What to Focus On in the Off-Season - Part 4
Train Your Crew

What? Train your crew? It’s the middle of January, you worked your tail off all last year, and this time of year feels like a much-needed break. And that’s great. Take it. You deserve it.

But… winter is also your opportunity to reflect on last year, and figure out how you will work smarter, not harder in the upcoming year.

This Train Your Crew is the 4th article I’m banging out on the keyboard about the off-season. The first one was on the need to build a budget to protect your profits in the face of rising costs, the second one was on getting your jobs and schedule all prepped out, and the third was on what your foreman’s Job Folder needs to include.

Today I wanna talk about one that’s near and dear to my heart, as this is the one impacting the role I lived in for many years.

Your crew.

Training them. Asking them what would make their lives easier. Showing them the big picture, and teaching them what the company needs from them so you can successfully achieve that big picture focus and vision.

You could train your crew in many aspects – installation practices, new products you are installing, the systems you are using to track time and materials, and more.

What do you train them?

The first thing I would do is ask your crew:

• What went poorly last year? And, what went well?
• What are the things you think we could get better at?
• How could we plan/prep/communicate better to make our jobs easier?

And then from that discussion, build a list of things to train everyone on. And make sure everyone is prepped and trained to consistently do the same things and follow the same procedures all season long.

For example, if your crew’s time sheets are always messed up, train how to clock in and out more effectively. I talk to crew leaders all the time that didn’t realize their app could do X Y Z. Make sure they know all the tricks of the trade. A common one I run into from crews that use SynkedUP is they didn’t realize that they could switch work areas on a timesheet in 3 clicks.

Do you have quality control issues? Things getting missed that then cause callbacks? Maybe train how to go over all the details before leaving a job site. Maybe come up with a job close-out checklist and train on that. Make sure it’s not just another useless doc or procedure. Make sure it actually gets used. Make sure your crew buys into it. No one likes meaningless processes. It kills morale. If it doesn’t get used, either get rid of the process or replace it with a better one.

Do you have a phone tag culture problem? Your phone rings incessantly with questions like “What plants do we need to pick up?” Fix that. It’s so needless and inefficient. 

What’s your source of truth?

If this is happening, what you need is a source of truth. One place where all details for a job live. A place where the crew lead goes for answers and info to mentally prep for, manage, and execute a job. If you do not have this “source of truth” for all job info, then it’s your fault. If you have it and the crew is still calling you, it’s still your fault. Why is it still your fault? Because by not pointing them back to the info you already provided, you are enabling them and teaching them that you are the answer. And you can’t have that. You’ll be a constant bottleneck.

Foster a culture of autonomy. If they are asking you a question that you know you answered in the info you provided in the job folder, ask them if they checked their job folder. “No? Ok, check the job folder, and if you still have questions, then call me, but not until you’ve checked and tried your best.”