the time, and nothing is happening. They’re going to start hitting that snooze button and stay in bed a little bit. Before you know it, everybody shows 5, 10 or 15 minutes late which would throw your entire day. If you like Junk Doctors and you know that one crew is doing anywhere from 4 – 7 jobs in a day. One guy being late throws off your entire day and you keep getting off late jobs which is a no.
Aim For Top Quality Work
Don’t tolerate mediocrity, so if you’re having to correct somebody again and again regularly, and it’s just not getting through their head, you need to cut them loose. You want to be compassionate with your people, but you are taking risks. You are the one who is taking out loans, and it’s a lot harder for you to quit if something goes wrong with one of your team members. Look out for yourself in this, you want to be fair to your team members and try and make sure they get ours. Again, just be honest and compassionate towards them but don’t get too emotionally involved.
It should be very seldom that you come across a team member who is actually your friend. It’s excellent and easy to look at them as a friend, but the problem is they probably learned in return. I’ve got far too many members to loan the money that never got paid back or lend the money. Another scenario has they quit too shortly or right after, or they would ask all for the next day. I do my best and try to spend the time to try to find somebody else to cover them to get them off. There have been dozens of things that we’ve done for team members, and it’s like they think that you’re making all the money and you can afford to do it. You’re not really going to do them a huge favor that they make you enough money that they can do whatever. As soon as they get a better chance, they’ll leave you high and dry though. They’ll quit or something even without them showing up. I remember one guy, in particular, this guy’s name was Scott. Scott and I got a long break. He was really nice, big guy, and a great worker too. I think a week or 2 before, I talked about having lunch together with him or kind of cut up and everything. Then one day, all of a sudden, he didn’t show up. Three days in a row, we never heard from him. Before he made contact with me, I found out that he was okay and I was about to call and had a more extended check on him. This is because nobody heard from him if he had not communicated with me or any other co-workers. I didn’t know if the guy was dead, laid up in his apartment or whatever. I was about to send the cops in and make contact and said he was okay with one of his team members. He would not talk to me until I told him that for him to get his last check, he had to kept shirts and operation manuals in. We had a paper manual at that time and him meeting with me. After that he wasn’t getting his last check, he showed up with no apology or anything, and I don’t think he’d ever register him. I was disappointed when he left, but I was worried about him too. That was the main thing that I was anxious about him.
So, you are taking all the risk here and make sure you are looking out for yourself. And when the time comes that somebody has not held up the ring, get rid of them and find somebody else, everybody’s got to perform.
Now, one of the things you can ask is, I love this, ask would you rehire. So, knowing what you know now about that team member would you hire them again? If the answer is no, you need to get rid of them and if the answer is yes or maybe, look into it further and correct the problem. If you can’t get it corrected, then you’ll need to get rid of them. So that right there is what I always do and think about firing somebody I say, wouldn’t I rehire them. That just only tells me what needs to be done right then.
Documentation Is Essential
Always document everything. Documenting everything will help you avoid lawsuits and unemployment claims. I’ve had more people file for unemployment when they were let go because they could get into work in time, or they cussed out another team members or customers, or they treated the customers very well. What saved my bacon was I documented in from the start I documented everything. So, unemployment Commission comes, and they’re like you ever go pay these guys some unemployment money. I said no I’ll not because here is what he did on this date. This date he was late, while on this date he cussed in front of a team member. Another date, I had camera footage in the truck where he was cursing out a team member and sending inappropriate thing about me. You know, he’s not getting employment. That’s different by some states which states that a lot or only employees side of unemployment. And then it becomes more critical to make sure you document everything. State of North Carolina, we’ve got a pretty good one because they’re generally stating that’s only the employer side, so it’s not that hard. In North Carolina, it is a right to work state generally unemployment at least in this state. In most states, unemployment applies only to people who are mainly laid off. If you just got cut because of a downturn in the economy, they shut down a division, usually something like that. Your unemployment especially in the case of North Carolina, if they did anything wrong and you are fired with calls, then you are not eligible for unemployment. Make sure you document everything, or that’s hard to prove.
