Working on the front line of water damage restoration isn’t easy. It’s an emergency business, for starters, meaning that the employees in our crews often have to respond to after hours calls. Of course, the very nature of our work is downright messy and this only makes the job harder. When water floods a home, there might be sewage, there might be mold, and there is definitely going to be a lot of demo work.
It makes sense, then, that so many owners in the industry hear that their employees aren’t happy in their jobs. It’s challenging work, what we do, and this can wear on employees. Before you brush off your employees’ satisfaction as baseless complaints, however, ask yourself if your team is being paid fairly. If you want to happy and motivated team, you have to show them their value.
The Easiest Way to Value Your Employees
There are a lot of ways to show your water damage restoration employees that they bring value you to your team. There are different approaches to showing your appreciation of the work they do, but there is nothing as straightforward and important as offering them competitive pay.
Your employees want to know they are being paid fairly. When it comes to job satisfaction, most Americans rate a competitive salary as the second most important factor, with respect taking that number one spot. This means there is little you can do to make your employees feel they are valued if you are not paying them fairly. It’s essential to hiring the right people and its non-negotiable if you want to retain those hires for the long term.
How much should you pay your employees?
Determining the base hourly pay your employees should receive requires taking into account both the minimum wage where your business is located as well as what each individual employee brings to the table. Someone who is brand new to the industry should not be paid the same wage as a more experience employee. At the same time, we strongly recommend that your starting wage for all employees be above minimum wage. The intensity of the job calls for a higher baseline pay.
Employees should also be offered regular raises when their performance warrants it. We suggest a one time raise after a new employees complete their probationary period. Additionally, annual raises are important to retaining the best of the best, by showing them that you see how hard they are working.
If you are still struggling to decide exactly how much to pay an entry level employee, consider reaching out to other water damage restoration business owners in surrounding areas. They may be able to offer you some guidance on what is and isn’t acceptable.
After Hours and Bonus Pay
In any emergency industry, there are other ways employees should be compensated. It is important that any employees who work after hours receive additional compensation. In our industry it is standard to pay double time to employees who come out for jobs after hours or on the weekends.
There is also the issue of bonuses, which are an excellent tool for motivated employees. If you want to achieve the goals you have set for your business, you need your crew to be on board. There might not be any better way to accomplish this than to offer a bonus when the company has a successful year.
Bonus pay can also be used to motivate procedural changes within the company. For instance, if your phones are not being answered 100 percent of the time, why not offer a small bonus for great improvement in this area? Or, if your company aspires to make it on site within a certain set time after a call, offer an end-of-quarter bonus for consistently quick response times.
Talking to Your Employees About Their Pay
The most important aspect of talking to your employees about their pay is that you do it. There is no better formula for an unhappy employee than one who starts their job with unrealistic expectations of their compensation package.
Before an employee signs on with your company, make sure their baseline hourly wage, along with after hours and bonus pay, is in writing. This is also the time to introduce the plan for regular raises, bonuses, and benefits.
At More Floods, we help business owners in the water damage restoration industry create seamless hiring and on boarding practices. If you want help putting together fair compensation packages for your valuable employees, click here or call 1-866.3356 to learn more about the More Floods network.