Entry Level Technician Needed
Guest writer Bill Pyles tackles more staffing shortages (hint: it’s not just teachers and nurses) in today’s blog post, “Entry Level Technician Needed.”
Most segments of the country are enjoying growth in the construction area, which translates to growth among construction equipment dealerships and other companies. A couple of challenges for the equipment dealers are the availability of new equipment and the severe shortage of equipment technicians.
I can recall this economic cycle back to the early 1990s when most dealers began to realize the tech shortage was real. A heavy equipment technician was not a glamorous job, and more of the younger generation was moving to the new dot com boom. Around this time, major equipment OEMs, Cat, Deere, Komatsu, and other companies began to partner with local colleges to implement technician educational programs, offering a tech certificate or a two-year degree. Even the military changed their recruiting ads showing soldiers, sailors, and Marines staring at computer and radar screens, launching high-tech armament, no longer the recruits crawling through mud pits.
Technical schools such as Universal Technical Institute, Nashville Auto Diesel College, Lincoln Technical, and others were utilized by equipment dealers looking for entry-level techs to bring on board.
I’d like to use this opportunity to discuss what’s worked for me in recruiting and retaining entry level-techs. It’s always a great day to have a resume cross your desk presenting a tech with years of experience with the equipment your company represents. Unfortunately, those techs are gainfully employed and do not move around. Today tech recruiting begins at both ends and in the middle of the technician level of experience. Companies that neglect to grow their entry-level techs will likely pay the price over the long term.
But what is considered entry-level? What is a good hourly wage? What do I, as the hiring manager, need to know or do to successfully hire entry-level technicians?
I have always felt if you gave me a motivated individual with a strong mechanical aptitude, basic skills, and a willingness to learn, over time, he or she can be developed into one of your go-to technicians. All it takes is dedicated time, training, coaching, and encouragement, all things I bet your company is currently using! Carefully planning and reviewing your entry-level tech process will normally transform a new tech into a loyal, dependable employee. Keep in mind that I have hired numerous techs over the years who left their last dealer due to a lack of training and direction.
The first bridge to cross with the new entry level-tech is what do you pay them? Salary.com lists entry-tech wages between $20.00 and $27.00 per hour. Of course, this will vary depending on where you do business and if you are a union shop. Base your entry wage on experience and certifications (for example, A/C; Welding). Another financial aid the dealer can offer is the new tech’s cost of technical schooling. Perhaps you can offer a tuition reimbursement amount to help offset the training debt the tech has already accumulated. Of course, other benefits such as medical insurance, paid time off, paid training, tool allowance, the opportunity for advancement, and a good 401K add value to the new tech’s wage structure. Sell the entire package your company has to offer, not just an hourly wage.
Before agreeing on an hourly wage, be sure to have a copy of your training program to share with the candidate. Basic tech testing should be used to measure the level of experience (and helps structure the new tech’s training path if hired). I would have a copy of the training outline the company has developed (both online and instructor-led) based on the OEM’s and dealer’s training requirements. This outline of required training was usually spread across a three-to-four-year period. Usually starting with basic safety training and an expectation of quickly completing the basics within a given timeframe. At the successful completion of the required training modules and mandatory on-the-job-training, there would be an increase in the hourly wage.
The first 90 days are critical in bringing the new tech into your process and procedures. I highly recommend the new tech be partnered up with one of your experienced techs who is willing to be a coach and mentor to the new tech. I would appoint one or two coaches/mentors in each shop. These more experienced techs take pride in knowing they are helping to develop another tech. I can remember when I started my career as an entry level-tech. It’s scary realizing you’re surrounded by trained, competent techs, and I’ve just broken off three bolts because the impact was set to install, not remove the bolt. But I had a great coach/mentor, a man named Tom Kennedy. Tom was the lead tech for the shop, and I swore the man was a wizard. No matter how deep I got into a problem, Tom would never lose his temper or chew me out for screwing something up. He’d then show me what I did wrong and instruct me on how to properly make the repair. Yes, I was truly fortunate to have a great mentor early in my career. Without a doubt, it helped shape the rest of my 48-year career. Thanks, Tom!
Depending on your dealer’s onboarding process, a new tech should not pick up a wrench for at least five or more working days. One of the best suggestions I can offer is to carefully create and constantly review your on boarding process for all employees. During the first days spent onboarding, introduce the new tech to the safety rules and policies, and meet with shop and parts personnel and those he or she will be interacting with. Cover the basics, what your expectations are, break times, lunchtime, writing service reports, etc. Make the new tech feel he is part of the team, not the “New Guy.” Please do not put the new tech on the shop floor and expect immediate performance. You’ll be very disappointed and have a very confused tech.
