Controlling Overtime

What are some ways you experienced professionals control overtime with your maintenance teams? :woohoo:

Hello Cindy,

I guess there are a lot of factors that go into this answer. First are their valid calls and how old is the property? What type of maintenance calls are there? Start documenting what the calls are for and how many times do they go out to fix the same problem?

Then there is a trust issue! Do you trust your maintenance personnel to do the right thing? What is the experience level of your maintenance personnel? So many factors before saying how to control the over time, if in fact it can be with given condition of the property and the quality of the products purchased.

The other thing is the size of the property and the number of personnel you have to answer maintenance calls. With more information I can narrow down your maintenance requirement. Boots on the gorund is best though!

hi Cindy,

Emergencies are going to happen, so make sure to budget some funds for overtime. Also, check your state labor laws to see what is allowed.

Sometimes "floating" hours could be used. Full time employees could be paid for 40 hours but scheduled for 36. That way, if an emergency comes up, overtime doesn't always become a factor. My own hours are scheduled this way. Even though I rarely perform maintenance, I do get other "emergency" or after-hours calls, visits, tours right at lunch, non-stop days that require a trip to the bank after my work day, etc. If I have extra time at the end of my weekly schedule, there is always filing and organizing to catch up on (or for maintenance, inventory and prep work.)

We used to say "it all comes out in the wash," so working 35 hours one week and 45 the next was OK, because the market can be unpredictable. A few years ago the Bureau of Labor said that is not OK anymore. So scheduling (and profit margins) had to be adjusted to reflect the new labor laws.

We also share our emergency pager. If the pager goes off, whoever is on duty responds to the call and determines if it is truly a maintenance emergency. Next, we offer the response to our part time staff. If a part time employee is unavailable, whoever is on call get's some overtime (like it or not).

Trust is important, but keeping records and verifying time spent will help too. If it takes four hours to take care of a half hour problem, investigate for sure!

I do not believe that trust has been able to be questioned in the past due to my lead having over 30 years experience. Sometimes though I feel like they take advantage of trust given because of their tenure. I recently started questioning items but do not want to ruin the relationship in case of false hunches on my part. The property is over 20 years of age Nate.

How about making it policy the resident sign the service ticket which is to be completed showing time on the job? I also believe if you are doing callbacks and service knows this, questions related to response and completion of the task are well within reason. I agree with the trust part. If you trust your team and empower them, you should not have to worry. Cindy there is another side of this. You stated you do not want to ruin your relationship. First, you are responsible for the budget, payroll, and expenditures. You have a right and obligation to question and put into place measures to justify the expenses/payroll. If presented properly, they will understand you report to others just as they report to you. If someone is on call you also may have the right to do an early release if the schedule and workload allows later in the week on the same pay period. There again checking state laws related to any obstacles related to this. You apparently are asking this question because of concerns you have. If you have concerns, you also have the obligation to verify.

I suggest evaluating all sides of the situation applicable to your property. Do all residents know and understand what is considered to be an "emergency" at your property? I would include this in your lease language. Some communities will charge a resident who calls in for emergency service, when in fact it was NOT an emergency. I am not a fan of this because I wouldn't want a true emergency to go unreported as this may be a bigger headache later. However, those properties that do this also speak to Residents before they come out (either through a call service or the on-call person talks to them.) Once the emergency call is taken care of, the maintenance person should be telling office (within 24 hours) of the call, so that it is logged into the work order system, thus enabling verification of the actual emergency. This also allows for tracking which on-site personnel responded to the call. Next, if allowable and reasonable (determined by the Manger) the on-call person may or is told to take that time off within the same week of the same pay period to reduce the actual hours worked to their normally scheduled number. This is how I set properties up and it works well.

Tread carefully about comping time. That's the issue that the bureau of labor came down hard on companies in Oregon as a HUGE no-no.

Absolutely, Rose! It always depends on your state's laws. Some companies pay differently based on regular hours, on-call hours, etc. Every company is going to be a little different.

A legal way to reduce overtime costs and time padding is to simply go to a sliding base pay. So long as it does not drop below minimum wage it is legal.

Best way is training and implementation and enforcement of policies. For example, it has been my experience that maintenance technician typically lack in time management. So, the best thing is to train them on how to better manage their time and be more effective during the regular work hours. A schedule typically helps, but doesn’t assist with certain unexpected issues. Also, they must understand what is an emergency vs. what is 24 business hours turn around. Many maintenance have a difficult time distinguishing. A simple quick training with a written list of emergency or not emergency items would help. Furthermore, I would ensure to put in place certain policies. Such as an OT log, separate from the regular time card. This log would detail the amount of hours of OT and the work performed. Also, request a signed copy of the service request by supervisor or tenant. This makes them accountable for the additional (possibly non-approved) OT hours. With the constant training and enforcement of policies, you will see the OT hours reduced to a minimum. It works great in our company.