Crewleader incentive program

[goboilers]

The company I work for employs two four-man crews. I lead one of the crews. Starting Monday morning, each crew will have a five thousand dollar account set aside for all damaged property, abused equipment, trashed saws, etc. My boss started this program in an attempt to keep costs down. The company averages about 10 - 15 thousand per year in repairs and damages. At the end of the year, each crewleader will receive the remainder of the account as a bonus. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Some details to work out yet. How do I motivate and reward my guys, etc.

I am interested in any of your advice or opinions.
Thanks.

 

[Dan F]

Don't know if it helps or not, but I just read in an industry mag (not tree care) the other day where an excavating company (don't remember where) deducts 10 cents/hour out of all utility crew employees paychecks. This money goes into a fund to pay for any utility repairs they may have damaged. At the end of the year, whatever is left, minus $1000 (to start the fund next year), is devided up amongst the employees.

In 4 or 5 years they have only had to repair ONE damaged line.

I thought it was a good system. Gives the employees an extra incentive to work safely, plus it puts the responsibility directly on them, instead of the company as a whole. I imagine it helps with insurance, with having a safety program in place, as well as not having to make claims and all too....
Oh, yeah, I'm a Purdue guy too, so GO BOILERS!!!


Dan

 

[Menchhofer]

You will need to give them a "portion of the pie" also as an incentive to be careful and safe.

 

[Dobber]

year end safety bonus

I would also clarify if personal injury to you and your crew is counted against the total, aswell as regular maintenance and breakdowns, also theft of equipment. It is these hidden costs that cut into the bonus and crew attitude. As for sharing the end balance with the crew be careful you dont alienate anyone with the amount you give or dont give, as you will set your self up for future letdowns. I speak from experience.

 

[Pgtree]

I implemented a $10 per day bonus program per employee. They are given their bonus every 2 weeks, so $100 every 2 weeks. Any tool loss or negligent breakage comes out of their bonus. If they miss a day, I deduct 10 from their bonus. If they loose or break more than 100 worth in a 2 week period, the remainder comes out of their salary.

If something is lost and no-one claims responsibility, the cost is divided between the crew and deducted.

Before I started this program, it was getting ridiculous, now they really pay attention to that ten dollar rake or Ms. Jones flowerpot.

 

[Toddppm]

That's a great bonus system! First time I've heard of something like that. Just had a blower fall off the truck last week

I'll have to work on implementing this into next year while I work on an employee manual too. Need to figure out how to link it to perfomance also somehow.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The front line workeres need and inscentive. Most younger people need shorter goal setting, so the biweekly time frame seems better.

On that note, maybe a quarterly payout for the crew leaders would seem more realistic, then another annual payout if the budget looks good.

Separate it from the paycheck for the workers, at least in the begining. Then it is more tangible.

Maybe bonus for inhouse repair, a separate payscale maybe.

Ensure that it is only preventable accidents that are held acountable, this maintains the element of fairness. e.g. if a saw seizes and it is determined that it is not operator error, or poor maintinance on the crews part, then this is a casualty absorbed by the company.

If it from not mixing the fuel right then it comes from the crews "bonus account". If one fellow has a tendancy to gound saws regularly, then a couple chains get bought with his "disbursement", or with each disbursement comes an accounting bill for repairs for that calander period, the remainder of the funds are in the check (or a handfull of loose change)

$25/wk = 1300/ man year or 3900/crew year (minus the leader). Leaving 1100 in what is budgeted for the current program for the leader. So maybe 50-70/month would fit for the initial program better?

You and your fellow leader need to figure out what would be a reasonable split, 2500/4=625 per quarter for the foreman bonus.

(2500/3)/12=66 per man-month for the crew.

round your quarterly to 500/QTR and you have an additional 500 available for the annual "kicker"

with the crew, do say $60/month abd they have a $200 kicker available at year end.

 

[SilverBlue]

Ok a crew leader bonus plan sounds interesting however what about the crew? Won’t they get something? I could see bad feelings brewing if they know about it and don’t get a piece of the pie. I can’t deduct damages from my employees pay, against the law here.

 

[goboilers]

Thanks for the replies. The annual payout is my boss's idea. I agree quarterly sounds better. The boss's original idea was for the money to only go to the crewleader and we were susposed keep the others in line ourselveswithout incentive or reward. That for sure won't work. The only other problem I can see is the rapid turnover of some employees. If they quit or are fired do they lose their share of the loot. I guess by a quarterly system we can still work it out for the most part.

 

[treeman82]

What happens if the damages go over $5,000 / crew? Is there a stipulation about what happens in that case?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

The intent of this type of program is understandable, the implementation is fraught with caution.

Deducting from salary seems like a bad idea. Before anything like that were started the plan should be discussed with a labor attorney and someone at the state Attorney General's office. Seems to push an edge of legality.

I've run my business for 25 years and the most that I've lost is two climbing ropes and a pair of long handled loppers. When I worked for the last company before starting Canopy we lost an aluminum extension ladder. It blew off the top of the clam truck. The boss was going to stick us with the replacement but we had asked him to have a rack installed on the truck to prevent the loss.

The boss has just given the foreman a real snaky issue. If any of the foreman share the wealth different than another there will be a revolution. Not fair to make that the foreman's issue. Before the plan is implemented it would be good to have the owner and the foreman take the time to get the last details worked out.

I can't understand how there can be so much damage and loss. Do you have a guess what each crew grosses per quarter? Giving a profit/loss ration would be easier to understand.

Tom

 

[Pgtree]

Its a lot like my sons allowance, he is expected to do a certain amount of work around the house each week to earn his money. If he decides not to do a certain chore, he looses a portion of his allowance.

