Mistakes happen, but every company has to draw the line somewhere. How many mistakes have to be made—and how costly do those mistakes have to be—before a company must take disciplinary action, hire a new employee, or switch vendors?

Identify workplace problems and issues

Like many of the most vexing problems that businesses face, the process of identifying a problem employee or vendor is a matter of identifying overall trends. The trouble is, many companies lack a system to track the data necessary to do so, or they rely on inefficient, outdated methods like paper systems or basic spreadsheets.

This is where leading maintenance management solutions like ManagerPlus come in handy. Companies that track their assets and manage their workflow in a centralized, digital format can use that information to spot wasteful or inefficient employees and/or vendors in several critical ways.

Examples of performance issues in the workplace

Estimated versus actual hours

Within ManagerPlus, estimated hours can be entered directly onto work orders, making it easy to run a variance report to see exactly what the difference is between how long an employee or vendor is claiming a job will take, and how long they’re actually spending on it.

If the difference is large, particularly when compared to the time it takes other employees or vendors to complete the same job, the issue can be investigated further to determine whether a particular employee or vendor is under-qualified, low on resources, or simply wasting time.

Above all, using data-driven trend analysis to identify and approach these issues will help keep the focus of any ensuing investigation or action on the problem itself, as opposed to the fine-grain details of any one incident. Excuses are easier to find for a single incident than a recurring trend.

ManagerPlus can also use historical data to establish average hours for specific service items. Companies can then use these averages to rate and compare the performance of maintenance employees.

Persistent equipment problems as symptom of poor work or misuse

We’re all familiar with the old cliché “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” The same is often true of equipment condition, yet companies often assume that regular wear and tear is to blame when the true problem could be employee misuse or poor maintenance.

This is another situation where spotting problems is virtually impossible without the data necessary to perform proper trend analysis. With ManagerPlus it’s easy: companies can compare historical repair costs for similar pieces of equipment, determine which are costing the most, and then take a closer look at the employees who use those pieces of equipment the most.

Evaluating the quality of maintenance work is similarly easy: reports can be run to help identify which pieces of equipment cost the most to maintain, and determine whether equipment maintained by certain individuals or vendors tends to break down more often.

Overcome workplace difficulties

When it comes to identifying employees or vendors who might be running up costs, there is never a silver bullet, but by tracking asset and workflow data in a maintenance software system, companies give themselves the tools necessary to spot critical trends.

About the author

Jason Cockerham

Jason is a storyteller at heart with a career spanning everything from film and TV to iPhones. Just don't expect much before his first cup of coffee.
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