Working Together as an Independent Contracting Company Team

In the HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting world it can be difficult to find and keep a company team that works well together.  There are aspects about each of our personalities and opinions that mesh well with some and clash with others but we will all have to deal with this throughout our lives, no matter what the situation or circumstance.  What is important is that we learn how to come together, keep together, and work together as a team in order to achieve success.

This overall effort of teamwork is a concept that Henry Ford epitomized in the workplace.  He believed that if you treat your workers well and pay them fair wages then they would contribute to the consumer society as well as buy their company’s products.  What better testimonial than an employee that owns their company’s products– now that’s “practicing what you preach” and displaying company value.  When it came to team effort in order to get a job done in the workplace both relationally and technically, Henry Ford had some great words of wisdom: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” This same mentality holds true today in independent contracting companies in the industry of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical.  Here is how Ford’s quote can be used to build team cohesion, rapport, and success in the workplace today:

-“Coming Together”- It is a wonderful feeling when you finally get the team dynamic right.  But acquiring the best members for your team doesn’t magically happen overnight, it takes tireless recruiting efforts (whether you’re actively looking to hire or not) as well as relationship building and growth amongst your current team.  But even if you feel that you have the right people on your team you must remember, “Coming together is the beginning.” You can have all the right people on your company team but if you don’t work to keep their skills sharp through training in customer service, systems and processes, as well as professionalism then you will lose the great employees, instill bad habits into the employees with potential, or retain the employees that aren’t the right fit.  So getting great team members is an essential step, but only the beginning, in building an amazing service team.

-“Keeping Together”- Retaining the right company team takes conscious time and effort but in the end it creates greater internal coworker loyalty.  Remember, “Keeping together is progress.” Retention is a continual work in progress.  Managers and leaders must consistently check-in with coworkers to ensure that they feel confident and capable in their job, make sure they feel they are the right fit, and determine if there are any questions or issues that need to be handled.  Great managers and leaders will purposefully spend time and effort managing relationships inside the company; because company success and progress happens when internal teamwork is consistent and efficient.

-“Working Together”- Effectively working together deals with teamwork on a relational and technical level.  When a team works together to benefit each other it comes in the form of following systems and processes, performing non-negotiable action steps on every call, and talking highly of the company and coworkers.  Working together also includes being respectful of team members and encouraging each person to take responsibility for their own actions without passing blame.  Any system that relies on multiple parts to function is unable to work properly when its parts aren’t working together and the same is true for coworkers inside of a company.  A company can’t succeed and benefit its workers if employees do not first put in effective hard work and teamwork.  Company success internally and externally occurs when individuals choose to come together, stay together by putting their differences aside, and work together for a greater purpose.

Coworker retention is a delicate process that requires purposeful time and energy but it is an essential piece to overall company success.  Having the best members to make up a team will help grow your company in the right direction and develop greater service excellence.  Here at Service Excellence Training we have many popular lessons revolving around employee retention and effective teamwork skills so let us encourage you as we work together to create the action steps for your employee retention plan.  Thank you for following S.E.T.’s weekly posts.  Here at Service Excellence Training we turn learning into earning!

-Resource curated by Whitney Stewart of Service Excellence Training.