We all recently celebrated Labor Day. You may or may not know about Labor Day’s origins, but it’s a rare holiday in the United States in that it doesn’t commemorate a particular person or event. Rather, it was intended as a holiday to celebrate the working man and their contributions to society. Labor Day was first celebrated in New York in 1883, and nearly a decade later Congress made it a national holiday.
So, in this month of Labor Day, be sure to thank all of your hard-working team members 
for the contribution that they make to your clients’ health and your company’s success.
As a business owner, labor is likely one of, if not your biggest, expense, but your team is also your most valuable asset and biggest competitive advantage. That means that you have a lot riding on how you manage your manpower, and there are some simple strategies that you can use to make sure your team achieves their true potential.
Manage Your Manpower
In our industry, you must not only have the right people but the right number of people, too. If your number of office personnel grossly outnumbers the amount of people you have in the field, you should reevaluate the makeup of your team. Can you combine jobs? Is someone doing a job that you could do? These are some tough questions that you need to answer honestly. And you need to decide what to do if those answers aren’t ideal.
Train Even When It’s Tough
One way that manpower never becomes an issue is by making sure that everyone on your team is operating at the highest level, and that requires training. Even though times can be tough, there is never a time to stop training your team. Go over how to present options to your clients, go over new products you have that can help homeowners, or go over how one of your best brings in revenue each day. Whatever topic is right for your team, there should always be time for training.
Track Results
The important point to remember is that what gets tracked gets achieved. If you want your team to achieve certain goals each day, you need to make sure that you’re tracking those results. And it’s best to get some element of peer pressure involved whether it is with a scoreboard posted in your office or an announcement of everyone’s results at a meeting the next morning.
Hire the Best
The exciting thing about being a business owner is that you’re in charge of who is on your team. You can pick the best of the best. And if you aren’t including your existing team in the interview process with you, you might want to get them involved in picking your next team member. You can even have a potential technician ride with your technicians to get their opinion of this new recruit. A big part of getting the best from your team is hiring the best to begin with.
Reward Your Team
Labor Day began as a way to commemorate the efforts of workers, and that’s an idea that you should carry out in your company every day. Recognize the efforts of your team. Whether it’s an announcement about a goal that’s hit or a formal presentation of an award, recognition will go a long way towards motivating your team. Add in other rewards like profit sharing, company events, and the occasional donut in the morning and you have a recipe for winning rewards.
Labor Day may have come and gone already, but the appreciation of the hard-working people that make your company a success should extend throughout the year. Help your employees succeed, and your company will succeed.