Guest Blog

There’s no denying that worker safety is a top priority for many companies. All trade professionals need to ensure safe job sites, whether  working on home improvement projects or other contractor positions. Safety needs to be paramount — no company wants to see a maintenance employee get severely injured or face any life-threatening situations. Thankfully Read more

There’s no denying that worker safety is a top priority for many companies. All trade professionals need to ensure safe job sites, whether  working on home improvement projects or other contractor positions.

Safety needs to be paramount — no company wants to see a maintenance employee get severely injured or face any life-threatening situations.

Thankfully, technology can be leveraged to enhance safety measures on any job site. New technologies for safety are emerging, and no matter the job performed, workers should consider implementing tech to achieve high safety standards.

1. Virtual Reality (VR)

Generally speaking, VR is becoming a widely used technology across various industries, from consumer electronics to health care. VR is used in many sectors, especially for training purposes — construction, plumbing and HVACR work is no exception.

For example, the Air Force has recently adopted VR systems to train workers responsible for aircraft. In addition to training in a controlled environment, which is safer than working on the actual plane, processes were made easier. The technology helps employees achieve a sense of realism when performing tasks, and they can better understand all the variants of the systems that keep planes running at a high level.

2. Wearables for Fall Detection

Many trades require people to work on elevated surfaces. Performing maintenance on equipment in higher locations can increase the risk of a worker experiencing a fall, leading to severe injury or even death.

There are new wearables on the market, such as safety vests or hard harts, with built-in sensors, GPS and real-time locating. Some vests even come with an air bag that will deploy if it senses someone is falling. Consider using these new types of wearables to ensure worker safety.

3. Exoskeletons

There are two different types of wearable exoskeletons that can be used on the job. Passive and active versions have various purposes but can be leveraged to ensure employee safety.

Exoskeletons work in tandem with the user. For example, passive exoskeletons prevent stress injuries and help hold essential tools or equipment used for maintenance. Active exoskeletons can help lift heavy objects, something many trade professionals need to accomplish daily. Together, the two types of technology play a key role in keeping workers from overexertion and related dangers like exhaustion, allowing for a healthier and more productive work experience.

4. Inspection Software

Software is being leveraged by every business across sectors, whether it’s to improve operational efficiency or keep track of employee productivity. Inspection plays a significant role in keeping equipment working properly.

Using inspection software to perform routine maintenance is becoming more widespread across the trade industries. Inspection software helps guide human workers while on the job, ensuring their safety and detecting equipment failure that could lead to injury. Automation will likely transform every industry and make daily tasks more efficient.

5. Security Cameras

When nightfall comes and a job site is left unattended, expensive equipment must be kept safe from theft. Aside from maintenance, construction workers have often turned to security cameras for ample job site surveillance to prevent instances of theft or damage, leading to lengthier projects and extra costs.

Using high-end security cameras acts as a deterrent to would-be criminals and can capture anyone who tries to trespass on a job site and cause damage or steal tools. Consider placing cameras in vulnerable areas to improve overall security measures. There are plenty on the market to choose from.

Ensure Workers Safety on Job Sites

Consider these technologies to improve workers’ safety as 2022 approaches. Whether it’s an electrician working on a telephone pole or someone on the roof of a residential building, these jobs require comprehensive safety measures to protect employees.

April Miller is a managing editor at ReHack.com who specializes in engineering and construction technology. You can find her work published on sites like Open Data Science and The Society of Women Engineers.

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business and you will succeed or fail based on their work. That’s why you need to take the time to create a company culture that is positive and encouraging. Alongside good working conditions and other benefits, the best employers also invest in the professional development of their employees.  Read more

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business and you will succeed or fail based on their work. That’s why you need to take the time to create a company culture that is positive and encouraging. Alongside good working conditions and other benefits, the best employers also invest in the professional development of their employees. 

What is professional development? 

Most companies fall into the trap of only training employees when they absolutely have to (when a skills gap is causing problems) or training people only to do the job that’s in front of them. This is a very short-sighted approach and not only devalues your employees but has major consequences for your business too. 

By taking a more holistic view of professional development, you can ensure that your employees are skilled, motivated and engaged. A fully rounded development program will take into account skills-based learning, workplace essentials such a lifesaving skills from cprcertificationnow.com and fire training. 

The final part is allowing your staff to develop for their future career goals. The leaders of tomorrow may be working for you now but need the chance to develop and expand their skill set. 

How can professional development help your company?

Engaged staff who are happy in their jobs can have huge benefits to your company. For example, they provide better service to customers, increasing profits. They also represent your brand well to the outside world. 

