The best time to learn how to workload an account is when you are first starting out. The reason that workloading is so important is that as you grow your business you will need to develop a second sense of how long it takes for each worker to perform their tasks. Although there are some excellent time standards available on the market, the best time standards will be the ones you develop based on experiences in the early days.

Oftentimes when I trained in a new worker I would encourage them to give themselves a few days or even a week to perform the task within the time frames I gave them. If, after a week or so, they still could not perform the tasks within the time frame I had developed, I would either retrain them or try them at another contract.

Of course, the opposite challenge is to have a very fast worker who cuts corners and ultimately generates complaints and puts the contract at risk. For that reason I required workers to clock in and out of each job so that I could track their real time. Of course, I would drop by and monitor the account since I had everything from workers clocking in and then taking a meal break to workers who brought in the family members (not covered by workers comp insurance!) to help them get through sooner.

Yes, you need to know how long it takes to perform each task correctly. Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 3/26/2015