Ask An Expert: Weekend Management Struggles

Q: Our weekend performance is negatively impacting the business, what can we do?

I am a manager at a company in the construction industry. We run techs basically 7 days a week (Sunday's on call). Lately, we have been struggling with our weekend performance. One of the issues is that there is no oversight by managers, so other than a dispatcher working in the office there really isn't anyone to answer to. This issue is mostly with the service departments not hitting KPI's (not even coming close most weekends). It's come to the point where if we don't make changes it's going to really hurt our company. The issue that most of us are having is that we don't feel it's fair that we all have to work or be on call 7 days a week. There is a management rotation on call every weekend, but they oversee emergencies, not making sure KPIs are being met as they won't have any skin in the game with departments that aren't theirs. Anyone else deal with similar issues and have any insight or suggestions?

Our Answer: First, this is obviously the problem that needs to be fixed:  "There is a management rotation on call every weekend, but they oversee emergencies, not making sure KPIs are being met as they won't have any skin in the game with departments that aren't theirs."

My real answer would be for leadership to start holding management accountable. My job for many years was going into underperforming businesses and turning them around. The problem that needs to be solved always starts with management.

If you'd like the business case angle that doesn't require looking in a mirror, ask yourselves how impactful this shortfall in service is. How much is it worth to you, as a business? Just a few solutions.

- Incentivize everyone equally for specific KPI, maybe surrounding service EVERY DAY? You pool tips, so to speak, thus every department has the same skin in the game. - Hold the managers accountable for the work done when it's their weekend to oversee the team

- Reorganize responsibilities, with a current manager changing their schedule to take two weekdays off or at least taking responsibility for the weekend permanently.

- You promote from within, give someone on the weekend a raise and weekend bonus. If you have to pay bump someone say 15% + bonus, is that worth it vs the hit your business is taking?

- Is it worth creating another job within your community? Bring on a service department lead who can cover the weekends, or promote someone and hire another service rep.

- Hire a consultant to come in and problem solve with you all If management can't be bothered to care about results because they think it isn't "fair", how can they expect anyone else to care? No matter how you slice it, this must be addressed. Agree? Disagree? Have a similar story or want us to help solve your own management challenges? Comment or reach out, we'd love to hear from you!

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Scott works alongside his clients as a micro-mentor, coach and personal career consultant building lasting solutions to all sorts of work problems. He applies his professional expertise to his life experience and the result is that he's always exactly where he wants to be. He'd love to hear your story.