If you’re looking to build up the services that your plumbing business can offer to your local community, then at some point, you’re going to have to look beyond what you, yourself, can provide and will need to grow your team. If you don’t want to rely on sub-contracting alone, then you need to learn about what you can do to build and manage your own team. Here are a few tips on how to do that.
Put the right hiring practices in place
One of the most common problems when managing a plumbing business is finding and hiring people with not just the skills that you need, but the same approach to plumbing and customer interaction. Finding skilled workers alone can be tough, but you need to make sure that you’re specific in the skills that you’re looking for, while also keeping an eye on the attitude of the worker. Do they have the same attention to detail with customer relationships and customer service as they do with the plumbing?
Know how to retain your team
Once you’ve hired the right team, you want to make sure that you can keep a hold of them, as well. However, that’s not always as easily said as it is done. Retention has to begin from the very beginning, with a set and reliable onboarding process that welcomes them to the team. Aside from offering competitive wages and benefits and offering the training and education to help your team grow, you can help better retain your plumbers by showing some appreciation now and then and taking their own needs, such as their work/life balance into account.
Get to know your responsibilities
As an employer, you’re going to suddenly find yourself dealing with a lot more responsibilities. Most important is providing a safe working environment by teaching what safety skills you need to and providing the PPE necessary for every job. Second to that is ensuring that payroll is handled correctly, not only in terms of paying your team the agreed amount on time but also making sure that you get your taxes right as an employer with an online federal tax id number filing service. There are, of course, other legal responsibilities that you should take your time to get acquainted with to make sure that you’re actually doing your job as an employer.
Build your management skills
As an employer, unless you have a large team with management in the middle, then you are also going to be responsible for directing your team. As such, taking a management course can help you learn how to communicate with them, manage their morale, and treat them with the appropriate levels of respect and trust. Not everyone is a born manager, it can be more difficult to direct a team of employees than you might think, so it’s worth seeing what you can learn.
As an employer, you have to deal with many responsibilities and learn new skills. The tips above can help you do just that.
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