Last week, we discussed how missing even ONE air mover on a job is hurting your business.
Missed that blog post? Read it HERE
So what if you realize that your team is not calculating air movers according to the S500 standard? What can you do to incentivize calculating air movers and avoid losing profit?
Try these 2 steps:
- At your next team meeting, help your technicians see what a big difference calculating air movers makes on the business. Helping them understand why they need to calculate air movers goes a long way.
- Come up with an incentives program (Keep reading for an example incentives program), discuss it with your team, and implement it.
Step 1: Help your team understand why using the S500 Standard for calculating air movers is important
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Print this AIR MOVER EXERCISE for each technician and play this video at your next team meeting. It will help your team see whether there is room for improvement and will help them see on paper the impact that calculating air movers has on the business.
Help them understand that calculating air movers according to the S500 standard has these 3 benefits:
- If we are properly calculating air movers, we KNOW that we are doing work according to the standard
- Since the correct number of air movers has been used, it maximizes the efficiency of the drying project
- When you calculate the air movers on a job, you make the profit that should have been made on the job in the first place.
Step 2: Incentivize using the S500 standard in calculating air movers
There are so many ways you can do this. Today, we’re going to talk about one possible way to do it.
One possible way could be setting up a compensation system that pays your technicians a lower hourly rate, coupled with compensating, oh let’s just say, $1/day per air mover they set.
In order to receive compensation, they would have to:
- Calculate the air movers per the S500 standard and show proof of their calculation and provide proof that they indeed used the right amount of equipment.
- Provide drying documentation to show that they dried until the building was dry.
How do you determine how many air movers are needed?
According to the IICRC S500 Standard, here is how to determine how many air movers are needed:
– 1 per room
– 1 per every 50-70 sq ft of affected space
– 1 per every inset or offset over 18”
– 1 per every 100-150 sq ft of affected wall or ceiling space above 24”
Want a cheat sheet for air mover, dehumidifier, and AFD calculations? Download it HERE for free
Now, the problem is, you could have multiple crews doing all different types of things and everyone may not get the same compensation opportunities. Now what?
Well, one way you could do it is every month, track how many air movers and how many days were set total. In other words, if documentation was turned in, then put them into a spreadsheet that can track that. Then, once a month distribute that amount based on how many hours that each person worked on those jobs.
For example, let’s say in January your team set 400 days of air movers. So, based on the compensation rate of $1/day per air mover set, you know that $400 in that type of compensation goes into the system. If a technician worked 7% of the hours during that month, they would get 7% of that money.
A way to positively reinforce this compensation system is by having a whiteboard or TV in the tech room where they can see the spreadsheet and see what they can expect. By having a visual, you help keep it in the forefront of their minds.
Conclusion
So, there you have it! The 2 steps to incentivizing your technicians to calculate (not guess) how many air movers to use on a job:
Step 1: Help your team understand why using the S500 Standard for calculating air movers is important.
Step 2: Incentivize using the S500 standard in calculating air movers
