Help My Team Enter Data In SynkedUP

Pointers for entering data in SynkedUP

I got this email from a great customer and business owner this week:

“Hey, Weston as you know the season is here and we are full bore!!

Can you give me some pointers on when the guys start to get complacent, hot, tired, etc., and “forget to enter their data” this is making my office staff work harder now to track down info, enter their data, etc.”

I wrote out my response, and then was like, hmm, I should just share this with you here in the blog. I know he’s not the only one that struggles with this.

Here’s how I responded:

Hey! I hear you! It’s the 100 days of insanity right now.

Would you allow me to speak unfiltered for a bit

For me, I believe their pay has to be linked to the hours they track in SynkedUP.  Meaning if they don’t clock in and track their hours, they don’t get paid.

Now, that’s a nice idea to have, but at the end of the day, we all still make mistakes. In that way, it works best if the employee has to fix their own mistakes.

If you allow the office admin to do it for them, you’re babysitting their mistakes. If they refuse to fix it, then you pay them based on the hours they DID enter. When they come to you upset about it, reinforce the policy that you can only pay based on the data you collect, which they enter.

At Tussey Landscaping, this just is the way it is. Everyone knows it, and they have no issues. It’s just known and accepted that if I want to be paid, I have to enter my hours. No resistance.

But how?

Now, I don’t know for sure if you were only referring to putting hours into SynkedUP. That’s where most people struggle if they struggle. You may also be having issues with them entering materials, photos, receipts, and all that other stuff. That other stuff is hard to link their pay to. If I put my problem-solving hat on, I am thinking: How could I motivate to get them to WANT to enter that data into SynkedUP for me?

Maybe bonus them if someone else (office admin) doesn’t need to go into SynkedUP and “clean up” their data on a per-job or per-week basis. Like creating a cash kitty, and each time someone messes up, dock the kitty, reducing the bonus, and it affects everyone. Not just the person that messed up.

It’s just finding a creative way to implement the principle of rewarding when desired actions/behavior is done, and docking when it’s not done. And it needs to affect everyone, which raises the bar and they know if they screw up, they aren’t the only ones affected, their teammates are also going to be unhappy and their carelessness will be scrutinized.

Moving beyond the tactical, it’s really important that they understand the WHY that this is important.

I’ve seen some owners stick the app under the noses of their team, and say “Here use this.” With no training or explanation. They expect the team to figure it out on their own.

This is almost guaranteed to fail.

But I’ve also seen owners make a clear effort to not only train them on HOW to use the app, HOW to enter the data, but also WHY.

This is almost guaranteed to succeed.

Why you want to enter data in SynkedUP

For example, imagine a conversation like this with your team:

We all want to grow and make more money, right?

Yes.

Ok, for you to make more money and get more opportunities, the company needs to make more money and grow. For us to make more money, we need to know our numbers, know our data, know when we screw up, so we don’t repeat the same mistakes. Understand?

Yes.

So, for us to know this, we need to track this stuff. When I ask you to enter this data, I am doing it because I want to provide better opportunities for you. A rising tide lifts all ships. And if we track this stuff, and ultimately see in live real time when a job takes longer or more material than we had expected, that allows us to respond and learn in real time. Not 30 days later when we all moved on to the next job. And the tighter we get that feedback loop, the better we can learn, the less we screw up, the more we can consistently hit our profit goals, and the more we can make and provide opportunities for all of us that work here. Does that make sense?

They should all be nodding their heads and resistance should be melting.

If it isn’t… well… the conversation might shift to “What’s your culture like?” I know on my team I want people that care, and have the desire to grow, and get better.

All that said, just from my conversations with you, I’m pretty sure you have a solid foundation. And you simply need some tweaks to get alignment and incentivize your team to do the things that are important to you. I just started typing and then zoomed out to include the bigger picture. Helps me process. I hope it’s helpful.

What do you think?

What questions does this trigger for you? I’m not here to say my examples or suggestions are the only way. I’ve seen people get creative. But I do think that in all the successful versions of this story, the team understood not only the HOW, but also the WHY.

Leave a comment and chime in on what’s worked or not worked for you. Others will soak up your experience like a sponge.

Share with the world!