I need some ideas please. My maintenance techs are turning apartments slower than ever.

I need some ideas please. My maintenance techs are turning apartments slower than ever. I’m trying to come up with a consequence for not turning them in an appropriate time frame. But based on todays job market, what consequences can I employ without them resigning? Please help! Thanks!

How about something positive to give them instead of a consequence ? I know they should just be doing the turns on time - but sometimes an incentive works better! 

What if instead of consequences you offer incentives to turn them quicker? Team lunches, donuts on Fridays, random coffee runs for the team for a good week. That's how I get them to work better.

Have you asked how you can help them? I would start there before other options.

I left the industry because of managers who looked for consequences they could give out when work wasn’t done up to their standards. Now I work in the funeral industry and when I’m under preforming my boss comes to me and asks what’s going on. They ask how they can help me improve and the show me where I’m lacking. When I preform well I get praised for it, I receive bonuses, lunches, and genuine appreciation. And guess what? I haven’t had an issue in almost two years because I’m no longer working to not be punished I’m working to I get rewarded. I also trust my bosses enough that if I need help I ask for it instead of trying to hide that I’m struggling with something. Try and have some sympathy for your staff and see how you can help them improve. What do they need? If you do that then I can almost guarantee you’ll see improvement

And just a few examples of what we do:
-when we get a good review from a family we get a gold star on a chart and at the end of each quarter we put names in a bucket one for each gold star you have draw the name out and then for that next quarter who ever won gets a sparkly golden owl on their desk.
-my boss saw that I had improved our marketing strategy and she got me a $10 gift card
-I offered to step up and work some over time when everyone else was busy and so my boss recognized my dedication and hard work to our entire staff during our next weekly meeting and then gave me a had written thank you card.
- I’d been working really hard on making sure everything was perfect for one of our funeral services and my boss saw than and told me she wanted me to take a half day on Friday as a treat for working to hard.
It doesn’t have to be expensive or cost a lot of money it just has to show you care.
 

An issue that we were experiencing had to do with delivery delays on turn items. Keeping turn items in stock before the unit came available helped prevent unnecessary delays.

"Consequences" don't work! They make for bitter employees that want to quit. Instead, REWARD them for completing within a certain time!

Hey there! Punitive consequences seldom work and always drag down morale. I always like to bring the teams in on the solution. Have everyone - not just the service team, the whole community team - get together to review the turn timelines and brainstorm creative ideas to accelerate the timeline. Then, when an idea is used, name it after the person whose idea it was. You want to ensure quality and not corner-cutting in your need for speed. Celebrate ever single win and deliver recognition like crazy. You'll be amazed at how that can put a bounce in their steps.

Our maintenance bonuses are based on turn and service requests time

I'm in a different industry now, but all summer we struggled with massive sick calls and the company was punishing those that called out. Many found out how and applied for FMLA to bypass sick call punishments. For December there is financial incentives to show up and work as much as possible. Overnight the sick calls dropped. Incentives work better than punishments. Try incentives based on quality and speed of units turned. For example any work orders placed within 14 days of move in could cancel out bonus as quality matters with speed.

Staff meeting lunch, talk about the short term goals and what needs to be done, they might be encountering really bad unit turns that require more time, are you being fair and realistic with how much time they will take to finish? Are your techs well qualified to finish on time and do a google job? talk about maybe using vendors and to do part of the turn like paint & drywall. Don’t burn out your good techs, you might loose them, help them, take care of them.

I would ask if they are encountering supply chain shortages, and see if there are different vendors that are approved for your property or company that you can switch over to in the interim. Some things may be out of their control as to why they are encountering unit turn delays. Sometimes it can also be helpful if new processes or forms of communication are put into place. Two minds working together are better than one!

Make sure you treat your maintenace like equals and be respectful to them and they will work hard for you comany if you dont they will work slow and not care about the company.

As with any employee, you should consider finding out the reason it's taking them so long (motivation, burn-out, lack of training?) before you do anything. Maybe there are challenges you aren't aware of.

Maybe see what is going on first. They could be having bad turns, it always sound easy but doing is something else. For example I can explain how to replace an outlet and it seems like it would only take 3 seconds, but doing it is longer especially if you come across very short wires. Or it could be goofing of, burn out, or the no f to give.

