REPAIR SHOP MANAGEMENT: WHY CAN’T I GET MY PEOPLE TRAINED RIGHT?
By Terry Keller
I can just imagine some of you thinking, “Why waste time reading this when I’ve already tried everything to train my people to act right and perform well AND IT CAN’T BE DONE?! Why keep beating my head against the wall?”
Or, maybe you’re not so cynical and would like a couple of tips on how to improve. Either way, I believe that your investment in the next couple of minutes will be well worth it!
For the first 25 years in my career as a shop owner, I tried every kind of training for myself and for my employees I could find. Of course, there was a lot of technical training out there and we pretty much did it all.
We could fix cars well, but the rest of the operation was not performing as I would have liked. It was in chaos most of the time.
Why Training Didn’t Work!
It seemed that every management or sales class we went to created some hope and motivated us to change. However, after a few weeks, things had drifted back the way they were except everyone was even more frustrated.
I was angry because my team couldn’t or wouldn’t make the new ideas and systems stick. And they were upset because I expected them to do things they were incapable of doing – because of their lack of aptitude, or because of my poor communication/teaching skills, or my inability to manage or lead them properly.
It was the little things that drove me nuts: parts returns and credits, parts not billed, customers not taken care of, things forgotten, and many other broken rules or procedures. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was not fit to lead.
Yes, I got very upset every few months and threatened everyone in a fit of anger, but that only produced a momentary improvement in performance.
They all understood my routine and knew within a few days they could slack off again…AND I LET THEM!
On the surface, it appeared I was the only one who understood what I wanted. However, the truth was that no one was committed to making new training knowledge stick.
I repeatedly stated I did not want it this way, but the proof of my actions (or should I say inaction?) and those of my staff overpowered any thoughts, feelings, or vision of sticking to a better way of doing things.
Why couldn’t we pull this off? What was missing?
The Missing Piece of the Puzzle
It wasn’t until I discovered a way to measure performance that the light went on. Let me caution that measurement by itself will not ensure sustained improvement.
However, I found that just by measuring, improvement occurred in every part of the business we tried it in.
The next task was to figure out exactly what to measure and how. We worked for years at perfecting this process using reports, spreadsheets, management checklists, and duties checklists.
It was many years later I found that replacing myself with a strong manager/leader in my shop and establishing a solid chain of command were the last missing pieces to this puzzle of sustaining improvement.
Today, we have established a firm baseline of performance in every aspect of our shop. Each manager, supervisor, and service writer operates from a set of metrics every day.
Even the techs know what is expected of them and that management is measuring their daily performance and will hold them accountable for any under-performance trend.
Everyone on the team knows the duties, processes, and policies for their job position through the use of forms and checklists that must be turned in with each job or, as the case may be, daily.
This is absolutely necessary for each area you wish to apply for a training program. Unless you know where your current level of performance is in that area, you cannot measure improvement after training.
Any evaluation of improvement you attempt is meaningless without honest, objective measurement…unless you like to guess or continue to lie to yourself as I did for years!
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is you have to lead, or you must find a leader who has the strengths you lack (either by promoting within your organization or by hiring one). No one is perfect. We all have strengths and weaknesses.
Do you know yours? Have you honestly thought about it? There is no shame in recognizing your weaknesses – only in continuing to ignore them!
There are dozens of necessary traits in the overall leadership team of any successful organization. It’s impossible for one human being to have them all.
The smartest and best leaders out there know this and hire and delegate around their weaknesses.
Once you begin to address this issue and implement a good set of measurement systems, your training programs can be elevated and improved.
If you want to know more about how we do this in our shop, contact us!