Profitable Training

A central theme of many service seminars, articles, software programs and management conferences is monitoring and maximizing the technician’s time spent working on equipment. Accountability is the path to profitability.
 
The tech is motivated / rewarded by built-in salary bonuses that are calculated by programs that are being advertised. Service profitability all centers on keeping the tech working 40 hours a week.  Promises of each tech achieving 50+% profit margins are just around the proverbial corner.
 
I believe strongly in personal accountability and monitoring a technician’s time usage.  I believe in focusing my management skills on being able to consistently achieve 85+% first call completion. I believe in a need for ongoing technical, customer relations and business management education for all service employees.

In order to stay current in today’s marketplace, which is emphasizing managed print and professional services, you must continue to train your technical and sales staff. The need for a diversification of ongoing training is essential to expanding the services and products that your dealership can profitably offer.
How do we keep our technical staff engaged and motivated to actively take part in ongoing training? It is management’s responsibility to continually offer in-house and external training opportunities. A well-managed dealership will position their training programs to be a sought after and valued by their employees.

Many successful dealerships offer monetary rewards for successful completion of pre-approved training outside of business hours. Others require a specific number of training modules to be successfully completed to be eligible for a periodic merit pay increase.

Resourceful service managers always have a training module ready for immediate use for times when all your technicians are not required in the field. These ongoing training programs can be taught by a technician that is very familiar with the information or it can be a Webinar or other computer-based training program.

As we approach the holidays, having appropriate training material immediately available for use can help fill those usable hours and days when the service call load is lightened by our client’s holiday spirits. Maximizing the use of each day to improve the knowledge base of your employees will strengthen your ability to maximize your future productivity.

Some successful dealers set up a self-paced learning-earning schedule. The employer must decide what technical, network or computer skills are desired. The dealer then creates a curriculum that offers technical employees access to specific learning programs. A completion bonus or small pay increase may be offered. Some dealerships and OEM’s require a specific number of self-paced ongoing training completions each year to remain employed.

For example, as part of your MPS program, you need a few techs to become HP certified on three newly released color printers. Some of the options to consider are: hands-on HP Certified Training, attending a local college or vocational class outside of work hours, online learning and certification classes, attending a printer training program offered by a non-OEM wholesaler, or offering in-house training.

Choose the most cost effective way to fit your needs. Each level of learning has a different initial cost. Some require time during the regular workday. Some classes cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Others can be accomplished rather inexpensively outside of regular work hours.
An appropriate bonus can be offered if the training is completed outside of working hours. This training can also be fulfilling part of the ongoing requirements for each tech to constantly be upgrading their equipment, network and application knowledge.

Some employers require their technicians to sign an agreement to stay with their current employer for a set period of time as a prerequisite for being sent to training school or receiving a training completion bonus.

Labor laws do not allow you to demand repayment of normal wages during a training period. However, you can require an agreement that an employee who leaves your employment before a predetermined time must repay all “out of pocket” expenses for the training.

This includes the cost of the training course. All reimbursed (or provided) travel, lodging, per diem, necessary books or other required expenses must be repaid. Some dealers prorate the cost, having it lowered one-twelve per month over the course of a year. Other dealers have a one-year pay-in-full policy if the newly trained employee leaves prematurely.

A progressive dealer will normally send all highly valued employees to at least one formal training program each year. In this way, the employee always has a cost factor hovering over the employee’s bank account if they were to consider leaving your employment.

A secondary advantage to this type of arrangement is that employees who are not sure of their dedication to this job will not ask to be trained. Sometimes a loyal employee realizes that for personal (or professional) reasons, their circumstances may change within the next 12 months.

A written commitment of continuing employment is the first step in explaining to your employees what will be expected of them in the future. Many employers who use some sort of “good faith payback agreement” explain the entire concept and usage in their pre-employment interview process.

When you are up front with the requirements attached to employment and training, you may eliminate those potential employees who are only interested in what they can get out of the job rather than what they can bring to their work.

As an employer, you must balance the cost of educating an employee with the additional worth of that worker once they are educated. As most dealers move toward network administration, MPS and other professional services, the depth of required technical knowledge continues to increase.

When you use a training program that offers bonuses, make a big deal of presenting the earned rewards. Award the completion bonus and new business cards, listing their new certification, during a service department meeting. Frame the certification and display it in a prominent area in your office.

Success can become contagious. Learning is remarkably rewarding. A trained employee is much happier than a tech that must struggle to work on equipment he knows little about. Employees that believe they will receive ongoing training, bonuses and earned pay increases are likely to stay.

The cost of advertising, interviewing, training, issuing parts, tools, service forms, teaching company procedures, introduction to customers, etc., will cost far more than monetarily rewarding a current employee for newly acquired skills. For those who are thinking that paying for performance will cost too much money, think of what it will cost if you don’t. What is your business worth? On-going training is your key to profitability.


Ronelle Ingram, author of Service With A Smile, also teaches service seminars. She can be reached at ronellei@msn.com