Before creating consequences have you made Absolutely sure you've set your team for success? With is problem have you asked the "5whys" example 1) why are turns happening timely 2) no supllies, why? 3) orders are delaid, why 4) we are submitting them after the cut off time for the week. ( just an example but try to go back "5 whys".
Have you had a clear discussion with your team about your Expectations recently?
Have you asked them why turns aren't happening in a timely manner.
If you answer yes to all of the above them move forward with your consequence or reward system

I agree that a reward system vs a punishment is the way to go here. It would be hard to track the make ready date since I would assume the Manager would need to confirm it is done within a certain time period and we all know how the managers day can get away from them. Plus to avoid entering things into the system as complete when they are not complete could easily be done. To avoid the temptation to cheat and keep everyone honest, tie the bonus to property income and renewals. Explain the sooner someone moves in, the more income the property generates, the better the turn - less after hours or routine service calls they will get, and the more people are happy the more renewals will increase, which in turn reduces the number of turns (aka work). It's a circle and the maintenance teams are the axis! Make sure they know this, how much they are appreciated and at the end of the day - they control the amount of work that needs to be done on a daily basis. If they maintain the property & units as they should, they will see their workload eventually decrease. Not to mention the property will become more profitable. It's a win-win for all.

Are they slowing down due to waiting on supplies from slow supply chain?

They could just be feeling unmotivated or unappreciated. Do they have clear goals or targets that they're supposed to achieve? Something you're communicating often, and celebrating little successes when achieved? I would start there, even before incentives.

What’s the issues taking so long in your opinion? Sometimes turns don’t go quickly because that’s just how the apt is… you fix something and something else breaks and just becomes a domino effect.

As the only maintenance tech for 100 apts who has to handle all calls, turns, emergencies, I can spend 20 hours a day trying to keep caught up (working on turns overnight when people are sleeping)

I get no bonuses, no praise, no incentives for getting everything done in a timely fashion. And that is why I’m leaving this industry when the property sells here soon. Hell I had to do leasing, maintenance, and all the accounting work on all the different properties for 8 years before I had to leave and wait for them to beg me to come back a month later.

When I do turns, I replace all the old outlets and switches with new ones, I have to do about 20 different things to get apts up to date with code, paint, resurface tubs, replace doors, replace flooring, and everything else.. only to see the tenants destroy everything and it’s soul crushing. Our tenants have to deep fry everything… every night… and when I go in their kitchens… there’s grease on the walls, ceiling, the cabinets are coated, ceiling fans coated… and these people think it’s okay to live like that… then when they move it takes that much more time to correct all that.

Have you tried asking them how you can help? What would make things easier or better for them so they can be more efficient?
Threats very rarely motivate, they just create resentment

1-How about incentives for speed, use the carrot rather than the stick… couple of questions
2-have you asked why the slow down?
3-is it their fault or is it supply chain for product and
4-third party vendor issues.
Food for thought. And intentionally did not read comments before I commented, but glad to see I was not alone here.

Before we talk consequences…have you considered what may be leading to the slow turns? I know we are having this issue but it’s not just on my tech (who lost his wife a few months ago to covid)…we are struggling to get parts, our vendors are so booked they aren’t getting things completed as fast, our cleaning person quit in early spring, and we are ALL experiencing the burn out. Not to mention we are for the second year in a row working with a record number of turns. We are supposed to have a 5 day turn…but I’m lucky if I’m getting them in 30 days lately. I wish it was better, quicker…but I’m realistic and understand the frustration and burnout my team (myself included) is having not to mention the mental anguish my tech has to be going through. Please, one manager to another, take a step back and look at the whole picture before you consider consequences. For so many, they could almost go to work at a fast food place (at least in my market) and not have anywhere near the stress. I know it’s a very fine line but I know I would much rather deal with a slow completed turns than even consider what my site would be without my tech!!!

Short answer. Determine your current average days vacant per turn. Its available in Onesite and Yardi. Look at 30 to 60 days. Likely it's about 27 days. That was the national average 2 years ago. Now if your average rent is 1500 ($50/day) and your ADVPT is 27. Your team is burning $1350 per turn!!!
Note that is nearly 8% vacancy factor. But I digress.
Now use that $1350 to bonus your turn guys. You pick the bonus...For every day they beat the ADVPT this month they get $25/day.
Let's say they get you to 22 days.
Next month increase the bonus from 22 days.
Using this system I got my team to a real and true 7 days consistently for like 9 months. Then someone quit and screwed things up. Haha


Alternative: Hire a real turn company that doesaint, paint, clean and shampoo. Most will do all four services in 4 days. And cost you less than your guys labor+load factor.

I want to THANK everyone fir their input! It’s been such a tough almost 2 years. Back in the day it was expected to turn an apartment in 3-5 days but COVID has really put us all in difficult positions. I really care about my Team and really will look more into incentives or contests to get better productivity. Thanks again!

