Weathering the Storm: Leveraging Tech Utilization to Prepare for Economic Downturn

Every great sea captain of the 19th century knew that when the storm came, it was “time to batten down the hatches”. It referred to closing off the openings on the deck of the ship that the crew would use to go below. Battening down the hatches keeps the water out from below deck so a ship won’t sink, even when the waves are higher than her sides. Since then, the same advice has been given to anyone coming up on rough times: get prepared by sealing all the places where leaks could happen. What can be a fine thing when the sun is shining and the winds are favorable, can sink even the greatest ships.

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As the winds pick up, many businesses are looking for ways to weather the coming economic storm. Once the rain and the waves hit it’s often too late to do anything but “brace yourself.” Of our current market conditions, billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has said “it’s time to batten down the hatches.” Proper preparation can help companies not just avoid resorting to survival mode but come out on top of the competition. (While under Bezos’ leadership, Amazon grew through each of the 3 previous U.S. recessions in its company history).

The snap decision making of many companies when the capital climate turns sour is to immediately cut costs; Marketing, IT, and Facilities are often some of the first places that companies look to reduce spend and headcount. While saving money in the short term, these common practices can leave a company stranded once the storm has passed. They add to immediate cash reserves like ballast but weaken the long term stability of a company whose ultimate goal isn’t just to make it through the storm, but to be able to achieve its mission.

Being able to prove value is essential during a downturn: connecting each spend back to the organization’s mission. Companies can zero in on their Technician Utilization Rate to evaluate how they’re doing and look for ways to strategically batten down the hatches.

Technician Utilization Rate is the percentage of time a technician is performing logged work versus the time a technician spends working. If a technician works 40 hours a week, but only spends 20 hours on jobs, that technician’s utilization rate would be 50%. Tracking tech utilization rate across the organization can surface some important patterns.

Tech Utilization rate can vary widely within an organization for a number of reasons. Individual technician idle time may be high, dispatch may be inefficient, jobs can be improperly distributed, paperwork and process can be time consuming, or downtown traffic might just be awful this time of year. By looking at general and individual utilization rates, companies can set goals and make plans to increase the number of jobs handled in a period of time, without increasing the number of technicians.

Used properly, tech utilization rate can also show if there are problems because it is too high. Above 90% utilization might mean that jobs are taking longer than expected, documentation is getting enough attention, follow up visits are filling schedules, or, in the best case scenario, there is more work than the current team can do.

Companies that know their tech utilization deeply can know how they should be using their precious resources to get the most out of them. As an organization’s highest spend is its Human Resource cost, it’s important that there is a proper ROI. Technician utilization is essential for that calculation. This rate can allow managers to know if they should be coaching their underperforming employees or removing obstacles from their high performers. Knowing how long specific jobs should take and then measuring averages allows for benchmarking and organizations can allocate resources more efficiently. That might mean certain employees are matched with certain job types, or that lower margin/impact service events are put on hold so that essential work can be prioritized.

If headcount is truly too high and tech utilization cannot be improved, it might be better to dynamically adjust staffing levels according to demand. Part time employees or or contracted jobs can allow an organization to offer service when it is needed, rather than pay for unutilized resources.

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This maximization of technicians is a way to make sure that your human capital is being appropriately leveraged. Hiring, training and retention are some of the most expensive investments and the smartest companies will want to save their post recession efforts for expansion, rather than rebuilding their employee base. Waste is also reduced as the technician utilization rate can find the low hanging fruit for improvement. Taking someone from 78% to 80% utilization is much more difficult and much less impactful than coaching and empowering someone from 40% to 60% utilization.

Technician Utilization is also the core of spend justification. As organizations look to make cut, “non-essential” functions can be the first in line, but with documented history of utilization and output, service organizations can show how a reduction, in workforce or other resource, will result in diminished outputs. While during a headcount reduction period is not the time to be asking for more resources, deeply understanding utilization rates also allows you to justify and prioritize an increase of spend when the time is right and the storm is over.

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Optimized resource allocation and identification of efficiency gain opportunities both seem like extra work to be done for a service or work order manager. But being able to weather the storm and still delight stakeholders is the hallmark of an organization that pulls through a recession ahead of the competition and exceeds expectations. Great software can be the secret weapon of an organization that wants to turn potential threats and unknowns into opportunities. Software tools can automate tracking technician utilization as well as allow you to get a picture of what is happening on every job for you to find all the hatches that have been left open to the hazards of the storm.

If you’re looking for a way to track where your dollars are going that just makes sense, talk to our work order experts about Technician Time Tracking in Equips today.