mechanic

field service technician

service technician

equipment mechanic

equipment service technician

Tennant Company

I worked for Tennant Co. for over 15 years. The first seven of those years was a lot different then the final years. When I first started with Tennant Co., there was respect, integrity and pride. Quality product and services were priority, as the end result would be a loyal customer base with a impeccable reputation which brings repeat business and great returns. 
That all changed once several upper management personnel who had been with the company for 35 to 40 years, began to retire. The entire mentality of the company began to change, as some middle management with personal motives moved up and several new people from outside the company were hired to fill top management positions. 

Over time, everything changed to minimize cost, increase profit margins above everything. Quality of the product has and still is diminishing. Everything that made the company the top in it's field was no longer priority and every single department, procedure, process, etc... was scrutinized to find every possible way to decrease cost and increase profit for the share holders. 
Although they are a world wide ( 1billion dollar company as of 2017) company, there are only two (2) revenue generating departments, Sales and service. Over the years, management has increased responsibility and accountability to its service personnel. They especially placed higher requirements on service technicians to increase revenue and expect service technicians to charge customers for performing ALL internal task and procedures, no matter how small. They also refuse to pay their service technicians for performing any non-billable task that are required. In fact, they removed task from middle management and service support personnel, and made those task a requirement of the service rep. to be billed to the customer. Middle management is constantly placing more non-controllable responsibilities on its service people. 
The company sells themselves to the customer as being the best, but that is not true at all. Customer support is of the lowest priority, unless it directly increases profit and they treat their employees worse then their customers. There is no loyalty to their employees, but expect nothing less than perfection from them. They trust no one and suspect every employee below middle management of cheating the company of the very profits that they are taking for themselves.
The company has been riding on their good past history, which is being quickly eroded away. Unless there is a major change within the company for the better, I would not recommend anyone to work for them.

this place hates efficiency.  they don't like process improvement.  zero policy and procedure organization or transparency.    some cool perks.  they pay service techs well.  they make a good product.  but at the end of the day its about making the company money and you're just a number.  they say they care, but they don't.  you just need to put your head down and work.  when something isn't right and something makes no sense, ignore it and keep moving on.  otherwise you are looked at as a problem.  Here's a good way to summarize this company.  A few years back mediocre reps would be at 80% of their number but making well over six figures.  Managers were upset that all these reps would perform poorly but still make way more money than them.   You're probably thinking, hold them accountable, make sure they're getting the support they need to be successful, and if they can't improve you get rid of them and hire someone who can do the job.  Tennant's solution? Butcher the comp plan...for everyone. Make it so on paper it looks good but when the company can't ship out machines, AND YOU DON'T GET PAID UNTIL THE MACHINE SHIPS, you get porked.  Structure it so sales reps are heavily incentivized to do slightly better than what is expected. But if they kill it and blow their number completely out of the water, they only make a little more money than if they were to exceed their quota by a little.  Here's the kicker.  So when your quota comes out for the following year and you need to do 5% more for example, do you make 5% more in commission? Nope. You have to hit a higher sales number now in order to make the same amount of money you made last year, hitting a lower sales quota.  Unless that is you go up a bonus tier.  Does anyone here know how the tiers are decided? Nope.  Is there transparency as to why you are in that bonus tier? Nope.  

Healthcare benefits get worse every year and price increases every year to the point where it will get discontinued in the near future.

Tennant Company Service WAS a family orientated business where you go to work take care of the customer and be satisfied knowing the customer/company/yourself is happy… Now the company is all about chasing one billion dollars, that’s great but the executives will get all the bonuses and by the time it trickles down to the guys on the street who are doing all the hard work for the one billion they’ll be lucky to get a $500 bonus. So the company has reorganized to hit one billion by 2017, by doing this Tennant Company Service higher management has completely changed, in the old days the company would promote within (Service Rep to Trainer to Manager) now the company refuses to promote within and hires external managers that have no mechanical experience or any knowledge of what we do, the managers they hire look at numbers all day and manage by phone calls, as they have no idea what is going on when riding in a truck with a Service Tech. The communication from corporate to the field is nonexistent, when asking a senior manager of any future career opportunities or business in general they all talk in code, they will never give you a straight answer and will never get back to you. as they are probably worried about losing their jobs. It’s got to the point where there is not enough specific work for the Service Techs as they are hiring on lots of new Commercial Reps at much lower pay and are pushing out all the experienced reps that are on higher pay.  

Overall it was and can still be a great department to work for, all they need to do is restructure (again) so we are not top heavy with all the service management in corporate and bring it back to a local level by managing from the field where the work is done.

Overall a typical day is stressful as upper management is beyond repairable. Not to mention plenty of company gossip and favoritism. You can’t even trust HR or your manager as they’ll just tell the person you had a concern about that you came to them about that specific individual. A lot of tattletales at work for no reason at all but to try and get a better performance review for the next year. Work flow has zero process, not sure how they even got ISO certified. Zero IPC-610 & IPC-620 standards which is concerning from a consumer stand point as the deal with PCB and Cables/ Harnesses. Zero work life balance with the ridiculous amount of mandatory labor. This company definitely caters to their seniors who don’t really do much but sit all day just stealing hours. Which is kudos to the seniors for getting paid to sit all day, this is a company where it’s not what you know but who you know. Lazy people get promotions here, you just have to act like you like everyone and with zero experience you could become a supervisor or a manager. Zero training process in Tennant as a new employee. But the biggest thing to keep in mind about Tennant is that your opinion does not matter and they are built on quantity not quality. If you see how the machines are being made and their quality standards, you would definitely choose their competitors over them. Company culture here is really bad, communication is non existent, if you thought your companies you’ve worked for are bad. Trust me when I say this but Tennant Company takes the cake.

