Think back to a time when your service team was struggling to keep up with peak demand. You walk past the dispatch office and hear “No we can’t use Joe, he’s on vacation this week.” “No, Bill is on training.” “No. Anne-Marie’s vehicle is out for maintenance.”
Having a productive team starts by understanding the fluctuations in demand and forecasting them for the coming year. Understanding when to expect organic demand will be low and when it will be high is critical to laying out your staffing plan for the year.
Once you have an understanding of organic demand, fill in the slower periods by:
- Sending techs out on training
- Maintaining vehicles, tools and facilities
- Scheduling vacations (yes YOU choose when vacations are available)
- Pulling ahead scheduled maintenance work
By planning out the year and armed with an accurate estimate of the productivity of your workforce, you can staff the right number of full-time positions to meet this baseline demand.
Optimizing your full-time team in this way creates benefits through:
- Improved employee engagement with no fear of layoffs
- Skilled technicians with longer tenure
- Lower cost per call internal (vs contractors)
- Increased sales through internal technicians (vs contractors)
Have you studied demand and optimized full time employee capacity?
Share your experiences in the comments below and learn more about field service transformation with Chapman Management Solutions at www.chrischapman.ca.
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