It was only after 30 years of miscommunication, pain, suffering, embezzlement, and all-around general bamboozling that I finally figured out how to hire and manage a bookkeeper for my shop.
If you are finding yourself somewhat resistant to reading this article because of its title, you are exactly the shop owner who needs to read it! If your employee pay plans have little or no incentives in them, I’ll bet your team’s productivity and your profits are lower than you want or are on a serious roller-coaster. Even if you do have an incentive type structure set up for your employees, are you sure they’re truly incentives under all circumstances and don’t have accidental disincentives built into them that some of your people resent?
If you are like I was the first 20 years as a shop owner, you have worked very hard to hire good people, set up efficient operating systems, and train everyone to use them. You have spent countless hours trying to communicate your expectations and teaching your team to reach them – all with sporadic or little success. WHY? What is missing?
Whenever I am hiring a technician, I've found that it's critical to ask a few questions before I even identify my business. It's important to make sure that "the word doesn't get out on the street" every time I need to upgrade or replace a staff member. No one wants to work for a shop that they have "heard" is suffering from a turnover of people. When they hear from the tool guys, the parts salesmen, and others that the shop is having "personnel problems," or "can't keep their techs," your shop is suddenly plagued by the famous Can't-Find-A-Tech-To-Save-Our-Lives disease.
