By Zachary Cook

Maintaining cleanliness and equipment on the grounds of parking facilities is a basic and important aspect of what we do. Maintenance checklists are a tool many use to guide staff to complete daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, but are they enough? Handing frontline staff paper lists or tasks on a handheld computer and then sending them out to work independently might be part of the picture. However, without engagement from management, employees can feel like their work goes unnoticed.

The most basic maintenance tasks shape how customers experience our operations and ultimately how our organization is perceived. Some of the most basic job duties our team consistently accomplishes are the most impactful. Managers create expectations, but these expectations are not ensuring that employees are completing each task. Providing in-person feedback, offering guidance, and giving support give our employees the opportunity to be noticed. Supportive managers foster engaged employees, and engaged employees produce higher quality results.

Whichever tracking method we use to ensure facilities are maintained, let’s ensure that we as managers take an active and present role in maintaining supportive relationships with our teams. One way is to have employees regularly show off their work. We use this opportunity to explain how their work impacts the operation as a whole, emphasizing the importance of what our people do. The focus then shifts from the tasks on the page to the impact that finished work creates.

Zachary Cook is senior operations manager with Winpark.