Mitigation Mondays: How to Train Your Restoration Team and Build a World-Class Workforce

As a restoration company owner, you know that employee development is essential for growth and success. But with the average worker tenure shorter than ever and the work getting more complex, how can you ensure your technicians are always up to speed?

In a recent episode of the Restoration Playbook podcast by KnowHow, Paul Silliman interviewed John Savin from Graystone Restoration, who launched "Mitigation Mondays" as a way to train and keep his staff sharp in the chaotic industry. Here’s what you need to know about Mitigation Monday, and how you can implement a similar weekly ritual at your company.

Mitigation Mondays is a weekly training session held by Graystone Restoration for its mitigation and contents teams. Every Monday, the techs round up to cover the tactics, procedures, and best practices that will help them continue to grow and evolve as a mitigation company. Examples of topics could be the science of drying, the importance of documentation and photos, and other relevant topics. Oftentimes, an issue will arise on Thursday or Friday that can be discussed and improved upon on Monday.

The goal of Mitigation Mondays is to continue investing into staff, leveling up their soft and hard skills while creating a more confident team. This equips the team to be the first responders at the door and be the experts in their field. This increased confidence has led to better sales performance, as team members can speak more confidently and knowledgeably about their services.

Of course, the biggest challenge when training technicians is not coming up with the content, but instead getting buy-in from the team. For John, a key emphasis that makes Mitigation Mondays unique is how they make training fun and interactive. John intentionally tries to break the script and bring training to the forefront by doing hands-on activities. For example, they'll go out, pull off the baseboard, and put it back on. He also works hard to incorporate different apps on his and other workers’ phones, encouraging them to embrace their devices instead of shunning them.

In addition to educating his staff, Mitigation Mondays has also improved the team culture at Graystone Restoration. John told us that the lead techs are taking the newer guys under their wings more, showing them how to perform their duties effectively. They have also been able to tackle specific issues in the field and help the team members overcome their struggles.

Looking to implement your own version of Mitigation Mondays at your restoration company? According John, getting started couldn’t be any easier. He suggests that you keep your ear to the ground and listen to your team members' issues. What are the soft or hard skills they’re struggling with? What is leading to miscommunication or frustration on your team? This will give you a lot of training ideas to cover in your sessions.

If you want to start training your restoration team and building a world-class workforce, Mitigation Mondays is an excellent way to start, but the work of equipping your staff to do their best work certainly doesn’t end there. It takes a dedicated, strategic approach to training new and seasoned team members alike to keep growing their skills and abilities and help get your restoration company to where you need to go. For more information on how you can equip workers in record time without compromising on quality, head to tryknowhow.com.