4 Important KPIs Proven to Benefit Field Managers

2018-01-12

How clear is your vision?
Field managers have such a vast area of responsibilities. When you’re managing teams of field workers you’re probably battling to keep up with your to do list. Improving performance is not your top priority when you simply want to get work done.
But progress is vital.

Why do Field Managers need KPIs?

When you see how important using key performance indicators are you’ll wish you started earlier.
A KPI is not only for business owners. Anyone can use it to improve a department or service.
Using them when you think your business needs improving may be too late. So implement them now. KPIs ensure you survive in a competitive industry.
KPI data can be drawn regarding any area of your business:

• Employees
• Customers
• Sales
• Services

You need this data to make sure you’re benefiting the company. For field managers who have to manage unpredictable factors such as weather, personalities and traffic KPIs help you stay on top of things.
If you can measure and improve certain aspects of your work you won’t be caught off guard as easily.
Don’t you want to be proactive rather than simply reactive?
Here are KPIs that will boost your efficiency.

1. KPIs on Work Sites

Field managers are responsible for multiple workers and possibly various sites. Making sure the teams can function efficiently doesn’t allow time to manage every detail.
How do you know your teams are performing optimally?
This is why performance indicators are empowering. They give you facts about work proceedings so you know how and when to step in.

Timeline
How fast do field workers handle jobs?
Data about this can be used as a KPI in the following ways:

• Yes each job is unique but similar jobs should be completed in the same number of minutes. Is this taking place or do workers get slower at the end of the day?
• Are you knowledgeable about the type of work being done? Then you must know how long it should take. How do the facts compare to your expectations? Are workers lazy or do they need more resources to work faster?
• How do your workers’ timelines compare to competitors’? This influences who customers will call in future. It’s vital you stay the best in the industry.

Because you know where problems in the company are located you can make changes. This is wiser than simply wondering why you’re not seen as the best in the business.

Return to Site
How often do worker teams return to repair work done previously? This rate should be close to zero or your workers aren’t delivering quality service.
This KPI is an excellent tool to measure your workers competency. If this data only points to a specific team you may have found a problem.
As with most KPIs it empowers you to take relevant action. Adjustments are always aimed at achieving the company’s goals and quality service providing should be one of them.

Conversions
Service provision goes hand in hand with maintenance. Do your clients love your work so much that they opt for maintenance plans after warrantees pass?
The percentage of people converting to these plans give indications of possible challenges in your teams. Further investigation, talking to workers or asking client feedback will give you more clarity:

• Do workers promote maintenance plans enough? Sales is an important part of field work.
• Is the quality of work impressive enough that clients want to keep you on as a service provider? Now simply investigate what you can do to improve the quality if necessary.
• Maintenance plans require clients to trust you. Do the teams’ punctuality and workmanship prompt trust in clients?

Once again you can put actionable plans together to remedy circumstances.

Customer Satisfaction
A customer’s happiness is probably a qualitative measure. Customers’ opinions may also be subjective to their expectations. You can’t base all your decisions on whether a client is happy.
But certain measurements do show you whether you need adjustments in your field work:

• How many recurring customers do you have? And not to fix problems you caused with previous call outs. You want to be employed for different work. This shows your clients rate you better than the rest.
• How many clients contact you based on referrals? This shows other clients think you good enough to help their friends.

This data can be gathered through questionnaires. Seeing how these rates change over time also shows you when your site work quality is deteriorating.

2. KPIs for Managing

Do your workers realize how much you do for them?
Field managers’ responsibilities stretch across many business aspects and one problem can influence:

• A worker’s day
• A team’s performance
• A client’s satisfaction

So yes a field manager’s work requires KPIs to help you know if you’re doing your job correctly.

Travel
It’s your responsibility to ensure workers’ vehicles and time are used efficiently. How good are you at planning routes that allow for the most work to get done?
Measureable KPIs include:

• Time workers spend on the road
• Distances workers travel
• Fuel and other travel costs

This information can be used to determine:

• Are your rates profitable with rising fuel prices?
• More efficient routes will allow workers to get more work done. But this type of planning requires more of your time. Which option will be most profitable and beneficial to the company?
• Is your travel planning up to standard or do you require the help of service scheduling software? This is a necessary expense if your teams can’t tend to all your clients.

SLA Compliance
While workers do the important work on site it’s your responsibility to ensure the work matches expectations.
Measure how many complaints you get of not complying to Service Level Agreements’ requirements.
Is this an area you need to attend to:

• Improve your public image
• Regain trust from clients
• Initiate word of mouth marketing

Resource Utilization
Field managers must learn how to balance the use of many resources. If one factor is out of sync all others are influenced. This implicates profit, client satisfaction and business growth.
Can you see how all important KPIs relate to these business goals? If you ignore the facts you can damage a business severely.
Here’s how you keep an eye on your resources.

