[Stonehenge]

I'm putting together an incentive package for my foreman this winter, and right now I'm working on the paver installation part of this package. What I'm hoping to get some input on is what kinds of things I should measure.

So to lay out a scenario, a foreman completes a project on Monday. On Tuesday morning, I go out to that site. The things I look at to determine if a quality job was done are:

Uniformity of pavement (specifically, uniform pitch)
Adequate base prep (was base prepared at least 6" beyond perimeter of pavers?)
Uniformity of pattern (straight bond lines, etc)
Accuracy of installation relative to design
Cut quality - uniform gaps, accurate angles
Paver color mix (did they blend pallets well)
Cleanliness of completed site (did they leave any messes)

What else should I add to this list?

Also, is there a good way to test quality of base prep? Should I have foreman take pics of excavation, pics of compacting stone in lifts, so I can verify this step is being done?

Thanks in advance for the input!!

[Will Pacala]

You should add if cleanup was completed. Especially if equipment was used make sure either there were no tracks or that any tracks left behind were raked and reseeded.

[Rex Mann]

Jeff,

Are you checking these items out when you do a final client/homeowner walk-through?

I would add how was the foreman/crew interaction with the client.

Also, do you really need to micro-manage your crews? I do not think you want to be playing "big brother" with your crews. Part of growing your business is to empower and trust your field people.

Peace,

Rex

[dan deutekom]

I think Rex has hit the nail right on the head. Having a foreman is kind of like bringing up a kid. At some point you have to let go and trust them. I think you will find that if things look right during your final walk through with the client, the unseen details will be to. Once you have faith and trust in your crews then you can personally do the things you need to do that make your business grow.

Dan

[Will Pacala]

You both got the right idea. If you be the big brother all the time they will never be able to go off on there own end of the buisness. That leads to you doing the majority of the work. Not a good thing.

[Stonehenge]

Hmmm.... That presents a problem. How do you measure quality without actually measuring? Without it we're left with just productivity, and I'm a firm believer that your incentives are what motivate behavior.

I don't recall if I told this story before here, but the Upper Peninsula of Michigan used to be the home of mining towns. Both of my grandfathers worked in mines for a living up there. One mining company decided to provide incentives based on ore production. The miners, now able to control their own fate and improve their techniques, found a way to get more ore by using less dynamite when blasting. The ore was plentiful, and so were the bonuses, so much so that management became jealous. They wanted to change the system. They saw how little dynamite was being used, and wanted to reduce the amount of bonus. So they changed the incentive to be based on the amount of dynamite they used. Guess what? They blew the place to kingdom come, ramming every hole with as much explosives as it'd hold.

So my fear is, give them a bonus based on speed, and speed is what I'll get. There needs to be a quality measure that balances that out. It's not about being big brother, it's about dangling the carrot in the right direction.

I do think you are right about the final walk-through - if things look good when done, it's pretty likely that the right steps were taken during the installation. If they goofed or took shortcuts in base prep, that short-cut mentality will probably show up in more visible areas as well.

as for final walk-throughs with the client, I guess I've never made a point of them. If the client was home when we finished, I'd ask them to step outside and we'd go through the work. But if they weren't home, I wouldn't schedule another time to walk through with them...no time to do it.

So I may have to do a 2 for 1 and do walkthroughs and work appraisal at the same time.

[Paul]

Speed only counts if the work is done right. So if they are cutting back on quality for speed then the job's not done right.

I can always tell if we shorted base because we will have too much extra.

The real question is why do you need a package now? have you found the foremen that you want to keep? If you have I would be talking to them about what they are looking to add to your company first then think what is the proper salary for them. Bonuses are incentives that you use after they become familiar with your work and you need to give them more to make your business more profitable.

If this doesn't make sense please disregard, too much pain meds LOL

[Stonehenge]

Here's another question I have: Let's say a year from now we get a call back that is found to be due to inadequate base prep. How do you factor that into any kind of incentive?

[dan deutekom]

Jeff

I think that final walk through with the client is just about the most important part of the job. You get to read how they perceive your work and your crews, you can feel them out for other work and referrals and it shows the client your pride and concern for the job. I know it is hard to find the time but I think it is most rewarding to make it a point.

[Stonehenge]

I think the post makes sense. But using quantity of stone left over as the only measure of quality does not seem like enough.

