For example, if he signs a contract for a $100,000 project, he does not load that entire amount into a single month.
The month that project starts might only have $30,000 in revenue attributed to it. “So I can look at how many employees I need to reach that $30,000 for the month,” he notes.
6. Create a Company Org Chart. It might seem like busy work, but having an organizational chart even for a small custom installation company is vital. According to Bodley, the most important role of an org chart is for hiring.
“Draw up an org chart and include a job description in each box and use that for hiring. The description will allow you to better compare the necessary skills of the position with the job candidate’s skills,” he notes.
Crawford has job descriptions in his company org chart with Key Performance Indicators that he uses during an employee’s personnel review. He has weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual KPIs in the job descriptions. For example, an administrative office manager might have specific KPIs to clean the office weekly and answer phones in a timely manner.
7. Conduct Simple 90-Day Evaluations. While some integrators like to conduct a 30-day review for a new employee, Bodley says that can sometimes be unfair for a technician. “We did a 90-day evaluation … strictly thumbs up/ down from them and from you,” he says. “Remember, you are measuring them, but they are gauging you as a company too.”
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Crawford follows that formula. He typically does 90-day reviews for new hires. But for technicians, he also conducts a two-week and one-month review because the job is so important to the success of his company. He then holds a six-month review for installers, then annually thereafter.
“The bottom line is that if you have issues with someone, don’t wait 11 months to talk with them about it,” he remarks.
8. Conduct ‘A to F’ Annual Evaluations. Doing job performance reviews are imperative, but often are perceived as a time-wasting chore by both the manager and the employee. “We did annual evaluations during which the employee grades himself A to F in various categories,” says Bodley. “An immediate supervisor does the same thing. You are looking for the gaps/differences between the two.”
King echoes this idea. “Make evaluations as easy as possible. They can’t be too complicated. We had them four to five hours long at one point. We changed to make them easy … even just a thumbs up or down.”
9. Give Employees Educational Assignments. One way to quickly determine if an employee is hungry to learn and grow is to assign them to take an online CEDIA course during their own time. Bodley recommends asking a technician to take a CEDIA networking course and see how they do.
“It helps you determine how much investment you want to give that person ongoing,” he says, adding that it is helpful to designate a single employee who has an aptitude for teaching to be in charge of internal training.
10. Separate the Evaluations. If a performance evaluation is combined with a financial evaluation, it is likely that the employee is in a zombie-like trance during the discussion about their performance … he or she is only waiting to hear how much of a raise they are going to receive.
That’s one reason Bodley advises CE pros to separate the financial analysis from the performance evaluation. One way to do it is have the performance review in January and the financial review in June or July. The added benefit of waiting six months into the year to dole out raises is that it gives you a good gauge of how the company is performing against budget for the year.
