october2023 - 21

[ SHOP MANAGEMENT ]
Gamification can be the powerup shops need to
reach higher scores in efficiency and productivity,
while making work a little more fun, too.
By John Hitch
W
ith most maintenance shops offering comparable
pay, shop owners and managers must
distinguish themselves in other ways to
attract and retain labor, while at the same
time motivating them to be as safe, productive,
and efficient as possible.
Money alone can't buy consistent productivity
or loyalty-all you get are maintenance
mercenaries who will leave when the job gets
too hard or boring. There's also the threat that
another shop gives them a better offer. You
can differentiate your operation, though, by
making it a place where technicians, service
writers, and parts personnel look forward to
working 40+ hours a week, 50+ weeks a year.
" Work doesn't have to suck-you should
have fun, " offered Chris O'Brien, COO at
Fullbay, which provides shop management
software and regularly hosts virtual discussions
on how shop owners can better connect
with their workers.
" Going to work day in and day out where
it actually feels fun and engaging can make
a huge difference, " added Jacob Findlay,
Fullbay's founder and executive chairman.
There is a science to fun, though. Fullbay's
platform collects and measures data to help
maintenance operations increase productivity
and revenue. Findlay advises that fleets
and shops ought to combine their data with
some friendly competition and rewards.
This will in turn help the whole shop reach
a winning strategy for uptime and efficiency.
In short, turn work into a game.
This is something we all knew intuitively
as children, but the stresses and responsibilities
that come with age have a way
of shoving such notions into the recesses
of our minds. The grown-up word for it is
gamification. This is basically leveraging
techs' competitive nature, along with incentives
such as cash bonuses, trophies, trips,
and intrinsic rewards, to help achieve a
company goal, whether that's completing
a project on time, boosting revenue, or
improving quality. Let's call it what it is: a
way to make work suck less.
And this strategy, which has been formally
around for more than a decade, is growing in
popularity among fleets.
" Gamification is being used more and
more among commercial fleets, " said Belinda
Rueffer, Fleetio VP of marketing, based on
customer conversations.
" What started as a fun way to get drivers
engaged in building a culture of safety-by
creating safe driver leaderboards and tying
financial and recognition-based rewards to
drivers who exhibit safe driving habits-has
now extended beyond safety to driver engagement
in general, and even into in-house and
outsourced maintenance shops. "
Rueffer believes gamification is more than
" a passing trend " and sees it " as a gradual shift
that helps fleets recruit, engage, and retain
top talent. "
One of Fullbay's customers, Iron Buffalo
Truck and Trailer Repair (formerly JE-CO
Truck & Trailer), has found that gamifying
the shop does that and more. The shop's business
model is to provide premium service that
costs less than a dealership, so happy, focused,
and productive technicians are essential.
" We try to come up with creative ways to
inspire them, " said co-owner Mike Schwarz
at the 2023 TMCSuperTech competition in
Cleveland. He and the shop's other owner,
Austin White, were there to support their
director of training and technician development,
Ian Matje, who won the Automated
Manual Transmission, EV, and cybersecuity
stations in the heavy-duty track.
The Denver-based shop offers weekly,
quarterly, and annual contests based on
billable hours. The weekly and quarterly
winners get some extra cash, with the
quarterly winner earning a coveted trophy
depicting the Hulk ripping his shirt off. Techs
keep them on their toolboxes as a symbol of
pride, or perhaps dominance.
The top biller of the year gets a trip for
themselves and their significant other. The
first winner chose Hawaii. That choice somehow
took Schwarz and White by surprise.
They hadn't planned on such an extravagant
locale, but did find a way in the budget to
honor the request, and the other techs were
more motivated than ever to win. Iron
Buffalo also brings on apprentices from local
schools, and in the program's three years, all
have chosen to stay on at the shop.
" And they're billing consistently-50 to 70
hours a week-as 19- or 20-year-olds, " offered
White, who added they " are extremely loyal. "
Matje, a former diesel school instructor, was
hired six months ago to run the apprenticeship
and overall training.
" They are worth every penny that we've
invested in the program and extremely loyal, "
White continued.
The gamification is enabled by the standardized
training Matje provides. Together
they serve as a major shop powerup.
" What we see is that there is a return in
terms of the productivity of the staff and the
quality of their work and a reduction in comebacks,
and in turn the amount of revenue
that we can generate with the same space, "
Schwarz said.
Getting started isn't all fun and games,
though. There's a science to gamifying a shop,
and the strategy can take many forms and fail
in many ways. Here's a guide that should help
get you started.
Ground rules
Before you decide on fun stuff, like how the
game will be played and what the rewards
will be, you have to establish some basic
rules, such as what company goal you want
to achieve or metrics you want to improve.
" As far as driving operational betterness
or improvement, you've got to have alignment
between whatever you're measuring
with this gamification and what you want
to achieve as an organization, " Findlay
explained. " It can't just be going around
and shooting each other with Nerf guns
and calling it 'gamification.' "
Hint #1 Decide on
metrics and KPIs
game will improve
An easy target is technican efficiency. For
this, take a technician's total hours worked
and divide by hours billed.
" If they bill 30 hours in a week, and they're
on the clock for 40 hours, that would be 75%
efficiency, " he said.
Gamifying utilization can also unearth
some hidden inefficiencies.
" You might have a hotshot tech who can
get 40 hours worth of work done in 20 hours,
and then sits around for another 20 hours, "
Findlay said. " What if we could get them to
work the other 20 hours? "
A tech being utilized only half of the time
should signal to leadership they need to find
a way to keep them more engaged. This could
also help a shop identify really efficient techs
who need help billing more hours.
October 2023 | FleetMaintenance.com
21
John Hitch | Fleet Maintenance
http://www.FleetMaintenance.com
october2023

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