Well, we all know practice makes perfect, so just add these teacher’s tips to your toolbox and you’ll be head of the class.

Providing direct, readily available access to training matters a great deal when it comes to getting requestors to change prior practices. We all know people are naturally reluctant to change, so we’ve removed the “I don’t know how” objection by creating two Watch-and-Learn video clips, as well as printable ‘cheat sheets,’ and we’ve posted the links to them right on the Request for Work login page.

Remember that these resources are always available to your requestors, and encourage them to use them.

Besides the tech “how to” regarding work requests, standard Frequently Asked Questions are best addressed in advance. Best practice dictates that these be documented and, again, made readily available.

Typical requestor FAQs include:

“What happens on evenings, weekends and holidays?”   The answer to this question can differ from community to community, depending on a number of factors such as, What do you do now? How are you staffed? Are you using Mobile Worx? If you would like to discuss your situation, feel free to call us.

“What is the correct way to ‘call’ maintenance when it’s an emergency?”   It’s most effective when you communicate an emergency through a single channel.   One solution is to have one cell phone number that is reserved for that purpose alone. That phone travels with whoever is the emergency, or on-call manager of the day. Another solution is to route any emergency calls through reception during certain times of the week, or the charge nurse at other times. Anyone designated as an emergency contact should be well trained as to the correct process from there. No doubt, you have a working method. The key is to make sure everyone knows what it is.

“If there’s a fire, are we really supposed to put in a request?” This question comes up all the time, and we see it as a plea for clarity around the definition of emergency. In our priorities, we differentiate between emergency and immediate for the purpose of reporting. For the requestors, there’s no benefit in distinguishing these priorities. Simply provide them with simple definitions and examples of when it’s appropriate to call. To be a real “process improvement star,” consider assigning the job of amending the list monthly, quarterly, or whenever new examples come up. This practice saves time and confusion.

And, the tongue-in-cheek response is, of course, “Yes, you are supposed to put in a request,” followed by a slightly more serious answer of, “After you call of course.”

Tip 3: Be consistent & persistent

Research shows it takes 21 days to develop a new habit.   That’s only three short weeks! Four if you only count workdays.   To win the prize for the “most sane, and least interrupted” maintenance team, make the effort and take the time so that the switch to Web Requests sticks.

Don’t let up, or give in to someone to do them a favor just this one time. Remember that every time you do that it’s back to square one, and the 21-day clock starts afresh.

For staff: Create your own rant

Beginning now, verbal work requests, voice mails, phone calls, tiny scraps of paper handed to us in a meeting, emails, and post-it notes will no longer be accepted — that’s business speak for “not gonna get done.”  Every time I think of this tirade, it reminds me of a “rant.” For those of you not familiar with rants, or specifically the “I am Canadian” rant, take 30 seconds to watch this for inspiration!

Another approach, invoking the well-known “Just Say NO” campaign has proven quite successful as well. Many communities have taken quite a tough stand with staff.   Make a plan. Monitor the outcomes. Stay focused. See Tip 6: Continuous learning leads to excellence

For Residents: 

The notion of asking residents to modify how they communicate a request, or even my suggestion of discussing the mere possibility of getting residents onside with an improved practice, can give maintenance departments the heebie jeebies.  It’s no secret that seniors can often be even more reluctant to change than the rest of us, but does that mean preserving the inefficient and ineffective status quo?

What would it be like if even a portion of your resident population …

• Didn't stop maintenance people in the halls
• Didn't leave multiple voice mails
• Didn't repeat their request to every staff member they see
• Didn't go to the ED expecting faster service
• Did use, and have faith in, the centralized work request mechanism (reception, concierge, EVS coordinator)

You’d likely get more done, save time chasing down duplicates, and increase overall satisfaction!

Tips for achieving these results:

• Use multiple communication channels: newsletter, resident council, a special meeting just to address the promised improvements, fireside chats or town hall meetings. Take inventory of the natural resources within your community
• Discuss the reasons and desired goals underlying the change; share what’s “in it for them”
• Deal with their concerns and objections openly, fairly and fearlessly
• Explain what happens when requests aren’t centralized and how that’s a recipe for missing their tasks. 

Remember, you really are doing it all for the residents.

And, keep the conversation going for months about the progress you’re making — the payoff in terms of benefits for them.

Make sure that you check incoming requests regularly throughout the day. Although emergencies are called in so they get immediate action, everything else should go through the work request system. To reinforce requestors “good” habit development, and engender trust in the new process, it’s critical that requests are accepted throughout the day.   Not accepting requests inadvertently invites more calls and ultimately slipping back into the old routine.

How frequent is, “frequent?”   We suggest checking requests each hour, or every 90 minutes at the outside. The more frequent the checking, the greater the reinforcement in favor of work request adoption.

Tip 5: Always provide feedback on overdue work

Using the feedback capability built into PM Worx work requests dramatically reduces the number of calls inquiring about the status of the jobs on your list. Like Tip 5, to promote confidence in the system, the maintenance department must consistently deliver valuable information that rewards the person checking the work status in the system. Our recommendation is that if a work order is overdue, there should be feedback stating the rationale.

Tip 6: Continuous learning leads to excellence

Imagine how much more you can get done and how much less stress you’d have if the communication of the requests was so good that:

• You rarely had to hunt down somebody to find out what their cryptic request really meant
• You stopped getting interrupted by staff who want to give you work. They’re all channeled correctly through PM Worx
• You stopped having “emergency” calls just because someone else wasn’t thinking ahead enough to ask you earlier — when it wouldn’t have been an emergency

The trick to creating this seemingly idyllic situation is to vigilantly track these situations, and then use the results to educate your colleagues and staff.

If this sounds great to you and you’d like to learn how to use PM Worx to achieve excellence, click here to shoot off an email to Dan asking him to call you at a time that’s convenient to you. Or, you can always just call us @ 1-877-363-9679. We’ll even tell you how to make learning fun!

Tip 7: Weave Requests into the fabric of the community

When you first set up PM Worx, training all the how’s and why for’s is top of mind for one and all. Over time, PM Worx and Work Requests simply become the standard way of doing things.   It’s easy to forget that at one time, people needed to learn how to do it well.

To maintain strong and fully informed staff, we recommend HR add a small segment into new team members’ orientation to cover everyone’s role in the upkeep of your community — including, of course, learning about PM Worx and Work Requests.

As follow up, every performance review should include a short conversation about reporting items needing the maintenance team’s attention.

We’re passionate about your success, and delighted to contribute our experience. We’re confident that these tips will help integrate PM Worx capabilities into your community. You’ll find additional articles, tips, tools, and other resources to support you on our Members Only site. If you’ve not logged in recently or checked out the site, click over now to see what’s new or create an account.