When working with young groundies and climbers who have different priorities, they all seem to have one in common- MONEY.

If they realize that anything they break due to a lack of concern is going to directly affect their wallet, they take greater caution, and tend to double check each other. They may decide to tie off a limb rather than hoping it clears the fence below.

I have worked for a lot of companies and seen a lot of ignorant mistakes, from driving a bucket truck onto a front yard without planks to crushed fences, and everything in between. I find it easy to believe that a 4 man crew could generate 5k in damages per year.

Any good incentive program should be in place to motivate, not penalize. I'm not a micro manager, and our incentive program seems to motivate our employees.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

Goboilers,

Is this 10k to 15k figure on equipment or damage to the clients property? I realize that bonuses usually go to management positions, but where will you be without the collective effort of your crew to get you there? Maybe this should be discussed with your employer so that everyone gets a piece of the pie.

 

[goboilers]

To answer a few questions. The five thousand is only an incentive. Any damages past this will be absorbed by the company and we, employees, will receive nothing. As far as profit to loss, each crew grosses around 80 thousand per quarter. The 10 to 15 thousand fiqure covers client property damage and abuse of equipment. Extreme example; three month ago another crew leader dropped the top out of a pine and hit a customer's magnolia. Customer insists on replacement of magnolia which appraised at seven thousand plus install.

Blake

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

That's how i read it, there is a $15K budget for damage and the management has descided to allocate 10k of it for a loss prevention program.

As otheres have said, any program that deducts from the employee's pay should have a legal reveiw by someone familiar with labor law. I'm pretty sure that it would be illeagal in WI.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

So it looks like between 3-5% of gross is going to damage budget.

I know that incentive programs like this are implemented but it doesn't make sense to me. Either as an employee or an employer. Where in the job description of a tree crew is it stated that damages and losses are "expected"? If people are expected to operate professionally 100% of the time and expect 100% pay then they should cover the costs of their mistakes or be held responsible in some way. Otherwise, maybe consider taking a 3-5% paycut.

This seems like another example of the owner not holding people to basic performance standards. What if the rest of the world operated with that high an "Oops Factor"? What if the post office lost 3-5% of your first class mail? {Notice, not all mail, just the important stuff ] Would your mortgage company or the utilities be understanding if your payment got lost? How would it be if your ropes broke 3-5% of the time?

This sort of system could be looked at like a form of profit sharing I quess. In that case, the program does need some refining. The profits or losses need to be accounted for everyone effected by the program. Not just the foreman.

Tom

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

One thing to remember is that losses, like the crushed Magnolia, are covered by liability insurance. With a big event like that, there is only the loss of the deductible, probably $500.

What concerns me is when an employer thinks there will be no losses. It is a fact of life that when you are doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work, that things will occasionally go wrong, no matter how careful you are.

If my employer wants me to be his insurance company, then I need to charge him monthly insurance premiums, which is what this incentive really is.

I did work for a guy who had such a program, and I was more careful working. The cost to him was reduced production. I have no idea how you measure that, but if you are working more carefully, it takes longer, period.

He could see the drop in production, so in addition to the "empoyee insures himself" program, he tried to add an increased production incentive program. Back to square one.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by Tom Dunlap
Otherwise, maybe consider taking a 3-5% paycut.

This seems like another example of the owner not holding people to basic performance standards.

Looks to me as he is attempting to start the change with a carrot first before getting out a stick.

What if the post office lost 3-5% of your first class mail?

I think they have a 2% errror factor. Most sewage treatment systems have a 2-3% "inefficiency". So with a population the size of yours you have en effluent discharge of a good sized town.

This sort of system could be looked at like a form of profit sharing I quess.

More like a risk sharing. Which is why they are called inscentive programs, "we've budgeted $15k for repair costs, so I'll allocate this amount of bonuses if we can reduce the amount of preventable occurances".

Some peer pressuer needs to be involved too, so that people won't turn thier back on the other guy acting stupid. say Lenny backs up the truck into a garage and everyone is in a position to stop him, or take up the ground guide position, then the whole crew budget goes into the repair. Since it is a team, then a team effort needs to go into the reduction of loss.

I applaud the employer for looking for a positive inscentive to try to change the culture of "OOPS!, oh well."

Another thought is that one "AW-SHEE-IT" should not remove all potential "Atta-boy's" from a persons future. Then there would be no "inscentive" for changing the attitude.

Though the garage scenario would cause me to concider curtailing any inscentives for quite a while if I were the man with the purse strings.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel


One of my favorites is when someone tries to drag a big bundle of brush around the side of the house and hasn't cleared their path. Watching them fight their way past the empty garbage cans and flower pots stacked along the walkway is enough to make me scream.

Even worse is when they feel it is more "efficient" to pull a lagre branch through the small opening between garage and house, then comment on the bark streaks on the siding.

"cut it down smaller you moron!"

 

[TREETX]

Originally posted by goboilers
At the end of the year, each crewleader will receive the remainder of the account as a bonus. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Some details to work out yet. How do I motivate and reward my guys, etc.

I am interested in any of your advice or opinions.
Thanks.

Sounds like a great opportunity. F - splitting it with the crew. If you demand reason and accountability from the crew and deliver, you deserve the reward.

Equipment has to be assigned to each member as much as possible.

My experience with running a crew was that crew members trashed equipment more when they viewed it to be substandard. For example, snap cut polesaw blades were always mistreated. When I started buying fanno or better blades, they were treated well. Those that still abused them got to use the snap cut and POS equipment. Those that pruned the slowest got to drag the most brush............

A quick read, pick up a book called, "The One Minute Manager"