Payroll is supposed to buy you results, not headaches. When your employee incentive is off, Sneaky Leaky shows up as overtime, slow jobs, and callbacks that chew up your schedule. In this episode, I sit down with Ryan Shank to talk about why hourly pay can create misaligned incentives, even when your technicians mean well.
We get into what performance-based incentive pay can look like in the real world, and how it ties to company goals, customer goals, and technician goals. If you are tired of paying more and getting less, this conversation will help you see what to fix first.
What You’ll Learn…
- Why hourly pay can quietly reward overtime and slow jobs
- How employee incentives change technician behavior without micromanaging
- The difference between a random bonus and performance-based pay
- Why billable efficiency can matter more than close rate
- How to build employee incentives around what techs can control today
- What technicians actually pay attention to after the first payout
- How to cut callbacks and create more net new jobs with the same crew
Key Moments…
[00:45] Why Hourly Pay Creates Misaligned Incentives
[05:10] What Techs Actually Do When Pay Rewards Hours
[10:30] What Performance Pay Can Look Like In The Field
[16:05] Billable Efficiency And The Hours You Cannot Bill
[22:40] Why Payout Timing Changes Behavior Faster
[28:15] Metrics Techs Can Control Today
[34:20] Tools That Help Track Incentives And Overtime
Why Hourly Pay Creates Misaligned Incentives
Hourly pay feels fair on the surface, but it quietly teaches technicians they get paid more for time than for outcomes. When the clock is what determines pay, there is no real reason to finish efficiently or tighten up a job. This is where employee incentive becomes critical, because it shifts the focus from hours worked to results delivered. Owners often blame people when the real issue is the system they built. Sneaky Leaky thrives when pay rewards the wrong behavior.
What Techs Actually Do When Pay Rewards Hours
When technicians know they are paid by the hour, they naturally slow down, even if they do not realize they are doing it. Jobs stretch, overtime feels normal, and urgency disappears. A performance based employee incentive changes that dynamic by giving technicians a reason to think differently about how they move through the day. This is not about rushing or cutting corners, it is about aligning effort with expectations. When pay matches priorities, behavior improves naturally.
What Performance Pay Can Look Like In The Field
A good employee incentive does not have to mean all-or-nothing commission. Ryan talked about companies using blended models where a portion of pay is tied to performance while still offering stability. What matters most is that technicians can see how their actions affect their pay. When performance pay is clear and fair, employee buy in happens faster than most owners expect.
Billable Efficiency And The Hours You Cannot Bill
One of the biggest profit leaks in home service businesses is employee time spent that is not billable. Drive time, callbacks, rework, and poor planning all eat into the day without showing up on an invoice. A performance-based employee incentive tied to billable efficiency helps expose this gap instead of hiding it. Once owners see how much time is being paid for but not billed, the need for change becomes obvious. You cannot fix what you do not measure.
Why Payout Timing Changes Behavior Faster
Incentives that show up once a year rarely change daily behavior. Ryan explained that technicians respond best when their employee incentive payouts happen close to the work itself. Weekly or frequent payouts create a clear connection between effort and reward. When technicians see the impact quickly, motivation becomes part of their routine. Delayed rewards feel like random extra money, not earned results.
Metrics Techs Can Control Today
The fastest way to break an employee incentive plan is to tie it to things technicians cannot control. Pricing mistakes, dispatch issues, or supply delays that affect their incentive will kill their trust fast. Strong employee incentive plans focus on controllable metrics like job time, callbacks, memberships, and customer experience. When technicians feel the system is fair, accountability increases without resentment. That is how you build ownership without micromanagement.
Tools That Help Track Incentives And Overtime
Trying to manage a performance-based employee incentive manually is where many plans fall apart. Tracking performance, overtime, and payouts needs to be simple and visible. Ryan shared tools that pull data from the systems businesses already use, making incentives easier to understand and manage. When owners have clean data, decisions get easier and emotions drop out of payroll conversations. Good tools do not replace leadership, but they support better systems.
About Ryan
Ryan Shank is the Founder at ShareWillow, a software company that helps businesses in the trades manage employee incentive plans. He has raised $6.5m in venture capital and has quickly grown the business to millions in revenue. Before ShareWillow, Ryan founded PhoneWagon, which was later acquired by Atlanta-based Callrail in 2021. Ryan also hosts a podcast with customers in the trades, posting both long-form interviews and short-form clips on social media.
Connect With Ryan Shank:
Visit Ryan’s Website
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Connect with ShareWillow on LinkedIn
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Diane’s Resources:
Profit Impact Call: https://taxcoach4you.com/profitimpactcall
Profit First Method: https://taxcoach4you.com/profit-first
15 Profit Leaks eBook: https://profitcoach4you.com/profitleaks
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