If you work for a company that delivers a service that requires technicians, it’s important to make sure you keep this team as happy in their role, and confident that they can carry out what is required, effectively and efficiently. This team will likely be the backbone of your company, as they’ll often be required to be knowledgeable, logical, and flexible, as often with services like this, a lot of ad-hoc work, or out-of-hours is required. For example, if you’re running a company that rents out technology and solutions to other companies for events, you’re going to need people who can problem solve, and are flexible enough to work either long hours or unsociable hours, depending on the type of event you’re catering for. As this can be a very fast-paced, and sometimes stressful environment, it’s in your best interests as an employer or manager, to do what you can to make their jobs as smooth as possible, and also keep them satisfied within themselves. After all, technicians are a brainy bunch, and as you’ve put so much effort into hiring the perfect team, it’s handy to be able to keep them, right? Here are some tips on how to keep your tech team content and confident in their work, and how you can get the best out of them.
Make Sure Training Makes Them Feel Confident In Completing Their Role
In a company that provides a service, training is very important. It provides the technicians with the belief that they can carry out their tasks without too much issue, and also the confidence to be able to use their knowledge and initiative to problem solve. It provides them with a sense of achievement and pride, so try to provide training to not only do their current roles but also to upskill.
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Having Certified Qualifications Helps Everyone
Technology is always evolving, and as such, so should your technicians! Qualifications also look great as a company portfolio, to potential customers. For example, if a customer is looking for a team to install a bunch of networking and connectivity equipment in their brand new warehouse, and all your team is all Cisco CCNA accredited, it’s going to look great. It provides reassurance that your guys and girls are the ones for the job, and gives your techies a sense of pride and achievement in the process.
Check In With Them, Set Goals
Most leaders need to catch up with their team. Allow them to tell you where they want to be, tell them what they can do to get there. Most of a technician’s job is problem-solving and challenges, so setting targets and goals is a great motivator. Having something to aim for is important in a role, and you’ll find people are more likely to stay if they have something to strive towards.
Set A Skills Matrix For Your Team
Creating a team-wide skills matrix and having it available for the whole team to see is a great way to ensure you’re not asking the impossible of an individual, gives them something physical to look at, monitor, and work toward if they wish, and also ensures that you’re sending the right person out for the right task. This will also reduce the amount of mistakes that could occur, saving time and the necessity to escalate the process.
Keep in Contact
When you’ve got technicians out on the go, it’s important to keep in contact, or just make yourself available to them, and vice versa. It helps both sides to be kept in the loop, even if it’s just a small update on progress. Communication is important, and it keeps that level of trust and confidence in each other. It helps the technician to know that there’s someone at the base who’s available if they need to contact anyone, and equally, it helps the manager, team leader, etc to know that everything is under control to an extent, and any issues that do arise, everyone is made aware and that the issue is being dealt with, or if additional support is needed.
They Will Always Have Ideas If You Let Them
As the manager, team leader, or whatever title you might hold, typically your team will report to, and listen to you, but it also helps to listen to them! You hire these people because of their sharp minds, creativity, work ethic, and other great traits, so they might have equally great ideas that can benefit the business. It’s a good idea to warm up to the idea of suggestions from your team. Everyone will be working toward the same goal but may have different methods, approaches, and ideas to get there, and it can’t hurt to have input from more than just one person. It also breeds confidence on both sides, you’ll feel assured that you can trust in your team’s input, and they’ll trust you enough to come to you with suggestions.
Try and Organise Team Socials
Team socials are a great way to get to know each other outside of work, but they can also help with in-work relationships and cohesion. Trying activities that prompt them to work in teams are great examples. People are more likely to help each other out if they’re friends, and in a knowledge-based environment such as a technician team, sharing and looking out for each other can make the team work much better.
Manage their Workload Effectively
Making sure that your technicians can effectively manage their workload is vital. Ensure that you have proper communication channels and software and that it is easy to see and access for everyone. For example, using dispatch software to manage your technician’s time and allocation is good practice and provides clarity to all parties on what is required, gives a level of control to the technicians as to what work they are taking, on and who is best placed to carry out certain tasks based on requirement.
Competition Doesn’t Have to Be Bad
In a company, it doesn’t hurt to have a bit of friendly competition among peers. If used correctly, it can motivate each technician to perform better than before, increase productivity, and keep the morale generally quite high in the workplace. Incentives are a great way to make it competitive enough to be enjoyable to work toward, and can often bring teams closer together. Some of a few examples, in a technician scenario, could be as follows:
- Highest amount of positive feedback (Percentage or otherwise) from customers
- Most support tickets closed in a given amount of time
People tend to naturally want to compete amongst one another in friendly head-to-head, so why not use it to make the work environment more friendly, and get the best you possibly can out of your team?
Try not to Micromanage
Whilst maintaining contact is important and does harbour trust, it’s equally as important to give your tech their space, and try not to micromanage if it’s not necessary. Keep in touch, and keep track of what’s happening, but try not to suffocate them, as it can breed mistrust and resentment in the team, and can often be a reason why some people feel unhappy in their roles. It’s great to feel like someone’s there to help if you need it, but too much micromanagement can cause a technician to not only lose trust in you but potentially lose faith in their ability.
