It’s the dog days of summer. The phone keeps ringing with customers wanting you to add one more pumping appointment to an already crowded calendar. The heat and humidity are miserable and your crews are on the road longer and working harder than ever.

Frustrating workplace issues don’t make it any easier to cope with the stresses of the busy season. But distractions, bad behavior and motivation problems can crop up and test the abilities of small-business owners and managers to keep work running smoothly.  

Here are seven deadly sins you may encounter with your crew this summer, along with suggestions on how to keep these problems from hurting your company’s productivity:

The sin: Smartphone abuse

The salvation: Could this be the biggest human resources issue of the new millennium? The phone is now viewed as a constant lifeline to family and friends, and it gets harder to curtail employee use every day. But maintaining workplace productivity demands limiting cellphone use on company time. Consider a policy that restricts phone use to emergency situations. Forbid personal texting, tweets, social media posts, Snapchats, etc., during the work shift. Protect employees, equipment and your business by instituting harsh penalties for workers who talk or text while driving a service truck. At this point, it might be unrealistic to start a policy requiring employees to turn off the phone completely.

The sin: Tardiness

The salvation: If you don’t already use one, you could bring in a time clock and dock pay for punching in late. That may seem like an extreme measure, especially if you run a small operation where good employees have always been trusted to track their time more informally. Explore incentives you can offer for employees who show up on time every day for a month, quarter or year. If you see a pattern of tardiness in one employee, don’t let it linger. Take action to reprimand the offender early or risk the problem getting worse and spreading to other employees.

The sin: Poor interaction with customers and co-workers

The salvation: Institute a random call-monitoring program where you listen in to the receptionist’s interaction with customers and share feedback. Do this for an hour or two every quarter. Take notes on how workers treat customers and answer their septic service questions. For workers in the field, survey customers randomly after the service and ask if the technician was courteous, helpful and informative while at the job site. Keep all your notes on file for periodic reviews or future justification for employee termination. Take serious any complaints you receive about how employees are treating each other. The job can be stressful, but you cannot tolerate employees not showing each other respect.

The sin: Carelessness with equipment

The salvation: There is a two-prong solution to making sure employees aren’t too rough with the equipment. First, institute a daily or weekly inspection checklist for trucks and excavation equipment. Have your drivers note scuffs and scratches, dings and dents. Require washing the outside of vehicles and clean out and vacuum the cab. If you have two drivers, ask them to check over each other’s trucks. Part two is to hold weekly or monthly meetings to discuss an aspect of the proper care of all your equipment. These meetings will reinforce the priority to care for the inventory.

The sin: Preventable workplace injury

The salvation: Horseplay and poor lifting techniques can put workers out of commission, costing your company time, money and bringing added stress from unexpected short staffing. Make it clear you don’t like impromptu games of dodgeball between rows of portable restrooms in the yard. Be sure employees wear hard hats when they work on construction sites. Hold safety sessions that stress proper hose handling or lifting of concrete lids and other heavy equipment. Start the day with some stretching exercises for the crew. Remind workers that you want them to return to the shop safe and sound at the end of their shifts.

The sin: Not-so-clean service

The salvation: Constantly review service protocols to ensure consistently good service. Follow and spot-check septic service drivers and grade their performance. Seek customer feedback on service to address issues of cleanliness before they take a toll on your reputation. Log and track complaints by route and technician and look for ways to reward your top performers with bonuses or tokens of your appreciation. Convince workers that a culture of cleanliness – keeping uniforms spic and span, cleaning up messes at work sites – will make your company an industry leader and translate into more financial rewards for everyone.

The sin: Doing the bare minimum

The salvation: Watch for workers who don’t take the initiative to do more than the minimum amount of work to keep their jobs. Challenge workers to go beyond their job descriptions if it means satisfying a customer. Foster an attitude of teamwork among your crew members. It should be “all for one and one for all’’ to get the job done during hectic summer days. To stay profitable, you can’t let anyone cop a “not my job’’ attitude. Hold workers accountable for their actions, and when employees do outstanding work, find a way to reward them.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

While you may encounter any one of these issues from time to time, most of you are fortunate to have good employees up and down the ranks. These are folks you’re proud to work with every day. I’ve met many Pumper readers and their top employees when they attend the Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show every year.

So many great workers – from service technicians to office staff – keep the industry humming along. It’s important to remember that and recognize crews this time of year, when they’re putting in long hours to meet peak demand for service.