Pest Management Professional, October 2011

pmp Sound policies protect By Lloyd Merritt Smigel W hen I entered the U S Army in 1966 I was amazed at the sheer volume of written policies and procedures They seemed to cover anything and everything At the time I thought Someone has way too much time on his hands By now though Ive learned there are very good reasons behind most written policies and procedures The old saying Anything that can go wrong will go wrong seems to be true far too often After reviewing more than 100 pest management company manuals I understand most policies are written to prevent or offset lawsuits and or are reactions to tough lessons company officials dont want to relearn For instance the common policy stating service providers should avoid using their clients bathrooms unless its an emergency stemmed from accidents such as this A fumigator used a toilet before he closed up the clients shop and the toilet kept running which cost the firm 5000 in carpet replacement Many written policies are needed to clarify employee benefits How many vacation days will I earn in Year 1 Year 3 Year 5 and Year 10 What holidays do we receive How many sick days can we take each year Other written policies help standardize work procedures How do I enter a new job in the computer How do I schedule a treatment Calculate pricing Determine the materials needed The point is for pest management businesses to standardize in writing as many policies as possible to avoid confusion Why do owners constantly have to answer the same questions Because they dont have written policies and procedures or they havent discussed them with employees recently and held them responsible for following the guidelines Company manuals save time and money and help prevent headaches and lawsuits Invest the time now to create and enforce written policies and procedures and youll save considerable time and headaches down the road Remember These living documents should be updated and reviewed regularly I used to be a partner in two pest management firms one in Tampa Fla and one in Dallas At first my partners thought I was nuts to keep introducing and writing more policies But after a few years they were extremely happy we had them Its a pain to create policy manuals It takes a lot of time however life is good once theyre written and they only have to be updated Im currently consulting with a pest control company in the Northwest whose owner ignored writing policies at first But he soon learned the lack of policies was creating chaos in relationships between his sales service and office staff Now every time theres a problem employees ask Whats the policy on this If one doesnt exist they write one and clarify the issues so the same issue doesnt reoccur Owners should keep in mind they cant use someone elses manuals to run their companies The manuals define an individual business service and more importantly its individual culture Yet owners can use others manuals to generate their own ideas They should just remember that their identity is defined by their own policies and procedures pmp You can reach Smigel a 35 year industry veteran at terrycare@ att net ABC Pest Control Policies Procedures mypmp net Pest Management Professional October 2011 93