Be sure to engage the new tech and ask how things are going, then listen. Sometimes a new set of eyes in your shop will see things you may have been overlooking. Several of my best ideas have come from other people, and new techs are no exception!
If you’ve done everything correctly in hiring, training, coaching, and mentoring, you’ll see an amazing transformation of the new tech into a confident and contributing technician who may be your next mentor/coach. With a plan and the resources, it’s within your reach.
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Ever Wonder?
Ever Wonder?
In this week’s installment on Lifelong Learning, guest writer Mick Vaught challenges readers to truly assess our paradigms and pre-conceived ideas in “Ever Wonder?”
Ever wonder why we tend to remain in our comfort zone and never see a paradigm shift coming around the curve?
One of my all-time favorite role models growing up was Stephen Covey and his book titled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. In my opinion, this was his finest publication ever because it really changed my views on many things. This book was a real game changer for me. Of the 7 habits he prescribed, habit number 5 “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”, was the most useful for me during my journey in the construction industry. I look back now at some of my biggest mistakes in dealing with what I thought was critical in problem solving, only to realize later that I did not understand the root cause of the various issues.
A good example of what I’m talking about was my preconceived notion of how to correct the overwhelming problem of developing and retaining top notch service technicians. Like many well intended experts, I believed the best approach was to offer better wages and benefits than the competition with hopes that money would be the answer. What I didn’t understand was the critical needs of the service managers, technicians, and most importantly, customers. Over time, I gained a better understanding of the many issues and how to address these issues. Here are some of the initiatives I found to be most appropriate.
Step 1: Identify the scope of the current needs, and those in the next ten years.
Step 2: Analyze the current mix of jobs, and skills required for the work.
Step 3: Rank the current service staff.
*Requires supervisor sign off, and training requirements.
** Requires GM sign off and required training completion and testing.
Step 4: Recruitment
You now know the needs of what tech levels are required to meet the existing needs, as well as future requirements through business growth, changing technologies, retirements, and tech development and promotions.
Recruiting Apprentices:
Today, tech school students are being drawn to the less “dirty” jobs upon graduation by trucking companies, HVAC companies, Major Rental companies, etc. Recruitment has become very competitive and many companies start there in high school years by attending college job fairs.
We need to be active in these recruitment sessions and offer significant incentives to draw the prospect to the construction industry. The biggest obstacle facing a student after graduation from a tech school is the tuition debt they have incurred, and the expense of buying tools to start work. We will prepare incentives to address these two issues:
The student would be reimbursed for his existing tuition debt over a period of employment as a technician with the company. This four-year program would refund 25% of the student tuition expense every year, with 100% refunded after four years. It would be required that the student achieve a minimum of a Level 3 technician to qualify for 100% reimbursement.
The student would be given a basic tool set and toolbox to start his apprenticeship program. These tools would remain the property of the company until the employee has completed his Level 1 apprenticeship period and was elevated to Level 2, (Shop Tech). The tools would then become the property of the tech. OR, an upfront $2500 tool bonus that would need to be paid back if the employee left in the first year. Further, a $1000 tool allowance will be given to the tech on an annual basis up to the Level 3 classification, and then receive the standard company tool allowance.
Recruiting Senior and Journeyman Technicians:
The needs of these techs are different. They are looking for job security, good pay, good benefits, a clean, safe workplace, nice field trucks, and more quality in the job. To draw these potential techs to leave their current employment and join our team is more difficult, complicated, and costly.
Recruitment in regions where work opportunities are transitioning, can appeal to the job security concern. For example, the coal fields of KY and WV offer little job security at this time, and in the future. These techs are looking for what they are going to do going forward. You can offer job security with the vibrant growing markets. You need to heavily advertise in all transitioning areas.
Overview:
The company will need to have a structured, consistent approach to the recruit process that will provide for the needed demand in the years to come, and fill the vacancies created by tech aging and retirement.
Balancing the tech skill levels to the work difficulty levels is difficult, but provides the best profitability to the service department, and the best customer support to the end users.
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Friday Filosophy v.09.16.2022
Friday Filosophy v.09.16.2022
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair KG (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labor Party from 1994 to 2007. On his resignation he was appointed Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post which he held until 2015. He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016. As prime minister, many of his policies reflected a centrist “Third Way” political philosophy. He is the only living former Labor leader to have led the party to a general election victory, and one of only two in history to form three majority governments, the other being Harold Wilson.
Blair was born in Edinburgh. After attending the independent school Fettes College, he studied law at St John’s College, Oxford, and became a barrister. He became involved in Labor politics and was elected Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in 1983. He supported moving the party to the center of British politics in an attempt to help it win power (it had been out of government since 1979). He was appointed to the party’s frontbench in 1988 and became shadow home secretary in 1992. He became Leader of the Opposition on his election as Labor Party leader in 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith.
