[Cover Story] What were they thinking?

Just about every pest management professional has sat across from an employee and asked, "What were you thinking?!?"

Granted, everyone makes mistakes. And managers understand even the best err on occasion, from the fumigation crew that went skinny dipping in a client’s pool (yes, the homeowner returned to a pool of naked men) to the technician who used a sippy cup to disperse granular pesticide and then left the cup in a house of young children.

Thankfully, tragic lapses in employee judgment are rare. It’s employees’ failure to live up to expectations that consistently cause management the most grief.

Links in the company chain are weakened, affecting productivity, profitability, even legal safeguards. And if customers are involved, reputation and image are on the line, said Jean Seawright, president of Seawright & Associates, Winter Park, Fla.

We asked PMPs what drives them to distraction and found some recurring themes, as well as ways pros-in-the-know keep such incidents to a minimum.

As Buffalo Exterminating President Gary Tank in Orchard Park, N.Y., reminded, "At the end of the day, the easiest part of the business is killing the bugs."

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Feeling Ill? Yeah, Right!

Twenty-nine percent of workers played hooky from the office at least once last year, calling in sick when they were well, according to CareerBuilder’s annual survey on absenteeism. More than a quarter of employers – 27 percent – said bogus sick excuses increased due to continued stress and burnout caused by the weak economy.

While most employers said they believe workers who claim illness, 29 percent checked up on an employee. Of those, most required the employee to show a doctor’s note (70 percent), half called the employee at home, 18 percent had another worker call the employee, and 15 percent drove by the employee’s house or apartment.

Sixteen percent of employers said they fired a worker for missing work without a proven excuse.

When asked to share the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, employers offered these real-life doozies:

1. Employee said a chicken attacked his mom.

2. Employee’s finger was stuck in a bowling ball.

3. Employee had a hair transplant gone bad.

4. Employee fell asleep at his desk while working and hit his head, causing a neck injury.

5. Employee said a cow broke into her house and she had to wait for the insurance man.

6. Employee’s girlfriend threw a Sit ’n Spin through his living room window.

7. Employee’s foot was caught in the garbage disposal.

8. Employee called in sick from a bar at 5:00 p.m. the night before.

9. Employee said he wasn’t feeling too clever that day.

10. Employee had to mow the lawn to avoid a lawsuit from the homeowner’s association

11. Employee called in the day after Thanksgiving because she burned her mouth on a pumpkin pie.

12. Employee was in a boat on Lake Erie and ran out of gas and the Coast Guard towed him to the Canadian side.

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Not telling the truth. Lying or not telling the whole story turns simple mistakes into much bigger problems.

Jennifer Leggett, president of Lindsey Pest Services in Jacksonville, Fla., had a service truck stop running and couldn’t figure out why. Eventually, her mechanic had to drop the gas tank and found the finger tips of a neoprene glove inside. Apparently, the technician lost the gas cap, and instead of telling management, used a rubber glove to plug the hole. Fumes from the tank disintegrated the glove and parts fell into the tank. Buying a new gas cap would have cost much less, and kept the truck in service.

Hiding damage claims instead of reporting them frustrates Eradico Services President Chuck Russell in Novi, Mich. Accidents happen, but when employees pretend they didn’t "things get worse." It’s important to deal with a customer’s broken vase or damaged furniture in the open and move on, he said. Not owning up eats you up inside and leaves a bad impression with customers.

"Lying becomes the unpardonable sin," said Russell. Customers, suppliers, management and coworkers must be able to trust one another, so Eradico Services works hard to promote a culture of openness and honesty.

Employees who embrace the culture advance integrity and even "police each other." Regulations and rules mean nothing if your coworkers are winking and doing the exact opposite, Russell explained. Those with a pattern of lying "normally don’t last too long and move on."

The culture at EnviroPest in Loveland, Colo., spotlights family values and the importance of every person’s contribution, said Marketing Director Steve Anderson. Sometimes coworkers don’t get along, "but in the end we love and care for each other."

Service is a top priority and the company’s "Smile and Move" program recognizes "Smovers of the Month," those who exceed expectations. "We want to be servants, not technicians or call center people or managers," explained Anderson.

