basic sign proficiency

[BROWNDOG]

is there any kind of basic sign proficiency test,( timed cutting, weeding, taping, applying national average) i can give new employees. to see if they can keep up with what pace, i'm a small shop and have done almost all the work myself up untill recently, now i feel like everyone that comes in is rediculously slow.
I realize they are not going to have the same sense of urgency an owner has, but come on!

 

[JgS]

If you are hiring someone with experience they shouldn't be slow.

 

[J Hill Designs]

make em layout a simple banner in under 10 mins
make em weed/apply 2 color layout to a 18x24 in 10 mins

 

[SignManiac]

I suggest you give them some incentive to speed up the pace. Something along the lines of replacing them? That might inspire them.

 

[Signsforwhile]

back when i was smart and worked for someone else i remember going to a handful of companies on interviews. coming to all of them with knowledge of how to do layouts, run plotters and make signs, i remember a couple asking me to do exactly that. so the interview started with me reading a work order, laying it out, cutting the vinyl and making something like a coro sign.

 

[BROWNDOG]

the help i'm using in the shop is starting with little to no experience. if anyone in the lower DE area, has some good leads on shop help, a PM would be much appreciated,

maybe Signs 101 could all layout, cut, weed, apply the same file, like an Eye chart or something and put in thier average times, create a standard to work from.

 

[Mosh]

Weeding Challenge. Someone do a simple "no parking" type sign and post a
eps file on here. Everyone time themselves from loading, file, loading vinyl, cutting, weeding, taping, applying to some coro. I'd guess under 10 min.

 

[Gino]

Double.

Double everything..... their time to weed, time to wander around the shop looking for stuff, application time, breaks, goof off time, doing things over, trash, headaches, concentration.......... and most of all, double your prices.

 

[Marlene]

the help i'm using in the shop is starting with little to no experience

so you are training them? how good are you at explaining what and how it needs to be done? not crapping on you, just asking as we who know how to do stuff some times forget the little dtails as we think everyone must know and they don't. that is a place to start as to complex, they are slow as they are trying to remember everything, to little info, they are left to figure what to do. do you have a step by step written out so they can read it first and do what's asked and have something they can refer to when they aren't sure?

we had a guy take forever to put some studs in Gemini letters. turns out no one told him to use his fingers to thread the studs into the letters and he tried to used an adjustable wrench which took forever. we forget the little stuff like from time to time.

 

[J Hill Designs]

someone seriously tried to thread studs onto letters with a crescent wrench?!?

 

[Z SIGNS]

I don't think how fast someone can weed tape and apply vinyl is all that important to the success of a sign shop.
As long as they are doing it right that is laying it down straight with no bubbles etc.
Who cares if if a sign fabricator takes 20 minutes to do a job that you could do in 10 minutes ?As long as he show up and has a good attitude.
The actual fabrication of a sign is a very small portion of the time it takes to produce a finished sign.I'll go out on limb and say 10% of the time is the actual fabrication.
Most of the time is in design,dealing with the customer,quoting,ordering materials, billing and everything that must be done before it is handed over to a
weeder sticker person.
How fast a person weeds and tapes and lays down stickers is not the key to success It's how good your are at doing everything up to that point.

 

[MakeMyGraphic]

Proficiency tests... yeah. Time YOURSELF doing a small job. Take note of your time. Show them how to do your small job and how fast you are working. Let them know you would like it if they can meet that speed and give them a probation period where they will be under review and you should be safe if you have to let them go after the probation period if they have not picked up their pace and caught onto yours.


ok I guess that isn't really a test, but it IS a test to see if they will work... never expect someone to be as efficient as you though if they exceed your efficiency then kudos to that!

 

[Marlene]

someone seriously tried to thread studs onto letters with a crescent wrench?!?

yes. he tried to set the adjustable wrench to the size of the thread and would tighten it on every stud, twist it in and that takes some time. when you leave peopleto figure stuff out, not everyone is great at that. when we showed him how, he blushed as it made sense once he knew. we forget the simple steps when training.

 

[Mosh]

Run them in with my drill...just put it in the chuck like a bit. my fingers always got sore on those threads....
I only do this on bigger jobs, like 40-50 letters....

 

[BROWNDOG]

Marlen, i admit, i'm not the best trainer, and i assume many things to be common sense, especially for college grads or trade school students.

Z signs, no the actual production shouldnt be the majority of the project job, but when it takes a guy 3.5 hours to do lay down a 1 color little league banner, one day, and do a basic truck 2 doors and tailgate in the same time, it makes me really frustrated.

Mosh, i think i'm going to tell them to recreate an eye chart in black on coro and see how long it takes em.

 

[phototec]

Double.

Double everything..... their time to weed, time to wander around the shop looking for stuff, application time, breaks, goof off time, doing things over, trash, headaches, concentration.......... and most of all, double your prices.

Gino,

don't forget all the time they spend texting on the cell phone, got to figure that in...

:ROFLMAO:

 

[phototec]

If you are hiring someone with experience they shouldn't be slow.

You do know you get what you pay for, are you paying minimum wage or are you paying a fair wage for a sign professional?

 

[John Butto]

Sign Proficiency Test
Question: is the planet earth...
A. flat
B. round
C. earth is not a planet
D. none of the above

If they answer C., hire them on the spot, they might not be fast, but you will get some good entertainment.

 

[JBusch260]

If they answer C., hire them on the spot, they might not be fast, but you will get some good entertainment.

Yes, new hire... Please tell me about "Spaceship Earth".

To the original post, in regards to hiring someone with little to no experience, take this opportunity to break them in and tailor them to fit to what your shop needs. Remember, YOU were the one that hired them to work for you. I would rather have a fresh employee with little to no experience, than an employee who's worked elsewhere and "this is just how I know how to do it".

Typically what I've found is that people fresh out of art/design school, or whatever school, take WAY longer to lay something out, because they're still stuck in the critique mentality. They don't understand crunch time, quite as much as an experienced graphic designer does. Use that time to explain why this can be expensive for a business.

If this person is strictly production, take the time to show them what to do and how to do it properly, but efficiently. You don't want them to rush, because having to re-do that mistake will be more costly than the time it takes for him to slug along with it to make sure he's doing it properly, while getting comfortable with the tools we use.

I guess specifically, you chose to hire a new person, now you have to settle and watch them adapt into the position. If they had claimed to be experienced and their resume is over-inflated, get rid of them. If they aren't picking things up to speed as much as your experience compares to, be willing to work with them. It will be frustrating, but hey, you chose them.

 

[MikePro]

i treat every new employee like an idiot and teach them from scrap. If they have conflicting processes, show me, and I'll pick it apart if I feel necessary.

test, however, never heard of one. fastsigns/sign-a-rama guys can chime-in if they like, but I bet they do the same. one employee trains the next, new franchisees most likely have some sort of initial training.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

This is a standard thing. When I have hired people in the past, I generally hired for the inexperienced since it's easier to find hungry graphic designers than experienced sign guys with no bad habits ... still had to re-train the experienced half the time and the bad habits are hard to break.

As far as tests, easy enough to do. If you need a designer ... set up a customer job sheet with basic info and tell him to make 3 proofs ... time on proofs and have him save the job file so you can review it. if you need a vinyl jockey ... cut a standard graphic, have him weed mask and apply to a junk substrate and time the job. if you need someone with wrap experience ... have them wrap something like the mini fridge with scrap pieces then time it. really not hard to do, if you vet them past the interview process ... testing is incredibly easy and almost essential for jobs with any sort of experience needed.