As a whole, field service businesses struggle with finding and keeping quality employees on staff. Pool maintenance and repair businesses are not excluded from that. Not only do they have a tough time keeping good employees around, most pool service businesses are located in an area in which they can only work seasonally. Because of that, training is tough to do. Very few businesses are able to take a step back to train new employees or inexperienced employees because they have to get as much work done within the short season as possible.
While you might think that pay is usually the number one reason that people leave their job, there are increasingly more studies showing that employees value career advancement and opportunity more than their wages. Businesses have the chance to keep their best employees on board for much longer if they are able to train them and help them progress in their careers. Here are 5 on the job training tips that pool service businesses can use throughout their season that will help keep your best employees engaged.
Mentorship
One of the best on the job development methods is to create an environment where your junior employees are being shown the ropes by either you or your more senior members. It will take patience from your experienced employees, but try and convey the fact that if they are able to help train the newbies that the entire business runs more smoothly, making it easier on their part as well. It also creates a better team environment.
Know your employees’ goals
Knowing the goals that your pool service employees have is incredibly important. Not everyone is going to be the same. Maybe they are simply there for a summer job while they’re on break from school or maybe they even hope to own and operate their own pool maintenance or repair business one day. Whatever their goals are, you should have those discussions. Ideally, you should know their goals very early on in their employment. It will be important down the road.
Train to those goals
If you know what they’re looking to achieve, you’re then able to train them on those aspects of the job. If one of your employees wants to learn more about managing a pool business, help them see what it takes to run a successful business. Give them a look into what gaining and retaining customers looks like and even how stressful it can be at times. If you're using a pool service management software or an accounting software, give them a chance to learn to use it.
Train them for their next job
While this might seems counterintuitive, training your pool service employees for their next job will only make them more valuable to your business. If you know their goals and their career aspirations, you can try to help them down that path. If they see that you’re willing to put in the time and effort, more often than not, that time and effort is reciprocated. They’ll want to continue in their career growth. And if there are opportunities that come up within your business, you’d have the ability to hire internally instead of looking elsewhere, which is always easier.
Give feedback/ask for feedback
The final tip we have to help successfully train pool service employees on the job is to give and receive feedback regularly. Let your staff know how they’re doing. If they’re doing a great job, praise publicly, if they’re lacking in certain areas, keep the conversations private.
Also, ask your employees whether or not you’re doing a good job in providing a positive work experience for them. You can do this by having one-on-one meetings and through anonymous surveys. Remember, feedback is a two way street.
Now that you have a few tips on keeping employees around, how about learning how to gain and retain new pool service customers? Download your FREE copy of 15 Tips to Gain & Retain Pool Service Customers now!
