Six Tips to Motivate Your Service Engineers

The New Year is usually preceded by the party season, where employees have a brief moment of respite from the hectic nature of their work. After the festivities are over, however, a phenomenon called the ‘January Blues’ is often seen in workforces — even in the most established companies. 

During this period, businesses experience a surge in employee resignations, as many take the time to reassess their careers. Because of this trend, many field service businesses have begun implementing campaigns to retain their engineers.

If motivating your workers has taken a back seat, reevaluating effective management of your engineers can be a great way to get them back on track. Here are some innovative ways you can motivate your team and improve employee retention:

Offer Flexible Working Hours

Contrary to popular belief, the concept that money is the key motivator for employees is simply not true. 

A new study has discovered that over one-third of employees would prefer flexible working hours over a 3% increase in their annual salary. This documented wish for a flexible schedule becomes even more prevalent during the New Year, where employees are suffering from holiday-season exhaustion and many would prefer a light schedule.

Workforce management app, such as Joblogic, can provide the ideal means to deliver such a plan. You can design flexible schedules for your workforce and track their performance levels at any point. It also allows you to zero in on team members who are over or under-worked and address any issues accordingly.

Set Annual Goals and Targets

Along with the New Year comes a renewed sense of focus for many organisations, as innovative targets and aims are set for the coming year. 

A common issue, especially in larger workforces, is that employees feel out of the loop and lose their sense of involvement. This feeling can also be exacerbated when many employees are away on vacation or leave during the festive season.

One of the ways to improve employee retention is to set annual goals and targets for each team member, letting them understand what they need to do to contribute towards their department’s overall success rate. 

Organisations can achieve this through regular one-to-one meetings or by setting up separate meetings specifically for this purpose. Creating an open dialogue where suggestions are welcome can boost the productivity of your team, letting you engineers feel more appreciated when their ideas are taken on board.

Introduce Attractive Rewards

In service and maintenance industries, a highly demanding customer base is almost synonymous with the New Year. Hence, workers must always be on their toes when it comes to taking up extra shifts or covering for absent colleagues. 

Research has shown that incentives are one of the ways to improve employee retention, supporting mental health in the building and construction industry.

Today, many companies utilise an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) system, which is a  proven strategy to improve employee retention. This system lets employees earn virtual points for company-wide engagement. 

Rewards, however, don’t have to be limited to points or monetary schemes, as simply taking time out of your busy schedule to show appreciation for a job well done can go a long way. Offering lunch or spending some extra one-on-one time discussing their progress can show them their hard work isn’t going unnoticed.

Provide Your Service Engineers with Health Checkups

In industries that involve regular physical activity — such as HVAC servicing — a worker’s physical well-being is just as important as their financial state.

One way to improve employee retention in the new year is by arranging health checkups and medicals., which can be completed either onsite or at a nearby medical centre. By reviewing these results with your employees in person, you ensure their well-being is being taken care of. You could even schedule regular checkups for your employees every three months.

As part of this process, you could also encourage workers to take their allotted breaks. This is especially important for engineers onsite who are doing strenuous tasks, helping to prevent onsite injuries.

Assess Work Culture and Environment

An excellent method to maximise employee motivation and improve employee retention is by reassessing company culture. As Covid-19 has forced employees to work remotely, using practical communication tools can benefit both employees and managers alike.

For instance, video calls with remote staff help develop a sense of belonging among workers who may otherwise feel isolated or cut off from their team members. It also allows them to voice any concerns they have at work — something that may not happen if you rely solely on online messaging.

Organisations can also improve work culture with the following acts:

• Creating bonds amongst team associates by scheduling off-site activities such as a picnic or barbecue.
• Setting a casual dress code on certain days.
• Delivering a relaxed work environment with commodities like a well-supplied kitchen.

Set Flexible Budgets

The New Year may not be ideal for an organisation to splurge out on cash, but there is a need to prepare for the future.

To motivate service engineers and improve employee retention when resources are limited, you should set flexible budgets for the year. For example, in emergencies or when there’s a sudden spike in demand, workers can be allocated more funds to meet customer requirements without being concerned about going over budget.

Some Other Things to Implement

Other ways managers can utilise their funds include:

• New gadgets and tools – such as GPS trackers, mobile devices or tablets
• Offering team members additional benefits – such as travel expenses, home office support and insurance.
• Better management tools – such as workforce management software and other technologies that enhance communication

While some of these may sound like a luxury to workers accustomed to receiving the bare minimums from their employers, they could be the difference between a happy workforce and one that is unsure of their future. When it comes down to it, managers don’t always need to break the bank to motivate their workforce to improve employee retention. You’ll be surprised at how small gestures like offering them a cup of coffee or letting workers leave early on Fridays won’t go unnoticed.

Book a free demo of Joblogic today to find out how we can help you boost your output.