Under Blair, the party used the phrase “New Labor” to distance itself from previous Labor politics and the traditional idea of socialism. Despite opposition from Labor’s left-wing, he abolished Clause IV, the party’s formal commitment to the nationalization of the economy, weakened trade union influence in the party, and committed to the free market and the European Union. In 1997, the Labor Party won its largest landslide general election victory in its history. Blair became the country’s youngest leader since 1812 and remains the party’s longest-serving occupant of the office. Labor won two more general elections under his leadership—in 2001, in which it won another landslide victory (albeit with the lowest turnout since 1918), and in 2005, with a substantially reduced majority. He resigned as prime minister and Labor Party leader in 2007 and was succeeded by Gordon Brown, who had been his chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997. The fraught relationship between Blair and Brown has been the subject of much controversy and speculation since 1994.
Blair’s governments enacted constitutional reforms, removing most hereditary peers from the House of Lords, while also establishing the UK’s Supreme Court and reforming the office of lord chancellor (thereby separating judicial powers from the legislative and executive branches). His government held referendums in which Scottish and Welsh electorates voted in favor of devolved administration, paving the way for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly in 1999. He was also involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement. His time in office occurred during a period of continued economic growth, but this became increasingly dependent on mounting debt. In 1997, his government gave the Bank of England powers to set interest rates autonomously, and he later oversaw a large increase in public spending, especially in healthcare and education. He championed multiculturalism and, between 1997 and 2007, immigration rose considerably, especially after his government welcomed immigration from the new EU member states in 2004. This provided a cheap and flexible labor supply but also fueled Euroscepticism, especially among some of his party’s core voters. His other social policies were generally progressive; he introduced the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and in 2004 allowed gay couples to enter into civil partnerships. He declared himself “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” and oversaw increasing incarceration rates and new anti-social behavior legislation, despite contradictory evidence about the change in crime rates.
Blair oversaw British interventions in Kosovo (1999) and Sierra Leone (2000), which were generally perceived as successful. During the War on Terror, he supported the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration and ensured that the British Armed Forces participated in the War in Afghanistan from 2001, and more controversially the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair argued that the Saddam Hussein regime possessed an active weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program, but no stockpiles of WMDs or an active WMD program were ever found in Iraq. The Iraq War became increasingly unpopular among the British public, and he was criticized by opponents and (in 2016) the Iraq Inquiry for waging an unjustified and unnecessary invasion. He was in office when the 7/7 bombings took place (2005) and introduced a range of anti-terror legislation. His legacy remains controversial, not least because of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Despite his electoral successes and reforms, he has also been criticized for his relationship with the media, centralization of executive powers, and aspects of his social and economic policies.
The Time is Now.
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Are you afraid of your dealer business system?
Are you afraid of your dealer business system?
Guest writer Chris Kohart Tackles our reluctance to update the software systems we use in “Are you afraid of your dealer business system?”
Dealerships invest heavily in people and the infrastructure to support the business, so why do so many dealers still utilize antiquated software solutions to manage their operations? Many deployed these “state of the art” business systems more than 25 years ago and still support their operations on these outdated platforms. Technology has transformed our business in many areas, from how our customers want to do business with us to telematics. What makes us believe a 25+-year-old business solution enables us to keep even or get ahead? Thinking about changes, what was state-of-the-art business technology like in the late 1990s? Here’s a short list that comes to mind:
I guess that, excluding a few fax machines still in service, all the above have long been retired from your business and home. Since software and hardware are many generations ahead of the 1990s, why is your dealership still relying on 25+-year-old first-generation software to operate? Some dealers probably still remember the pain of training the entire dealership on how to use the system and the extremely high hardware and software costs. Many of these dealerships are still maintaining nightly or weekly tape backups. Perhaps it is easier to muddle along using the same solution (quick fact: most of these older “legacy” systems are on life support, and there has been no new development for years). Think about that every time your dealership pays your vendor’s software license and support invoices. Most legacy dealer software providers have been sold or merged a few times and probably don’t resemble the company you started doing business with. The newer consolidated entities are trying to maintain the dealers that have not joined modern times by developing middleware that allows the 25+-year-old legacy system to communicate with more modern graphical user interface (GUI) solutions. It looks great in a PowerPoint sales presentation, but for those utilizing these tools, everyone experiences issues with two or more disparate solutions trying to communicate in real time. Latency, loss, or corruption of data are prime examples. Many dealers deploying this hybrid approach experience employee and customer frustration, increased license and operating costs and decreased operational efficiency. Why would a dealer principal subject themselves, their employees, and their valued customers to this?