Employee engagement is a huge issues for a lot of companies. Various studies have shown that up to 70% of the workforce are disengaged. 

Your company can also gain a competitive advantage within your sector. Having the best trained and productive employees will soon show when it comes to the competition. 

Happier and skilled workers feel supported in their roles and produce better work. You’ll find that errors will decrease and the productivity levels. 

Solve company problems

By equipping people with skills outside of their normal job roles, you can encourage a team that can look at any inefficiencies within the company and suggest ways to put these right and make improvements. 

Attract and retain top talent

Developing a reputation as a company that values it’s employees can have many benefits. One of these is the ability to keep your best employees and not have them jumping ship to your competitors. Additionally, you’ll find it much easier to attract talented people to your organization when you recruit. Given the upheaval that people leaving your company can cause, then this can save you a lot of money and increase the productivity of your company as you don’t have to wait for new recruits to get up to speed with everything. 

Final thoughts 

As an employer, you need to think of your employees development needs in a broader sense. The benefits from doing this can benefit your business in so many ways and can repay your investment many times over. 

You’ll soon develop a reputation as a great employer and will have your pick of talent in the area. 

Most suppliers don’t have the opportunity to build loyalty with those who use their products. Customers may buy one HVAC every ten years, for example. Customer loyalty can’t really be built on that timeline. Often, the contractor is the one who needs to understand and advocate for the manufacture’s product. Therefore, your suppliers greatly value Read more

Most suppliers don’t have the opportunity to build loyalty with those who use their products. Customers may buy one HVAC every ten years, for example. Customer loyalty can’t really be built on that timeline. Often, the contractor is the one who needs to understand and advocate for the manufacture’s product. Therefore, your suppliers greatly value contractor loyalty. But do they act like it?

Knowing your loyalty’s worth helps you leverage and improve relationships with your manufacturers or suppliers. It helps your business thrive, which helps your supplier thrive. Let’s examine four things you can and should expect from a good supplier:

  1. Valuable Marketing Resources I don’t just mean “they market to you.” Your supplier needs to market through you, so they should be properly equipping you to promote products and services on their behalf.Some examples of marketing resources you should expect from suppliers:
    • Marketing Automation Platform You may be one of the many SMBs who have limited to no marketing resources. If that’s the case, your vendor should extend their marketing capacities and technology to you. This is easy for them to offer with today’s channel marketing and partner program technology options. Access to a marketing automation technology is so easy that many dealers or contractors invest in a low-cost, off-the-shelf marketing platform and actually charge vendors a fee to join it! This should give you plenty of leverage with a supplier who doesn’t understand the importance of offering you their marketing automation resources.
    • Topic-Diverse Content You supplier should provide not just product-based content, but a mix of thought leadership, industry news, helpful insights, product and service updates, even co-branded content.Research and studies are particularly effective forms of co-branded content. It benefits you because you may not have access to the product and market research firms that suppliers work with, and it benefits the supplier to have their research dispensed to your customer list. I like how Hinge Marketing puts it:“For B2B marketers… co-branding with research is based on data and does not come across as a sales pitch. In fact, it often influences or validates how buyers are thinking and helps to speed up the sales cycle.”
    • Multimedia, Multichannel Content As it gets harder to cut through the marketing noise audiences are pummeled with every day, multimedia content becomes increasingly necessary. Lead Forensics reported that 95% of B2B marketers understand the importance of a multichannel approach, but only 14% have successfully implemented one.Suppliers should offer you content delivered through a variety of mediums and channels to suit your customers’ varying communication needs and preferences. This includes but isn’t limited to videos, webinars, infographics, articles, social media content, pdfs, etc.
    • Personalized Promotions & Content Time is one of the biggest challenges today’s contractors face. Installations, maintenance, traveling, tracking down the right parts, marketing, customer service—it all takes time. You shouldn’t have to devote extra time navigating dozens of different supplier partner portals to find the messages that are relevant to you.Suppliers can segment their channel partner audiences and offer specific promotions, updates, and resources based on your business objectives. Marketing technology is far past the days of the indiscriminate email “blast” to everyone. With 69% of B2B buyers saying they value suppliers who provide personalized offers, it’s absolutely a standard your suppliers should uphold.