Leggett said situations like the glove-in-the-gas-tank incident "force you to be a better boss" and put in place more checks and controls so they don’t happen again. She’s developed better forms and checklists and now performs inspections more frequently. And, yes, "check for gas cap" was added to her weekly fleet checklist. "We’ve got a pretty tight inspection sheet now," she smiled.

Not living team values. With employee input a few years ago, Eradico Services developed team values – which everyone signed – and has worked to make them "the core of who we are as an organization," said Russell.

For some employees, though, they remain merely words. These breaches must be addressed. "If we don’t stand for those values, and how we live our lives on a daily basis and how we interact with each other and our clients, it doesn’t mean anything."

Some values are easier to understand than carry out, such as treating others as you’d like to be treated. Personalizing every action, from how you talk with someone to how you provide service, is a step toward making it happen, said Russell.

Not taking ownership. Buffalo Exterminating’s Tank gets frustrated when technicians don’t own their accounts when they have the ability, tools and resources to get the job done. "Too many times they wait for us to fix problems."

He recalled the days when he was out on routes and viewed each client as "my first, last and only customer" and losing one could mean the end of the business.

The solution is "training, training, training, especially in the field," said Tank. So is communicating employees’ roles and responsibilities, how they’re doing, where to find help and what’s in it for them.

The company recognizes coworkers who go above and beyond, an award given by peers. In 2010, Service Manager Mark Pickhardt won for his ability to communicate with customers, put customers and company first, and be there when needed…"all the stuff that makes a guy so valuable," said Tank.

Not following protocol. There’s reason behind the way things are done and folks are trained extensively to follow protocol, so when employees deviate from procedure, "it typically ends up being no good," said Russell. Other problems are created or clients’ problems go unsolved.

Employees at every level can wreak havoc, from a sales person not following proper procedures on a sales agreement, to a technician not treating properly and getting called back, or a customer service rep not answering the phone correctly and causing a client to cancel.

Not filling out paperwork properly is a particular pet peeve of Russell. Far from busy-work, paperwork becomes legal documentation and if not filled out accurately can "come back to really harm the organization." To safeguard company and client interests, employees must give this task their full attention. This requires "constant reinforcement," he said.

Not planning ahead. Employees who borrow coworkers’ supplies – without saying anything – drive service managers at Buffalo Exterminating crazy.

At times, pest management technicians have taken keys and removed items from coworkers’ trucks or supply cages so they didn’t have to ask the service manager. Usually it’s because they haven’t been proactive and ordered supplies they need ahead of time, or have forgotten something, explained Tank.

Coworkers get left in a bind…without tools needed for a job or running behind schedule. Again, training is key, said Tank, especially in forecasting future needs.

Not cleaning up. Cleanliness speaks volumes, so it’s particularly aggravating when employees are messy. Getting technicians to put shared equipment in its proper place at the office is a challenge. And it’s a "constant battle" to keep trucks orderly so they don’t become mobile warehouses, said Tank. Technicians keep requisitioning supplies, but aren’t aware of what’s already in the truck. Supplies are purchased unnecessarily and with 40 vehicles on the road, this can get expensive, Tank explained.

Even getting technicians to wash their hands after jobs – each has a soap-in-a-can product in his truck – is a test, though wearing shoe covers before entering customer homes has become second nature.

Buffalo Exterminating service managers regularly inspect vehicles for cleanliness and compliance with the company’s no-smoking policy. Image is everything, reminded Tank.

The buck stops here. Probably the best way to prevent issues that drive you batty is to hire the right person and compensate them properly.

Background checks help you find someone capable and who doesn’t bring with him a "jaded past that can affect your image and your reputation," said Seawright.

A check of driving records may have saved Leggett some grief. Years ago, she hired the minister’s son, a "gentle soul" who she soon found "could not drive worth a flip." The third time he backed into a stationary object – this time a large recycling truck stopped across of his driveway – she had to let him go. "That was the final straw."

Jerry Smith, co-owner of Dial Pest Control in Roseland, N.J., learned hiring homeowners, spouses and parents – who inherently understand the concept of responsibility – are best suited to handle the responsibility of a route. They understand how to take care of people’s property, he explained. "When we figured that out, things went better," especially in terms of employee turnover.

Seawright advised having well-written employee policy handbooks, and training managers to use them and hold people accountable. Take time to explain policies with employees. A manager should know "what your obligation is as a leader."