The top reason: is fear of digital transformation. How many ERP projects fail? On average, 55 to 75%. That’s a scary number, and I understand why it keeps many from moving their dealerships to modern times. Let’s flip the averages above – why do 25 to 45% succeed? Three reasons: people, process, and planning. Let’s briefly break these three down:
People:
We all run lean; it’s the nature of our high dollar – low margin business. The senior management team must make in the very early stages that your best people (senior, middle-management, and junior) be assigned. Depending on the size and complexity of your dealership, some individuals will be assigned full-time for the duration while others will be part-time. Most dealerships should be able to find a balance of experienced forward-looking thought leaders to participate part-time during the project. The input, guidance, and deep understanding of your dealership’s functional (and cross-functional) areas will be a critical factor in your success. Please ensure these individuals have your unqualified support and are provided with backup in their departments so staff and business operations don’t suffer.
Process:
Virtually no digital transformation project will be successful without going through the tedious and critically necessary task of mapping every process from levels one through five. Don’t be surprised if you identify hundreds of processes throughout the dealership; the depth and quality of your process mapping will significantly affect your success or failure. You will also be able to identify processes solely required by your 25+-year-old system that add no value to your operations; reviewing these processes will allow your team to map processes that make business sense instead of processes created to satisfy the requirements of the software. When you have completed your process mapping and reviews, you have a roadmap for the minimum requirements of a more modern dealer business solution.
Planning:
As mentioned in a previous article, the more steps you take upfront, the more successful your project will be. Here are a few very high-level areas that you must consider early:
Once you’ve completed the above, you can evaluate the various solutions providers – many excellent, technologically current dealer business systems are available today. Take the time to review all of them and weigh the benefits and pitfalls of each solution. While the ROI may be nebulous, you can take measures to validate many of the productivity and time savings you will gain, not to mention deploying a modern, user (and customer) friendly business system that will continue to update as technology advances.
Suppose you’re concerned about organizational depth or team availability to carry all of this out internally. In that case, it makes sense to bring in an outside consultant who understands the industry, dealer software, and how to integrate successfully. It’s a small investment in the success of your project and, ultimately, your dealership’s long-term viability.
Considering this, why would any dealership still deploy 25+-year-old software to run their business?
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Minimizing Owning and Operating Costs
Minimizing Owning and Operating Costs
Founder Ron Slee writes about another way to increase our profitability in business: minimizing our owning and operating costs.
The pressure is on everyone these days to be more mindful of costs. Inflation has provoked a lot of concern relative to the operating profitability of many businesses. Interest rates are in a serious phase of increases. Wages have changed very significantly. There is a lot going on.
It is well known that Product Support has as two of their major goals to assist customers in reducing owning and operating costs and protecting the resale value. It has also been known for a long time that maintenance is a key to this equation. However, we have many varied views on what maintenance truly is for capital equipment.
I remember attending a homeowners meeting a number of years back where the association had contracted with a professional engineering firm to provide an assessment on the condition of the assets we had. We paid a handsome sum for their report which they presented to the owners at a meeting. It was a very serious report pointing out actions that needed to be taken. After the professionals sat down the elected board decided to take no action. I stood and asked a question of the board as to why this report was being shelved with no action. They said that they didn’t agree with the report. As a follow up I asked what credentials the board had to make that determination. They said they had no credentials in that area. They then asked why I asked the question. I told them that to spend a large amount of money on an expert’s assessment and then ignore it was not very businesslike. They asked with incredulity why I thought it should be run as a business. There is the issue for all of us.
Equipment will last longer and cost less to operate if the recommendations from the manufacturer published in the owner’s and operator’s manuals are followed. It is that simple.
Yet there are varying opinions as to what maintenance really is required. Many people believe that simply changing lubricants and replacing parts is sufficient. That is like the board I noted above. There is no evidence to support that position.
Contractors everywhere are under serious cost pressures as noted. They need to reduce costs wherever they can. The majority of their operating budget is related to the costs of running their equipment.
Let’s look at this objectively.
Every piece of capital equipment has a maximum potential lifespan. That is true with everything working as designed. With abuse or neglect that life span is reduced. That seems obvious to me. The “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it” adage still prevails in the minds of many people. So, we are still challenged by many that preventative maintenance is a waste of money. Yet it seems obvious to me, that if we can prolong the life of a piece of equipment, that will reduce the overall cost of the machine. The other thing that is significant in this equation is unplanned downtime.
