How do you get your techs to take a lunch break?

[Miranda]

Any tips on how to get your techs to stop and take lunch and get them to clock out and back in for it? We discuss it and they do okay for a while and then they stop again.

[spetrie]

It's a setting you add in your technicians' settings. See the screen shot.

[FCTI]

Hi Miranda.  I now see this is an option to be selected in settings.  Thanks again for the reply.

[RandiThompson]

We had this problem for our techs who were on all day jobs so we told them we (the office) were putting a meal break event on them for 3 hours each day they are on an all day job, if they didn't add their own meal break or let dispatch know directly they were skipping then they would lose the whole 3 hours. It stopped pretty quick. We don't require our techs who are running multiple jobs to clock a meal break because they don't get paid between dispatches. 

[westie]

Be sure to check the laws in your state - this solution would not be compliant w/ DOL in Oregon.

[Miranda]

We have it with all day jobs and multiple jobs, but they get paid all day even between jobs. I'm guessing they would learn pretty quickly if they lost 3 hours! 

Thanks for the idea!

[JessicaSmith]

Just be careful- even if you require them to take a lunch, if they work through it you have to pay them for it, even if you told them not to work. Don't get in trouble with the DOL!

[spetrie]

Yes, I agree with Jessica.

@Miranda was telling me about this discussion and I wanted to read the input she received.

@JessicaSmith or @RandiThompson have either of you guys put together a bonus structure that incentives them to track time properly among other kpi's?

[RandiThompson]

No, they get paid their hourly wage to do their base job, accurately tracking their time is part of the job. I'm not going to bonus my dispatchers for remembering to clock out for lunch.  

[JessicaSmith]

I have not- we do have a "retention bonus" in the summer- after the season installers who haven't called out excessively get bonused (excessively is defined as more than twice).