More Staff, Less Effort? Why Your Shop Isn’t Getting More Done

Have you ever looked around your shop and thought, “Man, I’ve got more people than I used to have. Why doesn’t it feel like we’re getting that much more done?”

You added people to increase your capacity. More people should mean more effort, and more effort should mean more gets done. But sometimes, as the team grows, the results actually go down. Before you decide your people are lazy or don’t care, I want you to look at how responsibility works in your shop.

When “my job” becomes “our job,” effort gets harder to see

There’s a story I’ve heard about Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. An important job needed to be done, and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. In the end, Everybody blamed Somebody because Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

It sounds funny until you recognize it in your own shop.

Everybody needs to answer the phone. Somebody needs to keep the shop clean. Anybody needs to check parts in. Those sound like reasonable expectations, but everybody isn’t a person. You can’t coach everybody, hold everybody accountable, or have everybody own a result.

When something belongs to everyone, it can easily end up belonging to no one. In each person’s mind, the responsibility shifts from “This is my job” to “This is our job.” Individual effort becomes harder to see, ownership gets weaker, and it becomes easier to believe someone else will take care of it.

That doesn’t automatically mean your people are lazy. It means their responsibility may be less clear than you think.

Before you blame your team, look at the environment

I think this is where shop owners can get it wrong. You aren’t seeing the results you expected, so you start thinking, “My people just don’t care.”

That might be part of it, but before you blame someone, look at the environment you’ve created. Have you made ownership clear? Does the outcome belong to one person? Does everybody know what good looks like? Can you see each person’s contribution, and are you giving them a measurement?

Your people need to understand what they should be producing and receive feedback about how they’re doing. You can’t assume they understand the expectation just because you understand it.

As your shop grows, communication becomes more complex. You need to understand your potential as a shop, then bring that down to the individual level so each person knows what their contribution should be.

That’s why I recommend teams within the shop. The team is accountable, and each person within that team is accountable. You still work together, but individual responsibility remains visible.

Your best people are watching what you tolerate

I’ve had friends go to work for municipalities with the work ethic they developed in the private sector. They went in ready to work and got pushed back by other people telling them, “Don’t make us look bad.”

Eventually, someone starts thinking, “Why am I busting my butt if they’re getting away with it?”

The same thing can happen in your shop. If you have two really sharp technicians performing at a high level and another performing below that level, your decision to tolerate the lower performance affects more than that one person. At some point, the people giving more begin to wonder why they’re bothering.

When you address low effort, you aren’t just coaching the person giving less. You’re protecting the people giving more. Your best people are paying attention to what you’re willing to accept.

Four ways to turn team effort into results

If responsibility is unclear in your auto repair shop, telling everyone to work harder doesn’t clarify who owns the work. Here’s what I want you to do.

1. Give each task or outcome an owner

Stop saying, “Somebody needs to call Mrs. Jones.” Say, “Mike, call Mrs. Jones before 2:00.”

Now you have a person who owns the task and a clear expectation about when it needs to happen. Give the outcomes you want an owner so responsibility doesn’t disappear into the group.

When you catch yourself saying, “Everybody needs to,” stop and ask yourself, “Who actually owns this?”

2. Define what the finished result looks like

Once you have the owner, show them what done looks like. What are they responsible for? What does good look like?

Assigning a person is only part of the work. That person also needs to understand the result you expect. Set expectations instead of assuming your shop’s culture will take care of it.

3. Make each person’s contribution visible

Every person should be able to answer what they need to do and what it should look like. They should also be able to ask, “How am I doing?” and have a way to answer it.

That means making the individual contribution visible and providing feedback. Here’s what you should be producing, and here’s what you’re actually getting. Without that visibility, individual effort gets harder to see as more people become involved.

4. Deal with low performance

Clear ownership and expectations have to be followed by accountability. If someone is giving less, you need to deal with it.

Remember, your strongest people are watching. Coaching the person who is falling short also protects the effort of the people who are doing what you’ve asked.

Accountability includes the owner

High accountability has to be part of your value system, and that includes you. I believe everybody should have some kind of performance basis to their pay. That doesn’t mean everybody has to be on flat rate.

I’ve had owners tell me, “No, I’m not. I get paid every week.” Then I ask them a simple question: “Who’s the first person that doesn’t cash a check when there’s not enough money in the bank?”

The owner slowly raises their hand. There you go. That’s performance-based pay.

You’re already connected to the results of the business. Your team needs to understand its connection to those results, too, through clear expectations, visible contributions, and accountability.

Teamwork doesn’t mean everyone owns everything

Think about an orchestra. Everybody doesn’t play the same instrument. They play different instruments, come in at different times, and contribute different strengths to the same piece.

The conductor is responsible for pulling it together. As the owner, you’re responsible for creating the overall picture of what you want for the business and helping each person understand their part.

Then you train, coach, correct, and confront. You do what you need to do to help your team produce that outcome.

Great teamwork comes from individuals who know exactly what their part is and give their best effort toward it. More people create more capacity, but clear ownership is what turns that capacity into results.

If you’ve added people and still aren’t getting the results you expected, I’d love to sit down with you and talk through what’s happening. We can look at where ownership is unclear and what you need to address with your team.

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