Managing downtime is like many other aspects in our lives. Like our personal budget. It is going to be an issue sooner or later. You can either plan for it or just hope it doesn’t happen. More successful fleet managers plan for downtime in their budgets. Another truth that has been pounded into my head is that the costs to repair a component before it fails is in the range of 50% of the cost of repair after failure. Think of all the costs associated with a down machine in the field. The phone calls, the dispatching of a field truck and technician to try and fix the problem in the field, at the job site. The transporting of the machine to a shop. It is not simply the cost of the work order to fix the machine, there are a lot of other expenses. The wasted time, the materials while delivering the products or service, and rearranging priorities on the job.
Preventative Maintenance which follows the manufacturers guidelines changes all of this. It streamlines the entire operation. The opposite situation is also true. It might prompt your customers to seek out alternative equipment in the future. Oh, and one more thing. I remember visiting a mine site. There was a machine parked at the edge of an open pit. It was not in an operating condition. It had been there for several weeks waiting for parts. Everyone saw the machine and asked the question “what’s going on there?” What do you think the impression of that machine and that supplier was for all that time? I would have moved the machine so that no one could see it.
By now I am sure that you are nodding your head in agreement with my point. Preventative Maintenance will help you reduce the owning and operating costs. So, what do you think? Will you get more aggressive in your use of preventative maintenance or not?
The Time is Now.
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Transitions In Our Education System
Transitions In Our Education System
In this week’s post for Lifelong Learning, founder Ron Slee takes a hard look at some of the transitions in our education system, and why we need those transitions now more than ever.
I come from a family of teachers. My grandmother was a teacher and my mother taught. We have been teachers for over one hundred years. My grandmother taught in a one room schoolhouse. Educators seemed to be all around me. My mother chose all of my teachers in grade school. She was the Vice Principal at the school, and I couldn’t get away with anything. But for some reason I always used to watch my teachers and how they worked. One thing a lot of us forget is that the “teacher” is typically the only person that we see at work when we are children.
I remember one particular teacher of mine in High School. He taught high school boys health. A subject that really gets the attention of teenage boys, right? He did some amazing things to keep us engaged. He used facial expressions, he used his voice dramatically, he used body language. He used everything he could think about to keep our attention. It made quite an impression on me. Over my career and involvement in training and teaching one thing always has stood out to me. You have a responsibility to keep the attention and interest of your students, your audience.
I also remember another teacher who had a Master’s Degree in English and he was teaching Mathematics. His first class with us is indelibly etched on my mind. He said, “if I can learn to teach you mathematics with an English education all of you will pass this class.” He meant it and he delivered. Everyone passed. Several of my classmates had trouble with Calculus and they had to spend countless hours work after the school day ended. This teacher never left them. He was committed to the success of this students. It was his life.
Teachers are special people. They are more influential in the development of a child’s intelligence and knowledge than nearly everyone else. We start with parenting before a child goes to school. Then we transition from preschool to grade school, to middle school, to high school and then to more serious learning either in the technical world or the academic world. Both of those paths of development are beneficial to society. The goal of the education system, in my mind, is to create work ready people for the business world, not JUST expand knowledge and learning. This is true whether that person becomes a doctor or plumber.
Ed Gordon, President of the Imperial Consulting Group, a man who has devoted his life to teaching and education and employee development, has written around twenty books. The one that got my attention was titled Future Jobs, Solving the Employment Skills Crisis. He has written a series of papers on Job Shock, which we have published as blogs. He has pointed out something very significant to me. The First Industrial Revolution required reforms to the education system to create math and literacy. Prior to that we were hunters and gatherers and farmers. We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We have the same need to reform education. We need stronger analytical skills; we need better communications skills and better critical thinking skills.
That means teaching will have to change once again.
Teaching will have to transition to something different. We have to continue fulfilling the traditional role of preparing children to be able to enter the workforce. However, we are also now facing the need to create an adult reeducation program. No longer will the skills we obtain before the age of twenty-five be sufficient for our typical career. Science and Technology and Computerization and Artificial Intelligence and other advances will make our skills obsolete. The education system will have to be able to provide updated skills so that people will continue to be employable.
This creates a wonderful challenge for us all involved in helping people learn.
Traditional education has had a teacher in the front of the room. What I have called the “sage on the stage.” This model requires physical plant, a school, with classrooms and teachers and in some models with a teacher’s aide. This is an expensive model. Further this model clearly doesn’t work with the world that we live in today. We should not leave any person behind in the world. That means that we cannot stay with the current model. We need to move to the internet to bring learning to a much broader audience. In different geographies, Africa and Asia, where we don’t have the infrastructure, we have no choice but to seek out alternatives.
