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How to Write a Handbook Techs Use

October 22, 2005

Author & Date: Matthew Halverson

Publication: Electrical Construction & Maintenance (EC&M)

Article Link

The process of documenting your processes, analyzing them and then streamlining them will help your business growth and profitability. 

The culmination of all these documented processes should be an employee handbook and operations manuals for the key functional areas of your business. 

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." - W. Edwards Deming

This article describes the success of Your Electrical Connection based in Michigan, a business that grew to 6 service technicians within 4 years of opening the doors.

If your background is at medium to large companies that may not sound like a lot but this is actually a phenomenal business to grow.  6 technicians means they are probably doing $2-3M per year and have a very wide customer base.  Service work also generates good cash flow and has pull-through effects for larger project work.

The owner, Tom Shuster, credits a lot of the success to committing his ideas, ethics, processes and the legally required information to paper in the format of an employee handbook.  From personal experience I have always had great success when I committed an idea to paper and developed it into a training module. 

First of all, it helps me clarify the details.  It's amazing that I can think of something and it seems very clear in my mind.  It is only after trying to commit it to a flow-chart taking into account the variables someone might face that I finally get the process refined.  Creating clear, written how's and why's to go with the process is the next step and brings even more clarity.  One of the deliverables for our Project Management Training is an operations manual for the project team, customized for a specific company and their processes. Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth Contractor and the entire E-Myth series of books is also very focused on processes. 

If you don't currently have an employee handbook or any operations manuals I encourage you to think hard about this as a strategic way to grow your business.  The smaller you are the easier it is to implement. 

Whatever you do, don't turn this over to an HR consultant or lawyer unless your only desire is to do the CYA (Cover Your Ass!) legal minimum.  That MIGHT keep you from getting sued by an ex-employee but your are far better off focusing on what it takes to be successful in your company, track production, satisfy the customer, plan the project, etc. 

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