Equipping Restorers with the Expertise They Need

Like many people in the restoration industry, Steve Glozik, President of FP Property Restoration, had been told today's workforce doesn't want to work, but that hasn't been his experience on-the-job. Instead, he's seen a generation of workers that's deeply curious and committed, often seeking ways to enhance their skills outside of traditional work hours. He joined us on the Restoration Playbook Podcast to discuss his experience equipping today's workers with the how-to they need and want, and how his team attracts and retains top talent, but today we'd like to dive into how KnowHow has helped him and his team boost productivity, drive employee satisfaction, and save time and money.

We use KnowHow not daily, but hourly... We would not be where we are at today without it.

Jason Floyd, General Manager at FP Property Restoration, told our team "training has always been a resource strainer and a time-consumer" but that KnowHow was a "game-changer" for his staff, who now uses it hourly. Let's dive into what things were like for the FP team before KnowHow.

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Equip Everyone with Expertise

Founded in 2011, FP Property Restoration is a full-service emergency clean-up, restoration, and repair company that provides urgent emergency-response services across Florida and beyond. As a leader in such a high-stakes, fast-paced industry, FP faces the challenge of ensuring that their team is not only quickly able to lend a hand but also deeply knowledgeable about complex restoration processes. Traditional training methods, including on-the-job shadowing and hands-on practice, were essential but needed to be augmented to keep pace with the growing demand for services and the increasing complexity of restoration technologies and policies.

In 2023, they adopted KnowHow, and that represented a big shift in how they train. In the past, new hires relied heavily on their supervisors, and those supervisors answered repetitive questions about how to get things done, and why they get done that way. Today, staff are encouraged to seek out information and training proactively, which not only enhances their skills but also prepares them for advancement in their career. As Heather Harbin, Human Resources Manager at FP Property Restoration explains:

Now that we have KnowHow and now that we have all the processes in there...they can always go back to their KnowHow on their phone or on their iPad and find the process and easily find the answer to it, rather than calling or texting their manager.

When questions come up on-the-job, their staff can ask Howie, KnowHow's AI-powered virtual mentor, who responds with clear instructions based on FP Property Restoration's best practices, with links to relevant processes and policies.

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Document How Things Get Done

While getting their how-to into KnowHow has paid off, Glozik emphasizes that striving for perfection in their processes initially led to inefficiencies at FP Property Restoration. He explained, "We made a big mistake early on. We wanted everything to be perfect. Had to be perfect. How can I deploy this process if it's not perfect?" However, this pursuit of perfection often caused service-level mistakes because they weren't putting practical solutions into the hands of their team members.

Realizing that "something's better than nothing that gets us to where we have to be," Glozik decided to deploy processes and refine them with direct input from the workforce. And, who are "the best people to give feedback on the process? The people that are practicing the process," he noted, underscoring the importance of involving frontline workers in evaluating and improving training procedures.

It took time to build comprehensive how-to, but KnowHow customers get to:

• Leverage our library of industry-standard templates for common jobs, tools, and software,
• Draft new processes with Process Creator, which builds step-by-step guides in a click, ‍
• Automatically translate how-to based on a worker's preferred language, and
• Upload existing documentation for easy reference.

After you've built some processes, Glozik recommends asking your team what they think. Encourage your team to request processes if they don't find the answers they're looking for, speak up when they think they've found a better way to do things, and most importantly: get out there and action the processes. Then when feedback comes back on what can improve, action it.

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See the Return on What You Invest In

Becoming a process-driven company doesn't happen overnight. In Glozik's own words, "You're not going to buy a platform and it's just going to change your company. There's got to be a buy-in, and you're going to have to earmark that time, and that time is money."

Steve and the team at FP Property Restoration earmarked that time, and it's paid dividends. They recognize the importance of empowering employees to proactively seek information and improve their skills. "The individuals, like I said earlier, they want to know the 'why' and the 'how,' and they want to deep dive into it," Glozik shares. The proactive learning culture has helped employees become more self-sufficient, with access to vital how-to guides that address their questions and guide their growth.

"If you give people unlimited access to the knowledge that they can get into, you're really going to see what you have as a team." Glozik finished, emphasizing the impact accessible how-to has had on the FP Property Restoration Team.

Harbin and the leadership team at FP Property Restoration has saved a lot of time with KnowHow, with our data showing they achieved a 20x return on their investment in their first year with KnowHow. As she explains, "A lot of insurance carriers use third party vendors, and so we have to use their portals. A lot of insurance carriers requires certain sketches to be made in certain platforms too." With all this complexity, it's paid off to have their playbook in KnowHow.

By reducing the time spent on repetitive training and decreasing the reliance on managerial resources for everyday questions, KnowHow has helped FP Property Restoration achieve a significant return on investment, enhancing overall operational efficiency.

FP Property Restoration's adoption of KnowHow was a game-changer for the company. The app enabled management to enhance their training, streamline operations, and improve overall productivity. With KnowHow, they:

• Provided instant access to detailed how-to that echos the training employees receive in the field,
• Enabled employees to review best practices on-demand, which reinforces learning and ensures that even less frequently used processes are followed,
• And they've helped people on the FP team grow their skills, or as Steve put it:

[When] you give people unlimited access to the knowledge that they can get into, you're really going to see what you have as a team.