We have examples and models available to us today. For instance, we have a very accomplished scientist who teaches at MIT. His name is Eric Lauder. Dr. Lauder also happens to be an amazing teacher. And there are others around the world. Dr. Lauder teaches a class at MIT called “The Secret of Life.” He has cameras in his classroom that record the class. This class then is put up on the internet and is available to anyone who has access to a computer and the internet. The same curriculum, the same homework, the same everything. This is an example where you have a subject matter expert who is an exceptional teacher, available to the world. Imagine that.
Our classes at Learning Without Scars are complicated. Most of us who started into training on the internet started with a slide show that is the foundation of any class that you are putting on with a group of people in the room with you as students. The transition is then to try and have audio tracks tied into the slides to portray the messages you would have just as if you were in a classroom. That is a typical internet-based class. We do it differently.
We would like to believe that our structure is a complete class. Required reading that is followed with a quiz to prove that you understood the reading material. Each class is built as a series of videos consisting of slides, and audio tracks and film clips, complete with close captioning, wrapped up with a quiz at the end. We have five to ten segments in each class. The transition is easy to go from one segment to the next. Each student receives an email upon the completion of each segment. One class I completed recently had twenty emails. Then we have a final assessment for the class. You must achieve an 80% score on the final assessment to pass the class. Then we ask each student to complete a survey, to help us continue to improve our products, and finally the certificate of achievement. The certificate includes the number of CEU’s that are earned in the class and apply as academic classes in other schools. (Our CEUs apply to other schools; technical schools, Junior Colleges, State Universities and private Universities.) Our subject specific classes now “feel” like a school program, no longer an internet-based slideshow.
This is part of what we foresee as the transition on education. The arrival of the internet as a learning platform. Of course, there will be many iterative changes, but we have to make higher quality learning available across the world to anyone who is interested not just those that can afford it.
The Time is Now.
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Friday Filosophy v.09.09.2022
Friday Filosophy v.09.09.2022
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013), was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. The longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, she was the first woman to hold that office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that became known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the “Iron Lady”, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom.
On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain’s struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), the privatization of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners’ strike.
Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (“poll tax”) was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87.
A polarizing figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favorably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain, with the complicated legacy attributed to Thatcherism debated into the 21st century.
The time is now.
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Introducing Coaches Corner
Introducing Coaches Corner
Learning Without Scars is pleased to present the very first in our new series, Coaches Corner. Please feel free to click the link to read the welcome post authored by Floyd Jerkins.
Introducing Coaches Corner.
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Entry Level Technician Needed
Entry Level Technician Needed
Guest writer Bill Pyles tackles more staffing shortages (hint: it’s not just teachers and nurses) in today’s blog post, “Entry Level Technician Needed.”
Most segments of the country are enjoying growth in the construction area, which translates to growth among construction equipment dealerships and other companies. A couple of challenges for the equipment dealers are the availability of new equipment and the severe shortage of equipment technicians.
I can recall this economic cycle back to the early 1990s when most dealers began to realize the tech shortage was real. A heavy equipment technician was not a glamorous job, and more of the younger generation was moving to the new dot com boom. Around this time, major equipment OEMs, Cat, Deere, Komatsu, and other companies began to partner with local colleges to implement technician educational programs, offering a tech certificate or a two-year degree. Even the military changed their recruiting ads showing soldiers, sailors, and Marines staring at computer and radar screens, launching high-tech armament, no longer the recruits crawling through mud pits.
Technical schools such as Universal Technical Institute, Nashville Auto Diesel College, Lincoln Technical, and others were utilized by equipment dealers looking for entry-level techs to bring on board.
I’d like to use this opportunity to discuss what’s worked for me in recruiting and retaining entry level-techs. It’s always a great day to have a resume cross your desk presenting a tech with years of experience with the equipment your company represents. Unfortunately, those techs are gainfully employed and do not move around. Today tech recruiting begins at both ends and in the middle of the technician level of experience. Companies that neglect to grow their entry-level techs will likely pay the price over the long term.
But what is considered entry-level? What is a good hourly wage? What do I, as the hiring manager, need to know or do to successfully hire entry-level technicians?
I have always felt if you gave me a motivated individual with a strong mechanical aptitude, basic skills, and a willingness to learn, over time, he or she can be developed into one of your go-to technicians. All it takes is dedicated time, training, coaching, and encouragement, all things I bet your company is currently using! Carefully planning and reviewing your entry-level tech process will normally transform a new tech into a loyal, dependable employee. Keep in mind that I have hired numerous techs over the years who left their last dealer due to a lack of training and direction.
