The Key To Quality

Hiring new personnel into the company can take a lot of patience. It really is an investment with all of the paperwork and induction, getting the new guy on board. And then actually getting him to produce for the company. Actually being an asset for us.

But how do we work on getting this new technician to produce quality products for us as well as for the customer that will notice and even rave about.

And of course doing things right so we don’t have to fix up costly mistakes?

The secret to this is actually ensuring that they know all of the sub-products to the final product of what we are applying.

For example, painting a wall requires very specific sub-product steps that have to be in place in order to get that final coat on the wall. In a very brief summary, these include:

• Preparing the wall with scrape back and minor repairs.
• Major repairs completed if needed.
• Spot priming these repairs.
• Washing down the wall.
• Primer Coat.
• 1st Coat.
• Top Coat.

All done right. 7 simple steps.

But what about the finer details? Those details that make all the difference in a really noticeable trade finish.

• Getting the prepared surface really matched in with the existing to ensure there are no patchy areas on the finished project.
• Thickness testing all coats to ensure that the paint is applied to the optimum thickness for longevity and appearance.
• Getting an even coat with no visible side roller marks leaving tracks all over the face of the building. Therefore a lovely even coat.
• Cutting in perfectly to the windows and edges.
• Blending in the brushed edges to rolled areas.
• And protecting the surrounds from those unavoidable splashes and spatters of paint.

These again are just the most basic of application points to be aware of. There are dozens, more likely hundreds of finer points for an applicator to know and apply.

So a confident and educated technician on all of these steps is exactly what makes the difference between a skilled tradesman and a guy that is never going to make it.

We take great care to ensure that our guys know each of the steps of the application process. It is a totally irresponsible attitude to just say, “This guy is no good. Let him go…”

In actual fact, it is one or more of these sub product steps that he still hasn’t got yet. I am not ever going to say that everyone is going to make it and be a great success. But taking them back to ensure they understand and can do each of the subproduct steps is the key.

There really is no better feeling than seeing one of your guys, time and effort put into him and there he is, applying with confident each of the steps and really getting a professional result.

This is a trainee becoming a tradesman. And many of the tradesman that actually become Master Craftsman. Talented Artists in fact. A technician that anyone would very happily employ.

I hope that this has been of help and maybe the next time you see a worker having trouble with his application, just help him to find out which of the application steps he was having trouble with.

Never know, he may be a Master Painter in the making.