Raising the bar

You’ve got a fairly reasonable building business and a team of builders or carpenters working for you, but some of them just aren’t performing up to scratch. What should you do with them? Below are some tips to help you turn things around

Whether it’s because they’re not pulling their weight or because they lack the skills you need, dealing with staff who aren’t performing as well as you’d like is a difficult issue.

Firing them is one option but in order to dismiss someone lawfully, you need to give them warnings – both verbal and written – and you are expected to give clear direction and assistance to help them improve. This is a time-consuming process that doesn’t always resolve the situation.

Finally, should you choose to fire them, you’ll have to find a replacement and there is no guarantee they’ll be better.

Creating your A-team

The good news is that improving the performance of your staff is not as difficult as it sounds, but few business owners take the time to figure out how to do it. It also costs next to nothing, meaning that the return on investment can be huge.

First, let’s define what a high-performing team looks like:

“A great performing team is a group of people who take responsibility for working together to achieve a common goal. They are capable of accomplishing their assigned tasks and understand the roles of other members.

They set and accept individual and team targets, assisting other team members as required in order to achieve their targets. Further, they learn and innovate.”

1. Define the culture you want in your company

Many builders prefer to avoid writing things down, especially long documents, since the right words can be elusive! However, writing up your company culture statement need not be difficult. You can start by making a list of the words you want your client to be able to say about your company, such as truthful, hardworking, committed, polite and resourceful.

Then ask your team to add words describing the company they’d love to join, such as fun, communicative, excellent, successful and consistent.

At a later date, you can add more words and a brief explanation, but I guarantee that if you talk about this with your team, they will soon come up with a list. You may even find one of them is happy to write it up!

Remind your team about your culture statement at each toolbox meeting. Get the key words printed on wallet-sized plastic cards. Print them out on a large card and nail it to the wall of each job, then tell your client that this is your company culture statement. Reward members that reflect your culture and hold others accountable. In time, you will reap the rewards.

Once you have identified your culture, use the same process to create a set of company rules. These are like the opposite side of your culture statements. They set the boundaries and define actions and behaviours you don’t want – actions that could result in immediate termination.

2. Focus on specific activities

Set clear and measurable achievement targets on a weekly basis (or daily for less skilled people). Don’t assume that your team members know what you are thinking. Tell them.

Ensure that team members know what is expected of them and check if their target is commensurate with their skill level.

Should a team or a team member falter, focus on ‘what would need to happen to get them back on track?’ rather than bawl them out. Help them find ways to improve by offering assistance – better tools, more supervision, written instructions etc.

Also, don’t overlook the power of providing incentives for achieving tasks ahead of schedule.

3. Nail it with training

Some of the more successful building companies we have worked with hold regular in-house training events for their apprentices, with qualified builders also welcome. Interest is generated by inviting suppliers to demonstrate new tools and materials.

This is also an excellent opportunity to take a few minutes to highlight one or more of your points of culture.

If you are a small team, you could combine with a colleague or two and run training events together, which also makes it more worthwhile for suppliers.

If you have apprentices, put together a list of the things you want them to master. It doesn’t take a lot, but it makes a big difference when both you and they know what they’re expected to achieve.

In my experience, companies that focus on training their team members end up with better staff. It’s not rocket science!

4. Create your promotional track

Some of the best building companies have clearly defined promotional tracks, attached to specific technical and leadership skill levels, along with a sliding pay scale. As a new employee gains skills and becomes of more value to the company, they progress.

Transparency provides the basis for regular reviews of performance. Moreover, because staff know precisely what is available for them at each level, the levels provide a clear incentive to learn new skills and to become more useful to the company.

These same companies look for emerging leaders and match positions to personal characteristics – as best they can.

5. Ask for feedback

Get feedback from your team. Ask them what they think, how they view the company and where they think improvements can be made.

Ask them what you could do to make them more productive. The bottom line of your building businesses is determined by the performance of the guys on the tools. So get them involved.

High-performing building companies don’t just happen, they emerge from environments where high-performing teams thrive.

Graeme Owen is a builders’ business coach at thesuccessfulbuilder.com. Since 2006, he has helped builders throughout New Zealand get off the tools, make decent money, and get more time in their lives.  Grab a copy of his free book: The 15 Minute Sales Call Guaranteed To Increase Your Conversion Rate: http://thesuccessfulbuilder.com/book-15-min-sales-call/ or join Trademates and connect with builders who are scaling too: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1832794793692377/