The first bridge to cross with the new entry level-tech is what do you pay them? Salary.com lists entry-tech wages between $20.00 and $27.00 per hour. Of course, this will vary depending on where you do business and if you are a union shop. Base your entry wage on experience and certifications (for example, A/C; Welding). Another financial aid the dealer can offer is the new tech’s cost of technical schooling. Perhaps you can offer a tuition reimbursement amount to help offset the training debt the tech has already accumulated. Of course, other benefits such as medical insurance, paid time off, paid training, tool allowance, the opportunity for advancement, and a good 401K add value to the new tech’s wage structure. Sell the entire package your company has to offer, not just an hourly wage.
Before agreeing on an hourly wage, be sure to have a copy of your training program to share with the candidate. Basic tech testing should be used to measure the level of experience (and helps structure the new tech’s training path if hired). I would have a copy of the training outline the company has developed (both online and instructor-led) based on the OEM’s and dealer’s training requirements. This outline of required training was usually spread across a three-to-four-year period. Usually starting with basic safety training and an expectation of quickly completing the basics within a given timeframe. At the successful completion of the required training modules and mandatory on-the-job-training, there would be an increase in the hourly wage.
The first 90 days are critical in bringing the new tech into your process and procedures. I highly recommend the new tech be partnered up with one of your experienced techs who is willing to be a coach and mentor to the new tech. I would appoint one or two coaches/mentors in each shop. These more experienced techs take pride in knowing they are helping to develop another tech. I can remember when I started my career as an entry level-tech. It’s scary realizing you’re surrounded by trained, competent techs, and I’ve just broken off three bolts because the impact was set to install, not remove the bolt. But I had a great coach/mentor, a man named Tom Kennedy. Tom was the lead tech for the shop, and I swore the man was a wizard. No matter how deep I got into a problem, Tom would never lose his temper or chew me out for screwing something up. He’d then show me what I did wrong and instruct me on how to properly make the repair. Yes, I was truly fortunate to have a great mentor early in my career. Without a doubt, it helped shape the rest of my 48-year career. Thanks, Tom!
Depending on your dealer’s onboarding process, a new tech should not pick up a wrench for at least five or more working days. One of the best suggestions I can offer is to carefully create and constantly review your on boarding process for all employees. During the first days spent onboarding, introduce the new tech to the safety rules and policies, and meet with shop and parts personnel and those he or she will be interacting with. Cover the basics, what your expectations are, break times, lunchtime, writing service reports, etc. Make the new tech feel he is part of the team, not the “New Guy.” Please do not put the new tech on the shop floor and expect immediate performance. You’ll be very disappointed and have a very confused tech.
Be sure to engage the new tech and ask how things are going, then listen. Sometimes a new set of eyes in your shop will see things you may have been overlooking. Several of my best ideas have come from other people, and new techs are no exception!
If you’ve done everything correctly in hiring, training, coaching, and mentoring, you’ll see an amazing transformation of the new tech into a confident and contributing technician who may be your next mentor/coach. With a plan and the resources, it’s within your reach.
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Unbiased Customer Feedback
Unbiased Customer Feedback
Today, guest writer Alex Kraft explores customer comments in this blog post on the importance of unbiased customer feedback.
Customer surveys are all the rage these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid’s lemonade stands down the street started texting a survey after each purchase made. I had a recent positive experience that caught my attention though and is the purpose of this blog. It isn’t necessarily about the frequency of surveys, its more about the employees’ communication to customers. It seems like in almost every instance, the consumer is told what scores are acceptable. It usually happens like this: “just to give you a head’s up, you’ll be getting a survey and it’s really important for us here. Anything less than 5’s across the board hurts us”. Of course, I don’t want this person negatively impacted by my answers. I understand that many companies use surveys as an incentive compensation opportunity, but doesn’t this practice contradict the entire purpose of surveying for customer feedback? Customer feedback is critical to understanding performance, market perception, and expectations. But this approach detailed above has become all too common and misses the mark. To me, identifying areas to improve is the most important part of customer feedback.
So, if customer surveys are largely pencil whipped, how can an equipment dealer get real critiques? What many do is go on a customer tour of their 10-20 largest accounts. I understand how important it is to stay close with your largest accounts, I’m not suggesting otherwise. But this won’t get you any closer to areas that you can improve. These customers get the best of everything from your dealership: best pricing, most attention, and best access to your senior level teams. When one of those 10 accounts has an issue, the fire alarm sounds and everyone within the dealership comes to the rescue. Funny enough, you don’t need to ask as almost everyone in the dealership knows exactly what these customers’ experiences are with your company!