Watch Out For Employee Loans
Generally, no loans because if you do it with one person, everybody is going to expect it. Now, if you are going to do a loan, the only way you should do it is by getting collateral. What I mean by that is like having a pay advance but always do it after they’ve already worked or even at least the amount you owe them for the pay advance. For example, I recently violated this rule, and I’m the only one among my team members who have some money. For what I did, he was one of the thousand dollars, and I said no. Long story short, he’s moving into a new place why he’s doing his old. He’s going to have to pay double rent. He’s been with us for several years and was a good team member. Even then, what I did when he wanted to borrow a thousand dollars. I said I could lend you a thousand, but I’m not going to loan you a thousand old once. What I’m going to do is I’m going to loan you 500 today or this Friday, and I love you and 500 the next Friday. Reason being is right, I knew he’d make farmer in, and he’s going to make sure he got another hour. He is going to work enough where he’s going to make 500 bucks and already made 500 on that week. And then I was going to make sure that he made another 500 the following week. That way if something happens, I’ve got collateral. I’ve got the time he’s worked and you merely just deduct that from his check. So always let team members have collateral, don’t do what I did where I lost too much money. I’ve lost a couple thousands of dollars learning that team members never get paid back.
No tolerance on drug use when it’s apparently affecting the team’s performance. And if you suspect it, that they’re on drugs like personality change, this means there on it. A drug addict is extremely good at conceiving and lying. Most drug addicts are very good at lying. They have been lying their whole life about the drug problem. We’ve encountered issues from the past and kind of say well something’s has changed about him. Asking him is he on drugs, and he says no, and every time you proved it to be right. Any suspicion on drug usage, an urgent care can provide a drug test. Have them go to or accompany them at urgent care and take a drug test. You can see the results under no circumstances or whatsoever. Even if you begin to suspect somebody’s on drugs to allow them to draw them. They, the drug users and addicts, probably shouldn’t work. With all these, if you have the slightest suspicion until you get the drug tests results back, they don’t do drugs. That’ll just open yourself up to issues there.
Pay For Performance
When things are unlike, find ways so they can earn a commission. I want my team leaders especially when there’s an opportunity to make money, I want to pay them fairly. And also give them the opportunity to earn money if they excel. What we do is that we have some marketing programs that we do if it leads to jobs. It’s team members putting out flyers and yard sign signs, stuff like that, pay the team member’s commissions for any jobs that the bring that off. One of the other things we are doing is we are talking about this in the past, and we are to be shipping a model to where we are going to start selling items we get by getting ready to start building a store. Commission percentage will be given to the team members off of anything they bring back that we can sell. This is just for team leaders, not team members because you always want to have an extra incentive for them. These are the people who drive quick jobs, and you want to make them feel really appreciated for the extra responsibility they have and make a decent amount more money than your navigators. You might want to give a reason to become a team leader.
You kind of run out of real estate here, so I’m going to move up sort of skip around a little and use cameras. Vehicle cameras are a bit pain in the ass that if you want a live feed. If you wish to live feed on ours but it’s 30 or 40 bucks a month per truck. Getting an excellent, reliable signal is hard. Vehicle camera is a little bit of pain for sure and all but make sure you get recorded. I suggest you have some trucks with live camera and put it in team members you might trust a little bit less. All these trucks with live cameras and they can just rotate them too. So, we’ve got multiple trucks just rotating to see people around. With different trucks, you can watch them live. Always have GPS on your vehicle. You want to see the people are spending 45 minutes at a breakfast place. First thing in the morning, you should have eaten already. You know where they are for customer calls and ask an ETA you can’t kid with them. So, cameras and GPS, you can’t be on the truck with everybody but through the use of a camera and GPS Tracker, you can. The only people that dislike cameras are people that are doing something wrong and the ones that are doing everything right like cameras. That weeds out the ones that are doing things wrong. Cameras are good so don’t worry about people thinking you’re invading the privacy because first, they are in your vehicle and they are your property, and lastly, they are paid by you. With these, you have the right to know what they’re doing is correct.
Check time cards daily. Verify time every single day, at the end of the day or the next day. Make sure nobody has forgotten the clock in and clocked out. What we generally do is match-up team members so if Joe was working with John, then make sure John clocked out about the same time as Jim and Joe same with John. In that way, we can make sure that everybody is doing what they should as far as time management. When you have a policy, teach them why behind it. For example, one of the policies we have is when you knock on somebody’s door. As soon as you knock, you take two steps down, and you turn. You don’t want to be right up on too close or too far away because that seems too distant. The key is 2 steps, the reason behind is that if you’re too close, you’re crowding them there. There was one of the most successful pizza delivery men of all time actually ran numbers in any track on his spreadsheet. How were his tips were or words were when he was on the same level as the person answering the door when he had taken a step down or even when he had taken the 2nd step down. He got more tips by far on the second step down than that he did on the 3rd or 4th step-down. Now we’re on the first term or the base level, he had a lot more tips consistently from that second level. This is the reason why junk Doctors uses the knock and 2 steps down when greeting somebody.