You don’t have time to market for all your suppliers. That’s what their (often extensive) marketing experts and resources are for. They should be able to not only explain why their products are valuable, but understand the best and most effective ways to communicate that value. Speaking of which…

  1. Value & Performance Price is one thing; you certainly don’t want to pay more for a supplier’s product than you can justify. But consider other ways to evaluate a brand and determine its overall value:
    • Technical Support With any luck, you won’t spend much time with a brand’s tech support. But when the going does get tough, does support step up? Do they address your issue knowledgably and sufficiently, without hours of hold music? Bad tech support usually points to a broader problem with how much the brand prioritizes product quality and customer satisfaction. Even if you don’t service your customers yourself, you should spend some time finding out how a brand’s tech support measures up.
    • Supplier Performance You may work with a particular brand because of their low-cost offerings, but make sure you’re not paying for those savings with follow-up repairs, slow delivery or restocking times, poor responsiveness, low acknowledgement rate, or other high costs of your time. A unit may be irresistibly cheaper, but are you going to get an average of three calls per install from unhappy customers experiencing issues? Tracking supplier performance will help you compare supplier to see if one brand seemed cost-effective at first glance, but is actually low-margin in the long run.
    • The Little Things Not every little thing a supplier does to maintain the contractor relationship is truly impactful, but often a lot of little things add up to something pretty substantial. Some of the extra benefits you might enjoy from a supplier include:
      • Making parts kits available—these can often save you from a jam
      • Fast, convenient communication methods such as live chat
      • Accountability and transparency when they make mistakes
      • Easy-to-use ecommerce platform
      • Corporate values that match yours
      • Customer service – someone who answers the phone when you need them

A product’s price-tag is often only a small portion of the product’s overall value, especially when it comes to complex equipment vital to your customers’ home or office building. When you’re evaluating a supplier, look at the bigger picture to see if they’re truly earning your loyalty.

  1. A Worthwhile Loyalty Program Your supplier’s loyalty program should be more than just a way to earn rewards. If it feels like it’s just a shiny, hollow toy to distract you from competitors… then that’s probably exactly what it is. A worthwhile contractor loyalty program is easy to use, engaging, and mutually beneficial. Expect benefits and features such as:
    • Relevant Promotions Above, I mentioned that you should expect personalized communications and promotions. This should extend to reward-earning promotions, too. A supplier could use the program to help you with pre-seasonal sales, for example. A credit or exclusive rebate on an item just before its high-demand season kicks in? That’s a true reward for your loyalty, not just a marketing gimmick.
    • Effortless Data Submission Your suppliers want your customer data. They really want your customer data. In fact, when a Dun & Bradstreet and Adweek study asked B2B marketers what their biggest hurdles were, almost every single answer had to do with customer data. Two of the most common answers were “Lack of insight into the customer journey” (26%) and “Lack of available data sources” (21%).Your suppliers are almost certainly willing to reward you for providing customer data. Not only should they reward you, they should make data submission fast and easy. A document upload tool with claims verification, for example, allows you to submit a warranty registration, invoice, or other sales claim documentation right from the field and receive your reward instantly.The supplier could also share their sales insights with you when they analyze this data. This way, you don’t just earn a reward in exchange for valuable data, but the process costs you far less time and yields insights that can help you improve your own sales strategies and customer retention rate.
    • Mobile Accessibility & Real-Time Alerts Everyone hates missing out on a deal. If you open your inbox to find a two-month-old email from your supplier loyalty program, buried in the spam folder, telling you all about the great deal you missed out on…then your loyalty program isn’t cutting it.The program should be mobile-accessible, so you can use the program wherever you are, whether on a job or at home or in the office, rather than having to wait till you’re at a computer. You should receive promotion alerts where you’ll actually see them, when they’re convenient for you, i.e. before you buy a qualifying product.
    • Desirable Rewards This is key: the loyalty program’s rewards should actually be valuable to you, and proportional to the actions you’re rewarded for. Would you or your contractors rather have gift cards than debit cards? Are you more interested product discounts than points you can spend in a merchandise catalog? Today’s loyalty program technology isn’t limited to a single reward type. You should expect rewards that have high, personal value to you and make it worth it to go the extra mile.

The words “loyalty program” shouldn’t make you want to roll your eyes. A supplier’s loyalty program should be reflective of their priorities, indicating how much they value your time, input, skill, and experience. It shouldn’t merely be a way to squeeze more business out of you, but a tool designed to forge a stronger, more fruitful relationship.

