Rock Products is the aggregates industry's leading source for market analysis and technology solutions, delivering critical content focusing on aggregates-processing equipment; operational efficiencies; management best practices; comprehensive market
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Do Your Engineers Have A Customer Service Mindset? To Be Most Effective, Your Engineering Staff Needs To Come Down Off Their Pedestal. By Steve Schumacher When I first got into the consulting busi��� ness, my first client was a glass bottle manufacturing plant in old industrial Los Angeles. I had left a job as a financial analyst for a large aerospace company to seek a career where I could interact with people more than spreadsheets. My first meeting with the management team of the plant involved a discussion of how they measure and track em��� ployee performance. I remember very clearly standing in front of this group of middle���aged veteran manufacturing employees and talking to them of ���down���sloping curves,��� ���scatter dia��� grams,��� and ���regression analysis.��� Thankfully, I had a senior consultant with me who told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had better cut out all that fancy language and speak to these man��� agers on their level. As I look back on that experience, it taught me a valuable lesson that Stephen Covey put so well: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood. Having worked with mining and aggre��� gate companies for more than 20 years, I see that same situation play out quite often with engineers. I see companies recruit and hire top engineering gradu��� ates, and send them out to cure all the problems of the plants. Unfortunately, these hot���shot engineers go full steam into the plants with a bunch of great ideas but without the interpersonal skills to partner effectively with plant personnel. Even though I am talking primarily about staff engineers, the same advice below pertains to finance, IT, HR, and other staff positions in your company. Get feedback. If there is one thing that engineers like, it is data. Put to��� 32 ROCKproducts ��� DECEMBER 2012 gether a survey of questions that are de��� signed to give the engineers feedback on how they are perceived. These ques��� tions should include areas of customer service, listening skills, business eti��� quette, follow���up, planning, reputation, etc. Have operations personnel fill out the survey anonymously. After you give your engineers some tools to help them improve, administer the survey again to see if there has been any change. Put action plans together. Get the engineers together, give them the feed��� back from the surveys, and put an im��� provement action plan together. Some of the feedback may be quite negative; explain that it is just one point in time and that you have confidence those im��� provements can be made. Recognize the positive feedback from the survey and make sure those good things are continued. Just like any other project, follow���up regularly on action plan progress and provide coaching where necessary. Promote an ���internal customer service��� attitude. When you get down to it, operations personnel are customers of the services of your engi��� neers. Work in instilling that approach in the minds and actions of your engi��� neers. Ask them ���If you were a contrac��� tor, what would you put on your monthly invoice?��� Going from a culture where the engineers are king to one where operations is king takes time and patience. Give the engineers the tools. Set up regular workshops for your engi��� neers on topics like Partnering Skills, Listening Skills, Conflict Resolution, Presentation Skills, and Time Manage��� ment. You cannot hold a group of engi��� neers accountable to become better Steve Schumacher is a management consultant, trainer and public speaker with more than 25 years of experience in numerous industries throughout North America, including aggregates operations. He can be reached at sschuma@gmail.com. partners if you do not give them the skills to partner effectively. Set up groundrules for plant visits. Have a checklist of items that each engineer must complete before, during, and after each plant visit. Items should include sending an agenda in ad��� vance, meeting with the plant manager, walking the plant, close���out meetings, etc. This will help your engineers plan their time and the plant people will ap��� preciate the structure. Train plant personnel. Many of the situations that happen at plants could, and should, be handled by plant person��� nel without the help of a staff engineer. In order to do that, plant personnel must be trained on how to identify is��� sues proactively and address them in a timely manner. Flying senior engineers around to put out fires is costly and time consuming. Set a goal of transferring knowledge and ability from your staff engineers to plant engineers and other operations personnel. E www.rockproducts.com