Maintaining Your Team Of Efficient Electricians

Inefficiencies can drag down any business, regardless of what industry you work in. However, there are some types of businesses where those same inefficiencies can be felt a magnitude of times over. If you work with a team of electricians, then they are always going to be moving from one job to the next, and their ability to efficiently and effectively complete each job, and transition smoothly to the next, can have a major impact on your ability to make a profit. The answer isn't simply to crack the whip and expect them to work faster. You can take a systematic approach to eliminating inefficiency from their roles to enhance their performance significantly. 

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Streamline the training and onboarding process
A little uncertainty can be expected from new hires, who might not yet be used to the specific practices that your team works to. The quicker you can get your team members out into the field, without rushing them, the better it will be for them. Working with training teams and creating a thorough onboarding process can ensure that this happens, and also sets up standardized ways of working so that you don't have different team members working to different standards. It creates a quick, uniform approach to onboarding and training that your team will benefit from.

Work out the KPIs that help you measure efficiency
You might have a “feeling” that your team members are not being as efficient as they can be, but until you're able to measure that, and the metrics by which you judge it, it can be hard to communicate it to your team. What's more, it can be difficult to pinpoint where exactly, the inefficiencies are popping up. Think about which might be the most important employee performance KPIs to keep track of, whether they are goal-based, measuring the quality of work, or otherwise. This can help you find the direction in which you need to improve, rather than having to perform guesswork at it.

Ensure your customers have a dedicated point of support
Sometimes, allowing your customers to have direct contact with the members of the team who work with them on the field can allow them to quickly communicate their needs and have them fulfilled. However, electricians can quickly have their day bogged down by such communications if they're allowed to run unchecked. It's a good idea to have a member of the team whose job it is specifically to communicate with customers and to relay to your workers when necessary while being able to field a lot of the questions themselves at the same time.

Make your team more aware of time
Again, you don't want your team to rush through their work, leading to a greater chance of making mistakes on the job. However, if you can make employees more aware of the time they're spending on each job, then they're more likely to avoid wasting that time. There are time-tracking apps that you can have them install, for instance, and encourage them to log the time spent on each job, as well as what they entailed. You don't necessarily even have to directly hold them accountable. Keeping these metrics a visible part of the day may make them more likely to stay on top of it, themselves.

Maintain a good command center
You can help your workers stay a lot more efficient if you have a command center that can stay on top of things for them. Managing their workflow could be a lot easier with the help of tools like field service management software. You can keep track of each job and each team on the road, making it easier to allocate your resources in a way that is most efficient and effective. It also allows you to centrally control things like scheduling, invoicing, and customer management so that your electricians don't have to do it for you.

Don't forget about the journey, too
Electricians spend a lot of time on the road, moving from job to job. If you're really trying to make them as efficient as possible, then you might want to think about GPS fleet tracking technology that you can install on their vehicles. Being able to provide information on the best routes to take to any job, or to find any time-wasting in their driving can work to eliminate some inefficiency.

Of course, the best way to wipe out inefficiency from your business is to keep an eye out for it. You need to find the solutions that work specifically to the needs of your own business and team.