When your employees come to work in the morning, you’re entitled to expect them to be “thinking” about their job as well as doing it. The “thinking” part includes considering a customer’s concerns, performing a proper diagnosis, and concentrating on what they’re doing with each service or repair. If they’re distracted by other people, or taking a call on their cell phone, then not only do you not get what you’re entitled to (which is their full concentration on the job), but it may very well lead to a serious accident. Just as we all would expect that a surgeon would not be talking on the phone while operating, your customers have the right to know that your employees are 100% focused when working on their brakes, suspension, etc. So do this: have an employee meeting and tell all your people that the single, most important thing to you is the safety of your employees and your customers. Tell them that your company policy now states that all cell phones need to be turned off and put away when employees come to work, period. Then go on to tell them that this policy is not being implemented to increase productivity, but to protect the well-being of your customers. With this new policy in place, they will be able to retrieve messages and return calls when they’re on break or during lunch. If they tell you they’re concerned that someone might have to reach them in an emergency situation, just tell them all they’ll need to do is assure their immediate family members, baby-sitters, schools, etc., all have the shop phone number.
So don’t let the tail wag the dog. If you do, the day will come when you’ll pay a price, and that price may very well be a serious injury or the loss of life. The stars that work with you will understand. Those that don’t will more than likely be gone in a short time anyway. Lastly, make sure this policy is in your employee handbook and disclosed with each candidate for employment.
This tip is brought to you by Bob Cooper, President of Elite Worldwide. For more great tips on employee management, visit the Elite website at http://www.EliteWorldwideStore.com.
bcraver says
November 10, 2010 at 2:15 pmI agree. You do not want somebody on the cell phone, or texting while either pulling a dent or painting a vehicle. It may not come out looking very good. It will definately save the employees some time as well, not having to fix something they messed up while on the phone.
Jacob Michael says
November 10, 2010 at 2:19 pmI like this post because it like that at most jobs now days. A boss don’t want to see you texting while you are supposed to do your job because it can cause distractions and it doesn’t look professional. To get in a good habbit it would prob be best to shut your phone off before you go into work.
chris j says
November 10, 2010 at 2:23 pmi think that the cell phone policy would work great to put in affect in all shops across the nation i’d also like to hit really quick on the emergency phone calls when some one is expecting an emergency phone call it most of the time but not always causes low to moderate levels of short time stress in those people. It is stated by many opthalmologists that under short term stress ones ability of productivity increases. this is just a small input i have on this subject
Samuel says
November 10, 2010 at 6:12 pmI also agree with this article. I think if you’re working in a shop or anywhere for that matter you are there for work, not to stand around and be on your phone all day. This would not only effect you productivity but the quality of your work, wasting time texting an then rushing jobs to catch up on lost time which would also affect the quality of repairs being done. In our industry the quality of repair is essential to the safety of our customers.
rparkerii says
November 10, 2010 at 6:21 pmI agree with this article, if in case of an emergency, people should know the shop phone number. Productivity is lost when people stand around taking phone calls and are text messaging. Also safety is compromised
Elite Worldwide says
November 11, 2010 at 3:53 pmThanks so much for the feedback. I’m glad to see you all agree with the article – hopefully you also found the information helpful and applicable to your business. Any thoughts you are ever able to share on Elite Content, positive or negative, will always be valued and appreciated.