How do you pay your Techs?

[Mikey P]

Give me your reasons for not paying commission and for the other half, reasons for not paying hourly.


And if you do both, please explain as well.

 

[handdi]

commission get in too big a hurry
besides with your ticket prices why would you pay comm????
we pay hourly works out find
we keep them busy all day so screwing off is not an option

i give lead tech 20 percent of add ons plus hourly he does ok
our labor was 25 percent last year
He has a helper now so will see how this works out so far so good.

 

[Jack May]

I pay hourly for the 40 hour week, but have incentive schemes and commission options for afterhours or upsells or call outs etc.

Hourly gets better quality I feel.

John

 

[Mikey P]

I'm wondering what DA Burns and Hagopian do..



What about you meAt?

 

[GeneMiller]

i pay hourly, tickets are to high to pay commission, but i give him 100 percent of the tips. that's his incentive. with all the new yorkers he can bring in an extra 100-200 a week on average. i keep a running list of guys wanting his job that also seems to motivate him.

gene

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Residential we pay hourly + a % of the gross over $700.

Guys doing commercial at night are hourly and if they have a big night I throw them a few bones.

 

[bob vawter]

you forgot the box that says...
Trade for Weed.........!

 

[Bjorn]

Have them join the Teamsters or SEIU and you will soon know what to pay then

You Rich Capitalist pig

 

[Ken Snow]

Commission- I addressed the topic in my hot seat interview. We went from hourly to commission over 30 years ago and never looked back. It's been tweaked and improved and we have additional incentive programs, but having people unsupervised on the road all day commission makes the most sense to us, with the caveat of any reservices are no pay.

 

[Brian R]

i pay hourly, tickets are to high to pay commission, but i give him 100 percent of the tips. that's his incentive. with all the new yorkers he can bring in an extra 100-200 a week on average. i keep a running list of guys wanting his job that also seems to motivate him.

gene

Then pay a lower %


As far as them hurrying...as mentioned in another post.
While on commission, the Techs know they have to go back at no additional charge for re-work.
Hourly guys will take all day at a $100.00 job...what do they care?

Commission is the only way to go if the Tech is selling and you want to keep guys honest.
Every person (Tech) is different...you might get an hourly guy who kicks butt and you might get a % guy who loligags. You really never know until you know.


Either way the % is there to keep the Tech motivated...keeps the company safe during the slow season (also teaches the Tech how to budget his/her personal finances), and is really just fair to everyone involved.

This has been a moment with Brian. 8)

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I think it would be best to just pay a commission on all work with a guaranteed hourly minimum. If it is a large job then you should feel good knowing both you and your tech made good money. Happy employees make for a successful business. Me I just find the nearest crackhead and drop a 20 off at the end of the day. :mrgreen: That was a joke of course. Well I have done it a few times.

 

[GeneMiller]

Brian you are right about every guy is different. the guy i have now works his ass off regardless of pay. remember i am in the truck so that makes a difference. i would think different if i weren't.
he does well even with the hourly rate. we usually work a 50+ week plus all tips. I also pay a christmas bonus if he stays the whole year. Last year it was an extra 3500.00 cash. If he gets restless then I will change things. How you pay will very greatly from company to company based on many different things. One method will never work for every one.

gene

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Well I had a great worker for about three months that I paid 8 dollars an hour and he could do everything (repairs, installs, clean, and do general labor such as washing my truck etc). He spoke great english, was clean cut, didn't do drugs, drank a littll, and was basically the ideal owner ops ride along assistant. Eventually he would have been able to go solo but he got deported. He went to pick his cousin up who was a dishwasher and was just sitting in his car and the police were profiling and being jerks. Anyways he is long gone and I never heard from him again.

 

[The Great Oz]

Our system is similar to Ken's. Productive people like having the ability to make more money.

Straight percentages only work if your tech is doing dollar producing work for most of their shift, and can reasonably earn more than they would hourly.

 

[Mike Draper]

I pay my assistant $12.00 an hour and buy them lunch daily when we are working and hungry. He holds hoses, pre-sprays, fetches spot remover, fans etc. If I sent him out on a job I would prolly pay him 25%. I'm 100% sure I could find many people to work for less, but I actually care about my employees and want them to care as well. IMO any less and you get some hack who doesn't GAS.

 

[Mikey P]

I wish Harper would chime in, he has a killer program going for his goats.

 

[Brian R]

Its so much easier just to do one % across the board.

The more they make the more they make and vise versa

 

[joe harper]

I wish Harper would chime in, he has a killer program going for his goats.

" I "QUIT"...1/1/10..."


I have enough problems "with my putting" right now.!!!!

carry-on..

 

[rick imby]

I wish Harper would chime in, he has a killer program going for his goats.

" I "QUIT"...1/1/10..."


I have enough problems "with my putting" right now.!!!!

carry-on..

I guess he is tied up on the Golf course. I have more trouble with my Driving.

Rick

 

[ronbeatty]

I pay my coworkers $15.00 an hour. I like them to be 50 years old and up, retired from a good job looking for some extra money. 8)

 

[B&BGaryC]

Full commission is available but nobody is brave enough to try it because of our winters. They start in late august and go until mid june

 

[Brian R]

My guys know that they need to start saving their money around sept....really all year...when Jan hits, they know they will get some time off. We've been blessed this year but they know of the possibilities and they should be ready for it.

Now do they do it? Usually not. But the pressure helps to keep me movitated to get more work.

I know if the work isn't steady, then they may try to find their own work.

 

[hogjowl]

If I had the ability to keep a crew busy, then I would never consider anything other than straight commission. However, I can't, so it's hourly on the daily stuff and commission on my night time stuff.

 

[Warren Wallace]

Well I paid my guy $14.00 per hr sent him to class got him cert. in carpet and furniture cleaning and he just quit last week. It got reall busy after he quit, should have fired him sooner.

 

[Brian R]

Damn, that hurts.

 

[Ryan]

So who let Marty vote 9 times!!!!!!!!!

 

[-JB-]

Residential we pay hourly + a % of the gross over $700.

liken that plus tips.

 

[Hoody]

Commission for residential, hourly for commercial. I've talked to Harper and being an employee that would be what I would want. So our guys are going to get the same. If I get an over zealous employee who decides to go after some commercial accounts on his own; they'll get a residual bonus if its a monthly paid account. Or they'll get the bonus when we get paid.

They'll get 25-30% based on level of performance and how long they've been with us. They'll have two choices. The first being just taking what their commission is week by week. So of course payroll would be a week behind to calculate all of that. Or they can take a set amount each week, say $500. That is so each week they know that they'll have 500 coming to them. If a guy can average 3k a week in work, they would be paid $900 for the week, making that $2800 a month.
They take their $500 each week which means they'll be paid $2000, the first week of every month they would receive that additional $800(or whatever the amount may be) as the prior months sales would be able to be calculated.

 

[Guest]

So how does Mikey pay his employees? I remember him awhile back, saying good help in his area needs a living wage, because is expensive to live.

 

[Brian R]

So how does Mikey pay his employees? I remember him awhile back, saying good help in his area needs a living wage, because is expensive to live.

He mentioned % in another thread.