  1. Training and Enablement It should be one of your supplier’s top priorities to properly train contractors on their products. Who wants to sell a product they don’t fully understand or have complete confidence in?  Training is not only essential, it’s an ongoing process. It’s not as simple as downloading a product spec sheet. Here are some expectations you should have for your supplier’s training and sales enablement resources and processes:
    • Easy to Complete & Repeat Studies show that repeating and recontextualizing information helps with learning because it leads us to “reconceptualize information and create multifaceted memories that are more easily accessed.” Whether you access training and enablement resources on a partner portal, a training incentives platform, or an online resource community, you should be able to test and reinforce knowledge with everything from intensive courses to short quizzes and even daily trivia questions.
    • Multimedia Resources We all have different learning styles. While spoken information might go in one ear and out the other in some people, they may instantly pick the idea up if they have a visual of it being applied. Your suppliers should offer multimedia options for learning about their products. Do they have installation demo videos? Full courses on how and why their new product is effective? Case studies and detailed product specs? Images of parts and processes?Contractors often have to install equipment or solve problems that require highly specialized knowledge. That knowledge should come from detailed, thorough resources that use all available mediums to fully explain a product’s features and applications.
    • Up-to-Date Information To be the best possible contractor to your customers, you need access to accurate, up-to-date information about the products you deliver or install. Is your supplier’s only available training a course in installing a model that’s five years old? There’s no excuse for this. Technology makes it easy to deliver information that enables you to do your job to the best of your ability. Expect no less from suppliers!

Your supplier’s goal is for you to sell more of your brand’s products than their competitors’, but your goal is to a happy customer base and growing margins. Your suppliers need to meet their goals through meeting yours. One of the best ways they can do that is by giving you ample training and enablement resources. Being well-trained on a high-performing brand saves your time and resources while increasing your sales success.

When we talk about performance in industrial and mechanical realms, often we’re talking about how well a unit performs or how skillfully the contractor installed it. But manufacturers and suppliers should be judged on their performance levels, too. They rely on you to represent their brand, but you rely on them to adequately equip you with marketing and training resources, an experience that doesn’t cost you time and money, and incentives that fuel a mutually beneficial partnership. Suppliers value your loyalty and, because the nature of regulations and standardizations mean one brand is often very similar to another, they must earn contractor loyalty by being easy and enjoyable to work with. Don’t be afraid to ask for or expect more from suppliers so that you’ll both be more successful.

Nichole Gunn is CMO at Incentive Solutions, where she has been exploring ways to help companies grow channel revenue for over ten years. Incentive Solutions manages 220+ channel incentive programs, many of which are in industrial manufacturing and distribution. Nichole can be reached at ngunn@incentivesolutions.com.

 

No matter what kind of job sites you run, having a power source for the work you do should be a top priority. However, each workplace and job site is different. And whether you should rent or buy your generator might be a very specific choice that you need to make for your business. Wherever Read more

No matter what kind of job sites you run, having a power source for the work you do should be a top priority. However, each workplace and job site is different. And whether you should rent or buy your generator might be a very specific choice that you need to make for your business.

Wherever you are in your journey with your business and equipment, there are pros and cons both to renting and buying, and each serves businesses in its own way. Here’s your guide to the pros and cons of renting or buying a generator for your job sites.

Pros of Renting

If you’re considering renting a generator, there are a few reasons why that might be the right choice for you.

For starters, renting a generator is a much cheaper initial investment than buying, so it’s great for businesses that are just starting out or are working with a limited budget. You also don’t have to worry about maintenance and upkeep, which can be great for those who don’t use generators often.

Cons of Renting

However, renting a generator isn’t the perfect option for everybody, specifically because if you use it frequently, it might become more expensive than simply buying one. Additionally, if you rent a generator every time you need one, you may not be able to adjust to the different types and how they work.

If you want a standby generator, for example, which offers near-constant power on a consistent basis, buying might be the best option for you so you don’t need to go through any hassle to get the power you need.

Pros of Buying

If you’re leaning towards buying, there are a few advantages that it might be pertinent to know about. Specifically, you can make a larger investment that pays off more from consistent use than renting and save money in the long run.

But beyond the financial benefits, there are other pros to owning rather than renting a generator. For instance, you have more control and consistency with the model you choose, you have the option to have your own staff handle maintenance, and you have more control over power availability.

Cons of Buying

Of course, there are both pros and cons to everything, even owning a generator for your job site. The initial investment might not be seen as a con overall to some, but for businesses that don’t have the capital to invest yet, it might be a bit much to stomach.

Additionally, purchasing the equipment puts you on the hook for maintenance and commits you and your staff to one model and brand, which might not be great for those who are just starting out or if you find yourself taking a variety of job types or wishing for a wider range of tools.

Which One Is Right for You?

When deciding whether you should buy or rent a generator for your job sites, there are quite a few factors you can consider to make your decision. From the initial investment to the maintenance and upkeep, each business and site will be different and demand different things. Ultimately, the decision is all yours!

