Hi everyone,
We don't have a formal 24x7 support/on-call staff for our security practice. Our customers are asking and willing to pay for 1) remote phone support 2) onsite support.
We are a non-union shop and would like to get feedback on the compensation plan for folks on-call and folks dispatched for onsite support.
The company I work for pays $75 a week for answering calls after hours. If an after hours (emergency) call is requested and the tech goes out they get compensated one of two ways.
If they collect payment on the call they receive 50%. After hour rates are considerably higher than normal business hours.
If they do not collect payment they get their normal wages and time is calculated door to door.
I have not done this in many years, this model is not worth it in my opinion but the guys that do continue to do so and I dont hear complaints.
David, good feedback.
When you say the 'model is not worth it', do you mean for the company or for the tech or both?
I have seen companied that just mandated people to be on call on a rotation as a job requirement, no extra money provided.
Just meant to me personally. I think the company makes out as they dont pay for time on the phone troubleshooting/identifying the problem. Technicians on-call are required to return a call within 15-20 minutes also.
It has been awhile but back in the 90's the technician received $200.00 a week for keeping their beeper on to be on-call. Then depending on actual activity over 10 minutes on the phone (get paid OT) or 4 hour minimum if they had to go to the site (overtime rates).
I do what David does. I pay the tech 90 dollarts to be on call for the week. All our calls after hours, including sales, roll over to our central station and they can connect the tech directly with them. As a bonus, I also let him drive the vehicle home. So he saves comng and going to work.
If they have to go out on a call it is just time and 1/2 as normal overtime. All the techs already have a built in commission schedule so I don't compensate then anything else. The client also pays the after hours rate, unless it's warranty. 125.00/hr times 1.5 or 197.50/hour.
It sure beats me having to be on call and the tech gets a little extra cash. I only let those who want to do this and are valued employees perform this service. They would have to be multi skilled anyway so that really takes care of itself.
T
We also pay the technician a flat fee for the week, based on overtime wages. He may or may not have a large volumn of calls that week. It is fair to both parties. Obviously if a tech is dispatched, it is overtime for company and the tech at 1.5. We do require it, and it is written policy.
I get a flat rate per week/day that is basically the same I would get paid for one hour of work, per day, whether I work it or not.
If I go out onsite, I get three hours of OT minimum.
But I do work for a larger company, when I worked for a smaller, unionised company, I still had the flat weekly payment that equalled an extra hour per day, and then paid from the time I left my house until I arrived back home again, if I went out.
There was something for phone support, but most of the time the phone calls were so short I didn't bother trying to get any moeny out of it, it was a company supplied phone, and I had that 7 hours of pay for the week anyways.
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