Tennant was a pleasure and easy to access assistance from a technical aspect. The mid and lower management were not attentive to team strength nor health more so solely focused on their performance and ability to move up and or on their personal position or success therefore  pushing many technicians into a binding situation creating conflict and negativity where there should be support. The job as a tech is probably one of the most lucrative to perform at with ease to an extent. I thoroughly enjoyed my customers and assigned territory. Corporate provided plenty of job specific tools and training once I had built repour with other techs and was able to understand the digital structure of how technical data was accessed. I will miss working for Tennant especially with the ability to drive my service vehicle directly, not from a shop or office. The flexible(ish) schedule and allotment of overtime (when performing well) was great. It seemed as if I was allowed to work as much overtime as needed to stay caught up with the busier of the territories that I was assigned. If I wasn't able to perform within what seemed unreasonable expectations, overtime was cut even though it caused my customers to suffer longer wait times for break-fixes and maintenance. I feel that the customer did not come first as much as I felt they should during my time employed, but that could have just been my personal situation from how busy I stayed and how hard i was pushed for performance.   

General Manager with extensive accomplishments in multiple markets across a diversified customer base. More than 15 years combined operations and sales management with a proven ability to expand market share, drive revenue, and increase customer retention. Strong background in Heavy Equipment, Equipment Rental, Construction, Oil and Gas, and even Aviation.  This distinct experience is an added advantage to any organization to enhance problem solving abilities and developing creative business solutions. Disciplined thinker with background in Operations Management, that combines sales/marketing knowledge with financial acumen to execute winning business strategies.

Specialties: Start-Up Business Management, Multi-Business Operations, Project Management, Forecasting, Logistics, Sales & Marketing, Service Management Operations. 

 Responsibility includes oversight and enforcement of company policies, HS&E, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, HR, Financial and Compliance policies. Oversee planning, developing, and implementation of the business plans.  Work closely with employees to keep them safe and oversee HS&E to ensure all DOT, EPA, HAZMAT and OSHA requirements are met consistently.  Responsible for exceeding shareholder expectations and meeting monthly revenue targets. Accountable for P&L management, track and manage all company assets and specialty equipment, and oversee fleet operations.

A typical day could consist of, working with a field tech on a technical problem. Or, it could be working with a rep on a customer issue and trying to find a solution. A typical day could include spending the day in the field traveling with the field rep advising and coaching him for improvement. A typical day could also include reviewing reports and speaking to the reps doing well and those needing some encouragement to improve. 

Working at Tennant in the service operations enabled me to learn and be exposed to various operations of the business. From hiring, firing, managing budgets, managing personnel, working with sales and other groups in our organization. Developing programs for taking care of customers and special needs customers. Developing maintenance programs tailored to the customers needs as well.  

Management tended to leave me along as I had my marching orders and knew what had to be done and did it. 

The hardest part of the job was turning off the switch. Working from my home office was good and bad. The bad was turning off the switch. 

The most enjoyable was working with my team. A great group of guys. It was also great to win a customer over that was unhappy about a situation.

Responsible for using SAP software, and following department policies and procedures, to receive and process customer parts and service orders in an accurate and efficient manner.
Accountable for tracking orders and identifying and resolving issues related to customer parts and service orders, back ordered parts, online invoicing and the updating of customer account information. 
Effectively utilize problem solving skills to work directly with customers to initiate, code, investigate, analyze and resolve order returns in a timely fashion.
Resilient to complicated situations, complaints, shipping issues, and highly adaptable to quick changes while multi-tasking on other job duties as assigned.
Recognized as the lead mentor and a team player for the customer service parts department with responsibility to oversee all department mentor activities, train new mentors as new hire training mentors, provide content to the both the new hire training program and new hire mentor program, and identify opportunities for mentor and training improvements.

The work and the customers made this job very enjoyable. The management and supervision did not. When I started with this company I asked why they had such a high turn over rate? No worries, just bad people is what I was told. Must sell parts at all cost!!  Even when the customer does not need them you are excepted to lie to them and make them purchase things they are not ready for or in need of. Most customers in the territory I covered recognized this and started either doing the repairs themselves or contracting it out to others that were HONEST. Micro managed to the max. You will be on your own but not allowed to think for yourself. "Big-brother" is always watching you. You will not be payed for the actual time you work but yet they want want you to charge the customer for that time. Please do not waste your time with these people. I am sure that all regions are not the same but ANYTHING IN Tx. Or La. Is overseen with little morals and no integrity. Customers are the livelihood of any businesses, and should be respected and not lied to achieve financial gains.

I am/was a welder on 2nd shift
The good: Competitive pay and benefits. The hours and ability to switch shifts is nice. Steady work is also nice. The tools and work cells are pretty great, easy on the body; with the air grinders and adjustable tables.
The bad: Firstly, management is the worst I've seen. It's an over populated hierarchy that shifts around on personnel and ideas. Any problem presented to them from the floor crew is met with policy and excuses that seem rehearsed. They might ask you what you need to make your job easier, then send emails back and forth till they forget about it. To get anything done is often a week long battle of reminding 2 or 4 different people every day that the problem still exists. If you get put in a work cell and do your job there is not much chance of getting out or moving, so odds are you will end up making the same few parts every day. There is little to no training, which causes a lot of issues on every level of the company. Every "training" session is an over simplified power point presentation or packet of pictures/instructions.

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