April Miller is a managing editor at ReHack.com who specializes in engineering and construction technology. You can find her work published on sites like Open Data Science and The Society of Women Engineers.

Employee satisfaction and motivation is a topic that has been discussed since the creation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Employees are the backbone of any organization and an essential part of a company’s ability to be successful and grow. Maintaining a level of satisfaction is key if you want to have any measure of success Read more

Employee satisfaction and motivation is a topic that has been discussed since the creation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Employees are the backbone of any organization and an essential part of a company’s ability to be successful and grow. Maintaining a level of satisfaction is key if you want to have any measure of success as a business owner.

Keeping employees feeling satisfied and motivated remains a pain point for many in the mechanical world. Technicians are currently in high demand across the home service industry, creating little downtime in an environment that is suffering from a labor shortage. The COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm that resulted in more HVAC unit breakdowns and longer days for technicians.

During the apex of the pandemic, many employees across multiple industries had to work from home. Units that would normally get a break while the house was empty were now working an additional eight hours a day. That is the equivalent of driving a car 75,000 miles a year. With the added wear-and-tear on units, service calls increased dramatically.

The combination of more service calls and a limited supply of professionals attributed to workers in the mechanical world feeling stressed and unsatisfied. More service calls also meant long drive times while combating both the physical and mental elements that come with the job – working in the hot sun or communicating with an angry customer.

When it comes to our profession, employees rarely get stressed over the actual repair process. Oftentimes, the stress comes from all the outside factors that would put a mental strain on the worker. But there are ways to help motivate and encourage employees to perform their tasks while remaining engaged.

The Employee Experience

In our line of work, we tend to put our primary focus on the customer experience and making the customer happy. While these actions help drive revenue, we don’t need to forget the importance of employee satisfaction. Our team members are the greatest assets we have. I discovered a long time ago that if you take care of the employees, they will in turn take care of the customers.

Taking care of the employee means more than just offering them a decent paycheck. It encompasses a wide range of areas. It means providing the necessary equipment to ensure safety as well as giving the job a purpose. For example, a heating and air company I worked for purchased an ice machine so team members wouldn’t have to purchase ice to fill up their coolers every morning. We also made healthy snacks and drinks available throughout the day. That was just one small gesture we made to keep our employees satisfied.

All of these items help create loyalty. A team member will not want to leave if they feel like they are being taken care of regularly. The moment they feel differently, they will become disengaged and leave you for someone offering a dollar more per hour.

A Path to Success

One of the best ways to motivate an employee is to give them a purpose. That includes providing an individual career path. Many individuals working in the mechanical world don’t have a real career path. Their life revolves around a continuous cycle that includes doing similar tasks daily. So, if business owners can discover what success looks like to the employees, they can help them achieve their goals through a detailed career plan. On the flip side, this allows owners to hold the employee accountable to key performance indicators.

In addition to a career path, business owners should help inform employees financially. While compensation is a great motivator, it isn’t the only sticking point for most people. Providing tools that allow team members to be educated about financial matters shows that you care about their future outside of work. Teach employees how to set money aside, save and invest in their future.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

Another mitigating factor in motivation is determining what motivates the entire team. It is important to communicate with team members about what they want and what can encourage them to perform at their best. More times than not, the team members will be honest in their responses. One example I have pertains to the use of contests and prizes. One company I was working with in Florida had a big special going on to see how many service agreements they could sell. For each agreement that was sold, the employee got to put their name in a raffle for some great prizes. The reward for selling an increased amount of service agreements greatly outweighs the cost of the prizes, and it got team members motivated to go out and sell, sell, sell.

Creating a Positive Culture

I believe business is a function of its people. You’ve got to take care of your people. We need to stop focusing on what we are not getting right and start focusing on the 99% of the things we excel in. We can still talk about the things that need improvement or can be done differently, but we’ll have that conversation in a private one-on-one setting. As a team, we need to celebrate the wins. It’s about enforcing the behavior that you want to see in your company. I’m always trying to create a positive culture, and all my actions reflect that. For business owners, the majority of their focus should be geared toward creating the desired behaviors they want because that’s where they will get the results.

Stephen Dale is director of training for Power Selling Pros. Stephen brings over 20 years of experience as an operations manager in the home services industry working for two large MEP companies in the Dallas area. He has been a coach and trainer with Power Selling Pros for six years, working with hundreds of companies and vendors during his tenure. His passion for the industry illuminates through his ability to discover client’s pain points and offer solutions for success.”