She said companies need an effective infrastructure to follow up and deal with issues quickly. What is your company’s process to handle complaints? How do you handle them internally and keep them contained?

Bulwark Exterminating President Adam Seever advised in "Grey Matter Capital," his book-in-progress on indirect management, that PMPs should make paychecks with specific, quantifiable monthly performance bonuses the backbone of job descriptions. That way, employees realize the value of their tasks to the organization and live up to expectations.

Identify the small actions that collectively make a big difference but employees aren’t doing, he said. Calculate the increase in productivity if the majority of employees improved, and create specific measurements and bonuses for that additional productivity.

THE GOOD GUYS. Despite issues that cause PMPs to scratch their heads, they’re proud of their teams.

Russell heard praise from a customer who’d lost his wedding ring, found during inspection and returned by his Eradico Services technician. It "does my heart good" to hear employees living the company values, he said.

As part of Copesan and Associated Pest Control Services, Tank interacts with a lot of top-notch professionals. "We’d put our people up against any one of them," he said.

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT magazine. She can be reached at anagro@giemedia.com.
 

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4 Principles that Lead to Better Decision Making

Want employees to make better decisions? Encourage them to find their inner insect.

Ants, honeybees and termites (as well as birds, fish and caribou) have a lot to teach us, according to Peter Miller, author of "The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done" (Avery, 2010).

Southwest Airlines used virtual ants to find the best way to board a plane. The CIA was inspired by swarm behavior to invent a more effective spy network. Filmmakers studied bird flocks as models for Orc armies in Lord of the Rings battle scenes. Defense agencies sponsored teams of robots that sense threats as easily as schools of fish locate food.

"Smart swarms" can teach us how to make better choices, create stronger networks, and organize our businesses more effectively, said Miller, a senior editor at National Geographic.

Four principles guide smart swarms. As part of your business culture, they can empower employees to make better decisions and achieve more for the common good:

1] Shared problem-solving responsibilities: In an ant colony, the queen’s job isn’t to give orders but lay eggs. In fact, no one ant or group of ants controls the others. The colony thrives because individual ants perform specific tasks, communicate incessantly about these tasks and adapt their decisions to others’ decisions. None understand how its own actions influence the big picture, yet large numbers of individuals without supervision accomplish difficult tasks by following simple rules when they meet and interact. What makes it work: Distributing problem solving among many individuals allows for an efficient allocation of resources and rapid response to changes in the environment.

2] A process of deliberation: For a honeybee swarm, choosing the right location to nest is a life or death decision. Hundreds of scout bees investigate hundreds of sites and communicate their finds to the group. The swarm narrows its decision based on the number of scouts dancing vigorously for a particular site. Honeybees almost always make the right nesting choice. How? Better decisions are made by the "wisdom of crowds." What makes it work: Seeking a diversity of knowledge, encouraging a friendly competition of ideas, and using an effective mechanism (like voting) to narrow choices allows groups to make good decisions quickly, and builds trust.

3] Building on each others’ contributions: One of nature’s greatest architectural feats is the eight-foot-tall Macrotermes termite mounds of Namibia. Termite workers communicating indirectly rather than face-to-face build incredibly complex structures that house, protect and literally breathe. They instinctively change the mound each day in response to outside forces, ensuring the colony’s survival. What makes it work: Indirect collaboration inspires individuals to continuously improve a shared project and creates a platform for pooling information and improving one another’s insights, ultimately building something useful and impressive. (Wikipedia works on this principle.)

4] Communicating behavioral cues: A massive flock of starlings performs acrobatic maneuvers in the air without the individuals ever bumping into one another. A lunging wolf causes a herd of caribou to swiftly morph from stagnant mass to a single being of motion. Members of a group can coordinate their behavior with amazing precision simply by paying close attention to their neighbors and rapidly communicating information, whether of food or predator. How it works: Individuals constantly pick up cues from one another about how they should behave. Coordination, communication and copying can unleash powerful waves of energy or awareness that race across a population.

Swarms offer two lessons, Miller concluded. First, working together in smart groups can lessen the impact of uncertainty, complexity and change.

Second, members of groups don’t have to surrender their individuality. Good decision making comes from competition as much as from consensus, but at times it also requires sacrificing for the greater good. – Anne Nagro