HR
Your employees form part of your resources. Without them you can’t deliver a service. If your KPI measurements show you attain these goals you’re doing an excellent job:

• You have a low ETR (Employee Turnover Rate) which is usually a sign your employees are happy working for you.
• Employee allocation is optimized. On average jobs are attended to by the minimum number of people necessary to complete them. Other employees are free to attend to other work.

Stock
How well do you look after your stock?
With site work stock constantly moves around. But you can measure whether stock is:

• Getting lost
• Getting stolen

If these rates are high you need to improve security, stock taking procedures and control during call outs.
If you don’t it implicates profit.

Equipment
How often does equipment return broken? You may have found a huge reason for unnecessary expenses:

• You’re purchasing low quality equipment
• Field workers aren’t looking after equipment well

Once again quantifiable data helps you get to the source of your company’s problems. This is the value of using the correct KPIs for the industry you’re in.

3. Financial KPIs

It’s about making money right?
If you don’t have KPIs for this part of field management you put your company’s profit at risk. You may be giving out much more than you should simply because of a lack of control.
KPIs show you where possible risk areas are.

Sales Figures
Sales figures are important in any business. But in service provision you may forget to track this.
Sales are important sources of income. It doesn’t require labour so it’s a direct income for your business. If these rates are low:

• Your workers may not focus on sales during field work.
• Your products may not meet clients’ needs.
• Your prices may be too high.

Boost this department and you’ll see profits sky rocket.

Billable Times
Are you paying your field workers too much?
I don’t mean you must lower their salaries. But the income they bring is determined by the hours they spend on clients’ sites. You’re losing money for the hours workers spend on the road.
A more profitable approach is focusing on maintenance agreements. Your KPI should show healthy ratios between:

• Times you can bill clients for
• Maintenance agreements
• Workers expenses such as salaries or hourly payments

If you don’t’ manage this worker salaries drain your budget.

Invoice Payment Turnaround
Does your bank account reflect all the money due to you?
Measure how quick invoices are:

• Requested
• Processed
• Paid

The speed of these processes is dependent on:

• How fast you or your workers handle paperwork
• How quick you or an administrative office acts on requests
• How well follow up processes work with debtors

This KPI is essential in improving your cash flow. If you know there’s a problem you can fix it.

4. KPIs Regarding Employees

Employees were already mentioned but their importance requires more detail. If you can’t manage employees well you stand to lose:

• Workers with the skills you need.
• Time and money on training new employees.
• Client trust if employees don’t display positive attitudes to work or the company.

So how do you know if you’re doing well in this department?

Measure Employee Attitude
Yes this a subjective opinion. But it can be measured. And it shows the faith and trust employees have in employers.
Ask for anonymous feedback. What’s the likelihood of them suggesting you as an employer? This tells you a lot about how you’re perceived. If all employees in the company believe their friends are better off not working for you, adjustments are required.
This KPI can lead to improved communication. You can ask specifics about what employees are upset about.
Anything can change. KPIs show you what you need to change.

Measure Your ETR
Distrust in employers also lead to a high turnaround rate. Employees will always come and go. But when people are happy at work they’ll put effort into staying.
If your ETR is higher than other companies’ you must counter the source of the problem:

• Offer improved salary packages
• Adjust training procedures to empower workers
• Improve communication between employees and management

Measure Employee Performance
Do all your employees benefit the company?
While you should ensure you create beneficial working environments your field workers must do the same.
One person can influence an entire team’s performance:

• How often do employees have sick days? Are these rates normal or must you adjust policies?
• Do employees often leave work because of injuries? If one worker’s reports stand out you may have to discuss safety features with him or her.

It’s all about looking at data so you can prevent future problems.

Measure Impact of Training
Training is a way of saying:

• I trust you enough to invest money in you
• I want to empower you to reach personal goals

But are you doing training correctly?
Off site training is more costly than training on the job. Is it necessary to send someone elsewhere?
Measure employees’ efficiency—such as speed and accuracy—before & after different types of training. This data will help you discover the best way to empower your teams.

What area do you need the most help with? Never attempt fixing all problems at once. You need to allocate time and resources to limited areas for optimum effect. Field management becomes streamlined when you know which areas require most of your attention. KPIs help you identify these areas. No time or resources need to be wasted anymore.