Elevating the employee experience in 2024!

[jaalahig]

Good afternoon everyone!

We are really trying to elevate our employee experience in 2024! With prices still on the rise we are going to be making some pay structure changes but I want to do more than just an increase. I want to make a career path for my CSR's / Dispatchers and I wanted to throw out my ideas to get any help/ feedback you all have to offer.

1.  We currently have a job description for a CSR and one for Dispatcher but we are growing and I would like to expand that to various positions. For instance, an entry level CSR up to a lead CSR role and the same for Dispatch. I am curious if any else has multiple levels within each job type and what are your employees' goals.
2.  We will also be revamping our employee reviews. Once a year just isn't enough and it creates a lot anxiety for everyone involved. We want to focus less on the past and more on the future! How often are you doing your performance check ins and what does that consist of ?
3.  I am really proud of the culture we have created here but I think we can increase productivity even more with a four day work week. If anyone has implemented this please let me know how it is working for you!
4.  I would love to know about any bonus programs you have. Our employees are hourly and there is an opportunity for commission on membership sales but I have heard of other companies doing bonuses for attendance or meeting other specific goals and I would love to hear about them!

Any advice or other ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Jaala Hightower
Roto Rooter Oklahoma City 

[krista-gac]

Love this topic as my brain has been considering other ideas! 

1. We have 2 dual role positions at this time. I think as we grow we will eventually have to separate to just CSR and then a Lead Dispatcher. Especially as we are moving to Dispatch Pro and Scheduling Pro. Their job duties will be changing this year. 

2. I am a HUGE supporter of quarterly reviews for ALL employees! You can make advise and coaching on issues when looking at just the past 3 months with plans for improving in the next quarter. Way easier in my opinion to keep teammates on board with the companies goals too. 

3. I have also considered 4 days work weeks here too! I think right now with only 2 in the office it would be too difficult in the prime season, so maybe once we are up to 3/4 total in the Dispatch/CSR positions. 

4. Hourly here too with membership spiffs. We have MASSIVE goals for 2024 with our membership program, I am going to break it down by quarter and have bonuses for office and techs. Then I would like to make a bonus for booking rates, renewal rates (80% or greater), only 10% use of Existing Customer campaign usage. Can't wait to see other's ideas as well! 

[RandiThompson]

We have 5 ladies in our dispatch department plus technically me

• Receptionist- 1st to answer phones, books jobs, orders supplies
• PM Dispatcher-(14 techs) 2nd to answer phones, books jobs, dispatches PM techs, audits/reviews PM tech invoices
• Install Dispatcher- (5-3man crews) 3rd to answer phones, books jobs, assigns crews, dispatches crews, audits/reviews install invoices, adjusts splits,  registers equipment warranty, processes financing
• Service/lead Dispatcher- (23 techs) last on phones, books jobs, pulls up all jobs (excluding installs), dispatches service techs, schedules all CML memberships, sets up incompletes, schedules return calls
• Service Processor- 4th on phones, books jobs, audits/reviews all service invoices and timesheets, covers the Service dispatchers lunch and PTO
• Me- for this purpose Dispatch Manager- I jump in the phone queue when its crazy, audit invoices when they get behind, make inventory adjustments, export all batches

We are an HVAC company and in peak season run an average of 120 calls a day and answer around 250-300 calls. Our pay levels are broken up by each of the positions I listed above and increase in that order

[Miranda]

Good conversation starter and I am curious to hear other's responses on this.

1. We are small enough at this point that we don't have various positions within CSR and Dispatcher. We hope to expand that though in the near future. 

2. We do quarterly reviews with all of our employees. We go over things that we see that needs improvement, discuss pay raises when we need to, and give opportunity for them to tell us what we could do to improve their career. We end up discussing training in a lot of these reviews as well.

3. I personally would like to have a 4 day work week, but right now I need to be here everyday. Some weeks we are able to do that with the guys. It just depends on how busy we are and how many hours they put in on the other days of the week. We try not to have lots of overtime, but they usually end up with some.

4. We don't have a great bonus system at this point, but it is definitely something on our radar! 

We have found that good culture goes a long ways! We have a team meeting every Tuesday morning and serve them breakfast. They really like that! 

Also, being approachable is huge! We tell them all the time to come talk to us if they need something. We are never too busy or above them to hear them.