When you’re looking to advance or opening up a new position be it somebody answering the phone or book jobs, a dispatched person we call them ATC here at Junk Doctors that kind of wraps trucks all over the place. Somebody that’s going to make me run a store if you are selling some of the islands. Anytime you have a higher position that comes available, all for it to think about trying to offer it to an existing team member first. If you don’t have somebody think would be good at it, then hire outside and promote within. I just want to reiterate every successful business out there, for the most part, every real business has people that work for it, you must be willing to get out there and to hire people. I hear business owners all the time especially when I first started back when I was hanging out with when I was kind of a less successful. Business owners, a lot of times and they’d always talk about the problem with business is people. Problem is the people, the problem is employees. I can’t stand employees, and they always show up late and leave early or even take too long to lunch break. They also do not care about their work and do the bad quality of work. That’ll only happen if you hire the wrong people or you don’t supervise them and train them right. Your most amount of stress, except for a slow day is going to be dealing with team members. As you get larger, the easier it actually gets to a certain point. It’s not bad when it’s you or 2 other guys, and you’re both on the truck. If everybody gets along pretty good and there are generally 2 good people you are working with. The challenging part is to where you get between like 4 or ten. It actually depends on how many team members you have. But before a 10-team member, somewhere in there gets to be a bit challenging, when you get up to 13, 14, 15 team members. Then what happens is you less reliant on one person. They actually know that because they actually got to do an excellent job because it’ll be a lot easier to replace them that you don’t rely on them as much when you have more people. You’ll just have a few people, 4,5 or 6 people especially who shows up late who think they can get away with it. Do not allow them to get away with it. But it does get easier as you have more people that you weed out the bad ones and things get to start a lot smoother.
The other thing, never rely on one. In business you tell, let’s get the number to be one unless your Junk Doctors or Raleigh or Charlotte or Greensburg. And you are doing more than anybody else, in your particular market, unless your number one, you don’t want anything to do with one. You don’t want 1 team member to rely on or one customer that brings the majority of your business. You know one advertising method that brings the majority of your business. For example, you need to scare the hell out of me, which is the primary way of getting business was through AdWords. And finally, I developed a marketing plan where we got a lot of business from a lot of avenues. And then also, just as we were business long, we had more previous clients coming, and referral from those previous clients. If you help it, you don’t want 1 truck. We first start, if you have 1 truck, then tr making a new one makes it something reliable downtime kills you. Or instead of buying 1 more truck, maybe you get 2 lightly used trucks but still, make sure they’re reliable or whatever. If you then have 1 truck, you might have to get started, or a rental agreement already in places like a U-Haul or budget. This can be your backup option and just try and get a second truck as soon as possible because you need that back-up in place. Just never ever rely on one team member because if you have a big day coming up and you’re a no-show, you are in trouble. So, what you might wind up doing is when you really need 1 person. When you first start like when we first open a new location, would you only hire 3 or 4 people? We got up to 6, and this happened by the 3rd month of operation depending on when we start if it was starting to slow it could be later and if we start a busy season, that’ll make it different.
But what you might want to do is make a flier and give it outside and stuff like that they put out to stay busy. This happened for them to get enough time that they want to keep working with you. But go ahead and pay the 10 hours a week or whatever then risk just having 1 team member. The other thing is Junk Removal is cyclical from week to week. Overall, you know that the weather affects you more in the north, but you can still stay and be pretty busy. It can be cyclical from week to week like rain hurts where it rains several days of road that slows you down. The thing is if you’re slow for a day, you’re going to have a hard time making it up on the other days. You’ll be so busy you can’t keep up and be wearing out your one team member. So always make sure to have an extra team member, not only 1.
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Remember, Junk removal Authority is the source to help you start working to grow and expand your Junk Removal Business. We Provide complete business packages which take you to the idea to the opening day or everything in between. This includes your logo design, website, initial AdWords set-up, initial social media set-up or even us coming to you. We’ve got complete websites which says that say you agree and they’re great for AdWords. We provide AdWords management or any you need for your Junk Removal Business. Talk to us, email me at [email protected] and call +1 919-466-9322. You follow me on Facebook at Lee Godbold, and you can also follow our Junk Doctors page and really just look forward to everybody that hook this. I hope this video right here provided a lot of information for you and we’ll see you next time.