I learned this lesson when I worked for a dealer and again once I started Heave. In my dealership days, I remember meeting a large account that rarely gave us business. We’d get the occasional rental and quote every purchase, but when it was time for them to sign the contract, the other dealer walked out with the signature. We had one of our top salesmen on the account and he was a true professional, calling on them weekly. I don’t remember what prompted us to ask the question, but I do remember the meeting when we just flat out asked, “what are we NOT doing that _______ dealer is doing?” The customer described their experience with one of our competitor’s service departments as the deciding factor. He mentioned that our competitor serviced their machines on the weekends and off-hours. When they showed up for work on Monday, their fleet was ready to go with invoice in hand and that is why they continued to buy from our competitor. He said, “no one else in the market has ever come close to this experience, and when we need service from the others it always interrupts our operation.” This was a great eye opener for me as a leader. I learned that day where the bar was for us if we wanted to earn, not only this customer’s business, but most likely many of the other top accounts in the area. This is not something I would have “learned” from reading customer surveys.
I visited many customers when launching Heave. We had a vision for what the platform could look like and how we could serve customers. There were two customer visits that stood out, as both customers told me that Heave ‘wasn’t for them’. If I was ten years younger, I probably would have gone into a pitch trying to convince them that they should use our marketplace. But the purpose of the visit wasn’t a sales call, it was an information gathering meeting. For me, this was an incredible learning experience to understand from their perspective why Heave didn’t provide value. These two meetings were pivotal in helping us shape our product and strategy. Without this feedback, we would’ve continued to struggle defining who Heave is built for and probably wasted a ton of time pursuing the wrong customers. I can’t thank those two individuals enough for the respect they paid me by being honest and unbiased.
Every dealership knows a group of customers who don’t really buy from them but that they know well. These are the customers who can be incredibly helpful if they’ll give you the time and be honest. One great quote I’ve learned years ago from an executive was, “customers vote with their wallet”. Maybe there’s a group of customers that have quietly shifted their buying behavior towards a competitor the past few years. We’ve all run through the list of customers parts sales- are there customers that buy parts from your dealership but don’t have corresponding service revenue? My point is that these are the perfect interview candidates. When you start losing business, the typical knee jerk reaction is always, ‘they must be solely buying on price’. Rarely is that the case. But it makes us feel better because our inner dialogue tells us that there was nothing we could do. Our job as leaders is to put the effort in and dig deeper to find out where we are falling short. The other thing worth mentioning is that it’s ok if you can’t put an immediate fix in to some of the issues that arise. For the example I gave above about servicing equipment on weekends and off-hours: our dealership didn’t have the manpower or expertise at the time to shift in this fashion. The point is that it’s much better to know where the bar is set than to make internal excuses or to simply not know what is driving market decisions. This feedback helps shape long term goals within the dealership. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised what people will tell you if you approach it in the right way and create an environment where customers feel that they can be open and that you’re asking for the right reasons.
And a quick reminder: when Ron sends out a survey asking whose content on his site you’d prefer to read more of, please don’t forget to rate mine near the top. “All 5s’” for this guy…
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If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?
If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?
Curriculum designer Caroline Slee-Poulos brings this week’s post on Lifelong Learning with “If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?”
If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?
I’m sure we have all heard the quote “If not you, who? If not now, when?” attributed to both Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Despite the hazy origins of the quote, it is relatable for most of us.
After all, if we don’t take ownership and get things done, then who will?
We take that ownership attitude throughout our businesses, right up until the moment a budget for training and employee development comes to the table.
We expect our employees to come in the door, armed with all of the knowledge they need to be successful in our businesses. We expect this when they come in with a freshly inked diploma, showing they’ve graduated from high school. When they don’t have the skills right off the get go, we bemoan the state of public education.
Here’s the thing: even if your brand-new hires came to you with the foundational knowledge they need in order to succeed and be an asset in your business, don’t you want them to continue to level-up?
We know that there is a skills gap for high school graduates. Due to budgets, some of the trade programs that were commonplace in high schools for years have been entirely closed down in some regions. Even if that were not the case, doesn’t your business need people who can use the new technology, whether it be on the shop floor or in the dealer business system, as it changes and updates over time?
Our businesses and our industry are not stagnant: they change and adopt new methods, systems, and technology. History has shown us that it can be tough to be an “early adopter” of technology. As a result, we can try to delay making necessary changes. Our customers need more from us. If we don’t provide the necessary training to keep up with what our customers expect and need, then how can we expect to retain those customers?
I propose that employee development – training and continuing education for your staff – is as critical to the success of your business as the work order process in your shop. It creates a team culture in your business, and shows your employees that you are just as concerned with the future as they are. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to see your employees receive the exact education you need them to. Don’t you think it is time to put the training of your employees into motion?
After all, if you don’t do it, who will?
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