I also have always been fond of the idea of making employees put some skin in the game. The more they learn, the more efficient they become, the more they make (and the more I make). I would just as soon give them a slightly lower pay and a slightly higher potential bonus. In fact, that's the system I'm drawing up right now. As it is designed today, each foreman will have the potential to earn over $6,000 (US) in bonuses for the season. Note, this is potential, not guaranteed. They may walk away with nothing at the end of the year (though if they do, they will likely also be handed their walking papers, as something will have gone very wrong if that happens).

[Stonehenge]

Dan - good post. I have always used a questionnaire with the final bill - next year I can just leave it with them (along with the bill) when we walk through.

[agla]

Ultimately the idea is to get him to think like you. It all gets down to three elements. They are the work quality, speed, and the control of expense. Quality gets you more money for each job. Speed gives you the ability to do more jobs. Control of expenses is what what separates the wheat from the chaf.

The thing that incentives do is program a response. The difficult thing is to set it up so that the programed response is the one that suits your needs.

If you set up a quantified system, $x per square foot, for example, the incentive puts square feet above all else. You are obligated to pay the bonus, yet other things may suffer.

I would suggest a much less formal system. Maybe try writing down what matters to you on a particular day on a particular job before it realy gets rolling. Go over it with the foreman (or whomever might get the bonus). At the end of the job, run down the list with a qualified critique. Drive home, the importance of quality, speed, and control of expenses each and every time. Let him know how good a job he did and hand him a bonus check that reflects how well those three criteria were met.

That does not leave him with a specific task of square feet, or how much time to shoot for, etc,... In other words it does not set up a measurable task for him to get side tracked on. Instead he starts to see that you are rewarding the overall performance of quality, speed, and the control of expense. He should learn to search for new ways to achieve higher levels in the big picture if you are throwing him bones based on that.

If you have a specific check list for him that you do every time, it is human nature for him to focus only on the specific things that earn the extra money. That is not what makes YOU successful, so don't make it his key to success either. You have to adapt minute by minute to ensure quality, speed, and the control of expense. Make it so that he does too.

You don't know exactly how much you'll wind up with at the end of the job. What you do know is that if you constantly control quality, speed, and expense, you will wind up with more at the end of the job. You have to get him to feel that way too.

Bottom line:
1. Let him know what specifics you expect to be done on each job.
2. Remind him to focus on quality, speed, and the control of expense.
3. When the job is done, take him around and show him what he did well, what needs work, let him know that it should have gone quicker (if it should have), and where he controled expenses well and where he did not.
4. Hand him a check, keep it modest, but reflect the profit margin on the job.
5. Do not tell him specifically how you came up with the dollar amount.
6. Remind him that it was given to him for how he managed the quality, speed, and the control of expense.
7. Let him know that you are monitoring these things and that you will throw him a bone from time to time when it is deserved.
8. Follow through, WHEN IT IS DESRVED.
9. Don't do it like clock work for every job. You don't want it to become like a salary or it will no longer be an effective incentive. Doubt is a motivator.
10. Make his hourly pay his primary source of income. It is a measurement of your value to him. It is a measure of self worth to landscapers as wll as football players (Pats 7-2, How's Buffalo now, Lawyer?).

Incentives should be perks. They should motivate. They should not become a commission system for paying foreman.

That is my perspective. I am not saying it is THE way.

[Rex Mann]

The final walk through gives closure to the job for you, knowing the client is happy and satisfied. It also acts as a great tiedown and reaffirming of the value your firm delivered to them. Also, its the best time to ask for referrals.

Peace,

Rex

[Stonehenge]

I do appreciate your response, Agla. However, if I'm running two crews, and making the designs and sales required to keep them busy, coming up with individual golas from day to day seems like it would actually be harder than to have an established system. I do recognize the inherent difficulty in an incentive plan that motivates the correct behavior - in a prior life I helped design the incentive package for a 2,000 person company. With that one I believe we went overboard, making the measures very accurate, but so complicated it was impossible for employees to understand (heck, we couldn't even explain it - how could we expect them to work with it?).

So part of my quality measure is customer satisfaction - that part I have no worries about designing and defining (which is why I didn't inquire about that here). That's been part of our ops for awhile. Just not tied to an incentive yet. But I also recognize that the clients will often not even notice something that is a glaring mistake to me. That's why I also want to be involved in the measuring of quality.

Here's a question I direct at you, Agla. If you have quality and you have speed, won't expense control almost automatically fall in line?

[dan deutekom]

If you have quality and speed, expense control is the most easily lost thing. You can &8%6 away a lot of extra dollars to obtain the first two things.