Get your greenhorns ready

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Has your business suffered from hurt employees? Has your business ever had equipment damaged by your employees? Have you ever damaged a client’s property? If so training can play a huge role in protecting, you, your clients, your employees, and your property. Here are some of the most important training tips for your snow crews.

Teach them the ins and out of equipment.

The equipment is a huge investment for any business, it can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the size of your company. But even if you only have two trucks, having one truck down can be devastating to your snow season. Teaching new employees and refreshing seasoned employees on the equipment operations is vital to having a successful snow season. Some of the keys are:

• When to use the four-wheel drive and when to disengage
• Attaching and removing the plow
•  Operating the plow, up down, forward, back, and side to side
•  How to operate the emergency light
•  How to operate the mechanical spreader
•  How to calibrate the spreader to ensure the appropriate amount if deicer is used
•  How to clean the equipment after use
• How to properly back up and check for blind spots
• How to load snow and use the dump bed
•  Small repairs that can be made on site if a break down occurs

These are just some of the keys to successful equipment that will allow your company to succeed during this winter’s worst storms.

Go on dry runs.

One of the best things you can do is dry runs, this best practice is very helpful to refresh and teach new employees how things should run during a storm. Taking equipment to a site and having them remove the plow, practice where to plow snow to, having them show you they would do in a storm and them making on site corrections goes a long way to training your employees how to properly plow snow, showing them key items such as:

• Handicapped areas
•  Cart corrals
•  Bus stops
•  Loading docks
•  Gas stations
•  Oil stations
•  Side walks
•  Drain locations and why not to plow snow over top of them
•  Employee break areas
•  Employee parking
•  ATMs

Identifying these areas onsite will give your crews an understanding for why these places are so important to your clients and your business’s success during the winter season.

Give a guiding hand.

A crucial part of the orientation should be to pair each new employee with a mentor.

Assigning a mentor to your new employee is a crucial step in the development of your new employee. This gives them someone to shadow, someone who will show them the ropes, and someone to work with during the upcoming storm.

A good mentor is an individual who has proven themselves to be a leader in your business and someone who will help build that new employee into a great member of your team.

The author is chief operating officer at Transblue, a Lynnwood, Washington-based snow removal company.