Training Is More Than Telling
Operators need to focus on employee
motivation
By Joseph Rosales
Reprinted with permission from Modern Car Care, the
premier magazine of Car Care professionals.
For more information, visit www.moderncarcare.com.
The ongoing challenge of developing skills and training
employees to perform their jobs consistently and with a high degree
of excellence is something that every operator of every business faces.
This is not an issue confined to the automotive service industry;
nor is training something you only need to do once. People are a dynamic
component of a service business. Add to this the fact that since everyone
learns differently, our methods of training and development need to
be reviewed continuously.
I have the opportunity to consult with operators
of all backgrounds and levels of experience about many different business
challenges. I have observed trainers of all levels of expertise and
have come to understand that being an effective trainer is not an
art but a learned skill. You don't have to be a gifted speaker, but
you do need the desire to communicate clearly and apply structured
techniques to training situations. Being an effective trainer and
developer of people takes time. Good results not only enhance employee
productivity but also reduce turnover, which in turn reduces the time
you will have to spend retraining new people.
Training is more than telling. I often hear business
owners and managers say, "We tell our people all the time, but
they just don't get it" or "They just don't seem to care."
The reality is most people do care and often the problem is poor training
and communication on management's part. Also, people do what is important
to them and therein lies one of the mysteries and challenges of training.
How do you make what's important to you and your business equally
important to your employees?
Hire attitude and train competence. Without employees
with positive and success- oriented attitudes, employee development
becomes a very difficult and frustrating task. So assuming you have
been successful in recruiting the right people with the right attitudes,
we can begin our discussion with some training basics.
Structured training is a critical component of employee
success. Imagine an Olympic gymnast or professional athlete without
a structured training agenda. Natural ability will only take a person
so far. Your staff is much more likely to meet or exceed your expectations
if they know what the expectations are and you have effectively trained
them how to consistently achieve those expectations.
If you want to have a world-class fast lube center,
you need a well-trained staff with a clear vision of the business.
Motivation comes from within. Many people assume
that world-class athletes ( or world-class employees) are naturally
motivated when in fact motivation does not always come naturally and
many world-class performers struggle with it. Motivation is not just
a response to a directive; it is an internal drive that creates action.
I often hear owners and managers complain that their
people are not motivated to do their best, or they always need to
be on their employees' cases to get anything done. I'm sure we have
all experienced some level of this and, unfortunately, there is no
pill that will instantly create motivation in someone.
Have you ever had an employee who you couldn't motivate
to properly present an add-on service, yet when it came to sports,
or his girlfriend, he became highly talkative and motivated? The reality
is, people talk about and do what is important to them. The key to
motivating someone is to make the result of an act important to them.
Simply telling them, "It's your job" does not necessarily
make the act or end-result important, nor does it serve as a motivator.
Find out what is valuable or pertinent to individual
employees and use that to generate or reinforce desired behavior.
This should come as no surprise to any of us--people are motivated
by seeing the value in it for them. For some people, it is necessary
to show how doing something is going to help their future, and others
need to see how something helps them today. Some people just want
to do it right and others need to see how it will make them more money.
In all cases, you need a balance of meeting present needs and building
future value. Think of the starving person searching for food. Telling
him how to plant, nurture, and harvest does not meet his immediate
personal needs, but simply feeding him today does not help him prepare
for the future. You need to strike a balance of present needs and
future values.
Despite what many people think, money is not a primary
motivator. Yes, bonus programs can help to focus on revenue-generating
activities, but such programs cannot substitute for good leadership
and management skills. Certainly, people need money to take care of
base financial needs, but lasting motivation cannot be bought with
money.
Think about what motivates you:
Think about what causes you to lose motivation:
-
Being yelled at, or treated with disrespect
-
Being ridiculed
-
Lack of appreciation
-
Being taken for granted
-
Not having the opportunity to experience the
feeling of success
Sometimes, looking at what causes people to be unmotivated
helps to clarify what would motivate them.
The process of motivating your employees becomes
easier if the work environment is conducive to positive thinking and
enthusiasm. Motivating people is about creating an environment and
relationship between you, your people and the business. The first
step is to clearly define the vision of your business and the role
each employee plays in accomplishing the vision on a daily basis.
Next, ask yourself, is your work environment clean
and organized? People can't do their best work in an unorganized and
cluttered setting. Be aware of what your employees are doing. Pay
attention to their needs. Acknowledge them when they do things right,
and compliment them on their accomplishments. If you lay out the expectations
you have for their performance and the structure to help them achieve
it, you will find your people becoming more motivated.
Motivation Checklist:
Go beyond the oil change
Simply teaching your employees how to change oil
in 8 to 12 minutes does not assure that they understand how to help
make the business a success. If you want your employees to care as
much about the success of your business as you do, teach them everything
you know about how the business succeeds. Having discussions about
excellence in customer service is an important place to start. But
if you want to develop a staff that excels at customer service, then
they need to understand the many facets of individualized customer
service and how to meet each customer's needs on that level. Although
we must meet certain thresholds of service for our industry, a mother
in a minivan with a small child and a big diaper bag has very different
customer service needs than a man with a 4x4 and a gun rack.
Employee development also means having your staff
understand how a business makes and loses money and how each and every
customer contact can impact the business. I recently had the pleasure
of hearing Lou Tice speak about training employees to be co-pilots
in our businesses instead of just passengers. Training co-pilots requires
that an individual become accountable for the overall performance
of the business by becoming accountable for his personal area of responsibility.
People tend to perform at their highest level when they are personally
accountable for specific results.
How important is training and development to you
and your company? Is it important enough for you to assign a budget
for training and education? Most everyone says training is important,
but interestingly, very few business owners spend much time or money
on this most important part of their business plan.
Almost every business advertises its service to the
public, and most people even have an advertising budget, or at least
an idea of how much they can spend on advertising. Advertising is
certainly an important component of a successful marketing program
and can help bring customers to your center. However, it is equally
important to make sure your staff is well-trained.
Not investing in training would be like advertising
a restaurant that doesn't have very good food or service. Wouldn't
it make sense to first get the kitchen, wait staff and dining area
up to speed before letting in customers? Then the customers who come
in because of the advertising would have an experience that would
assure their return.
If you are going to establish a training and education
budget, you should include attending the annual AOCA Convention, or
a regional training seminar. Both offer extensive seminar opportunities
and a chance to network with other operators and share challenges
and ideas. If you can't get away for a few days, you can purchase
some of the excellent training tapes and manuals that are available
from various training resources that specialize in the fast lube industry.
Alternatively, maybe you should have a professional consultant/ trainer
who specializes in developing fast lubes visit your center and spend
a few days with you and your staff.
However you decide to invest your training dollars,
I can assure you that the return on investment will be much greater
and more long term than any advertisement you have ever run. In today's
competitive environment, it can be expensive and tough to attract
new customers. Be sure that when they get to your center they are
treated to the very best products accompanied by the very best service,
delivered in an environment that is exceedingly clean, organized and
efficient.
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