Go turn a unit with them it’s more than most realize plus shortage on paints , parts … work along side them . When they see this I bet it helps

Might be a better approach to talk to them and see what’s going on. Is it burn out? Exhaustion, unrealistic expectations. Or are they just slacking off. I have had turns that took a couple hours and some that took days! ( we had to replace urine soaked sub floors) and as for the comment about giving them a “ few days off” as punishment ….. I expect to see you on here shortly complaining about how no maintenance people want to work ( hint, we want to work, but demand respect.) times are changing and skilled maintenance people are waking up and we realize what we are worth. And when you have to hire a contractor for upwards of $50 a hour ( and they don’t care about your property or residents) you might want to rethink that micromanaging attitude and thinking a pizza party will fix everything.
But than that’s just some thoughts from a old man.

Communication about what their biggest challenges are.
Incentives that are valuable to them-again-ask them what is valuable to THEM.
Now, just something I noticed over 30yrs of on-site mgmt: Turns are done more quickly when you separate your team. There’s more wasted time when they’re doubled or tripled up and can possibly talk more than work. Even the best people can fall into this time trap. Obviously there’s times that it takes multiple people in a turn; I know that.

There truly is a lot of factors that could be relevant.
1. I would first look at how it’s being measured. Are reports being ran to determine time or it just feels like it’s taking longer recently. If they are being graded on average turn time but have a couple of problem units throwing the average off. Maybe look at your last 25 turns individually, view the start/complete dates and what was completed if you keep detailed records. If there is a slow down when did it start. 2. Morale, planning and execution, scope for each unit, team size, workload, supply, budget, and vendors are all potential factors and you may have multiple factors. I could easily see almost all of these being possible in our current environment. Make your team feels safe/secure and try to work through it with them. It may not be a quick easy “fix” of just give them some reward or punishment and expect them to work harder it could take some time to work past. Just look at all the relevant elements and try to make sure each one is the best it can be. If you are getting pressure from above you just let them know that you are looking at all the factors and working with your team.

I turning them as fast as I can boss! If you would pass out your own letters and go get your own lunch and stop calling me to the office for STUPID CRAP, I'd be done a lot sooner.

I agree with the comments "Punishment does not work". Along with positive reinforcement for good work, is training needed? 

Why a consequence? Whay not a Reward, You get morwm withthe carrot than the stick.

Offer bonus incentives, it's always about the money.  Make sure they have the supplies they need on hand it may be other things that are keeping the turns from getting done quickly.  As a manager I always make it about the team effort if you're too quick to be all about consequences and being the boss, you might want to rethink your strategy, you get more bees with honey. 

I pay my maintenance team by the job, get work done very quickly for my 400 units!

Wow. If your team is slipping it's most likely due to your punitive style of leadership.

Questions to ask yourself: How are you helping to meet their goals? Are your expectations clear, consistent, reasonable, and fair? Is the manpower sufficient for the demands of the facility? Do you really listen when they speak? Do you assume to know what it really takes to do their jobs? How many hours of work demands does your facility generate each day? Are you destroying morale? Are they afraid of your reactions?

Multiply each tech by 7 hours. That's how many hours of work they can be expected to accomplish in a good day (limited distractions, emergencies, etc.). This includes setup, cleanup, travel, communication, and all other tasks necessary to do the work. And reasonable down time throughout the day. Maintenance is physically demanding. Add the unpredictable obstacles, scheduling issues, client difficulties, and fear of management and it's mentally exhausting.

 

We install multi family HVAC and the biggest issue we see is the quality of maintenance techs.  It can be a very unfulfilling job when pay is low. Much like our installers, you have to identify good quality people, pay them enough and train WITH them.  Don't just send them to a class or what we usually see which is send them out so they learn on the fly....usually from a guy who knows little more then they do.

 

Have you considered hiring a contractor to help with repairs needed during unit turnovers to free up your maintenance teams time?  For example, we are often told it is costs much less to hire us (Certified Indoor Environmental) to complete mold remediation, fan ducting, and fan replacement because we specialize in this service, so it is done expertly and in much less time.  Plus, if building materials need to be removed, we can quickly test for asbestos which is required in multifamily; again, reducing your maintenance team's turnover timeline and allowing them to focus on what they do best.

Consequence? With all the stressors of todays world and work market, A consequence is a punishment that will ensue Maintenance techs that have a lack of care or pride in what they do. Why not Reward them for finishing in a good time frame? Make it a competition with added rewards such as PTO/Tools/etc? I assure
You they will find joy in coming to work while producing the best possible results.