Entry Level Technician Needed

/in , /by

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.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Unbiased Customer Feedback

/in , /by

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…

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

 

The Importance of “Professionalism” in Recruiting and Retaining Excellent Technicians

/in , /by

The Importance of “Professionalism” in Recruiting and Retaining Excellent Technicians

Guest writer Steve Johnson addresses the important issue of hiring and retaining employees in this week’s post, “The Importance of ‘Professionalism’ in Recruiting and Retaining Excellent Technicians.”

Finding good people and employee retention have for years been tough, relevant issues in the equipment industry, especially with regard to technicians. This also applies to other jobs at your dealership.  The “great resignation” has brought the issue of retention to even greater prominence. Now, some might say, “aw, they’re just lazy, want a handout, have had it too easy,” etc. 

I don’t buy it. 

I’ve seen too many motivated young people at career and technical colleges, at Skills USA and other venues to buy that. I’ve seen too many great employees and great employers who show me a different story to buy that. There are too many young people out there who make great employees at companies that re far-sighted enough to educate them well and provide great career opportunities. There are too many companies out there that manage their retention rates well through expert and informed “professional” human resource management. Here I am not just referring to the human resources department, but the entire organization’s management. 

I remember once asking an equipment dealership owner what he pays beginning techs and mentioned what I thought was an average number. His reply? “Absolutely not, nobody can live on that! In a different mid-career job, I worked for a training organization, and one business owner was angry at me because he had trained all his people and they had all quit and moved on. He said it was my fault. In reality, it was because his shop was far less than desirable as a workplace. Another said he couldn’t find any good techs. Then he told me he was paying them a way below market rate at $8.50 / hour. Seriously? Which of the above was the more professional reaction? 

There have been many articles I’ve read over the years as to why people want to leave their jobs and do leave their jobs. It seems to me that the reasons are not that different today from those years ago… an unlivable wage, no upward mobility, poor leadership, a negative company culture, below standard benefits, a chronically overworked staff, and so forth. I would never expect employees in today’s labor market to stand for that, and apparently many are not. In my opinion, the “great resignation” is largely more an issue of employer human resource management professionalism than an employee issue. 

In summary, my belief is that running a professional organization has everything to do with dealer professionals treating people like the human professionals they are in a professional environment. What does that mean operationally? Here are some thoughts on employees staying or leaving. 

  1. Fair and equitable pay is an important factor; everyone wants to do their best supporting themselves and their families. Fair and equitable benefits are also important; ask anyone who has had medical issues and did not or couldn’t afford to have health insurance.
  2. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t feel burned out at times; needs some personal or family time; or some vacation time to be with their families? How about providing on average a good balance of work/personal life.  
  3. Not all, but most “motivated and productive” employees do want to have continuous learning opportunities, both OTJ and more formal learning, to help them move along in their career into better paying, more responsible jobs. There are other ways to enable this than just “climbing the company management ladder.”
  4. Most employees would like to know that their employers are paying attention to them and their near- and long-range personal and professional goals. Consider that the costs of not paying attention to such things continue to go up.
  5. See #4 above. This is particularly true for all leaders and managers, from parts and service managers all the way to the top management.
  6. Does your company have an employee feedback mechanism to take the company pulse. For example, does management “walk around” the company often to be accessible and get the pulse? What if you found that half your company wouldn’t recommend employment there to a friend? I know of that happening at one company. Does management make an honest effort to find out why people are leaving? Do they act on the collective information results?
  7. Does management set a good professional “work ethic” example to employees; what about employees to other employees. Do the rules apply to everyone? Are honesty, good character, integrity, mutual respect and fairness words that apply to actual practice at the company and are at the top of the company’s value list?
  8. When you hire a new, qualified technician, or even an intern or apprentice, do you have them on the wash bay, or make sure they are working and gaining new experience at the highest level they are qualified for?
  9. Does your shop appear as a professional environment should, or does it hearken back to memories of years ago that preserve the old “grease monkeys” image. Are your employees proud of where they work? Does your employee dress code reflect professionalism or something less desirable? Yes, even maybe uniforms in the shop.
  10. Are up-down and down-up company communication’s what they should be? Does staff communicate well to all concerned parties? This includes any performance reviews… “If we’re doing our job as leaders, a performance review should only be two columns: Column A is what you do great and Column B is what you do not-so-great. Now, here’s how we move things from Column B to Column A.” (Story by Carly Guthrie, Guthrie HR Consulting, San Francisco, CA)

My goal here is to urge you to think about “company professionalism” and how that impacts your companies’ human resource management as you develop a hopefully successful recruitment and retention plan. Yes, the above over-simplifies the issues greatly. However, I believe that if companies work to manage the career interests of new and experienced employees continuously and professionally and give them challenging and rewarding work opportunities in a professional environment, those employees will thrive. So will those companies.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Can You Improve Your Employees’ Psychological Income?

/in , /by

Can You Improve Your Employees’ Psychological Income?

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins continues his series on customer service with part 3: Can You Improve Your Employees’ Psychological Income?

One of the most profound human characteristics centers around our need to be appreciated. When we are in a relationship where we feel appreciated and valued, our self-esteem rises, and we are much more open to making changes and being part of a team. Leaders know this and work to create an environment for people to be recognized.

Employees need economic income and psychological income. To reach peak performance, both are needed to have balance in life while the business pursues high profits. When employees enjoy the economic portion, a question is how much more commitment could they make if they had the psychological income to match?

Managers Becoming Experts in Finding the Things That Go Wrong

More often than not, managers are on the job to find the things going wrong and fix them. Many become experts at this. One of the most serious challenges in motivating people is that over time if all they hear are the negatives, it breeds a less than average mindset or one that goes all out to protect themselves from ridicule. It’s hard to build a team of high-performing champions if all they hear is what they are doing wrong all the time.

The “emotional bank account” is a theory and a practical application. The theory suggests that the more deposits you make into someone’s emotional bank account, their self-esteem increases, trust builds and makes them more open to changes. You are overdrawn in the account if you don’t make purposeful deposits. The person then closes down and isn’t up for much of anything because they are always suspicious of your motives. The practical application is to be well invested in the emotional bank account with your teams through your leadership and communications style and the consideration you show.

Catching Team Members Doing Something Right

Many times, all a leader hears in a day are the negatives. Some staff will bombard you with every negative there is. As a leader, you are often the center of communications, and this can become draining if you don’t frame these issues correctly.

This is one of the biggest keys to making happy employees. As a leader, we often forget to praise someone when they do a great job. Our heads are into other business-related issues. I don’t bet but only on sure things. And I’ll bet your business has all kinds of positive service points of contacts every day. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t last long in the business. Do you see them? Can you make it a daily practice to praise your staff when they perform the correct customer service behaviors you want to see?

A client of mine owns a few McDonalds. They installed the “thank you” process. Each employee was to say thank you when another employee did something for them, or they witnessed a fellow employee performing an uncommon act of service. All the managers started the process weeks before they rolled it out with all the staff. My friend said it was amazing how quickly this caught on and the improvement it made to the attitudes of the staff. It became contagious.

An example from another client. If an employee goes over and beyond to help a customer or assist a teammate, they will get a “good job card” with their name on it at their monthly manager’s meeting. These cards can come from managers, other employees or from customers telling management. They then would get to put their cards into a box. The manager would draw a card out of the box with a name on it. That person would then win a gift of $100 in value. A few of their people didn’t care about getting a card until they saw the same people winning. Then they joined in by trying to go over and beyond at customer service or helping another teammate to win. It became contagious.

Strategy to Make Emotional Deposits: The Magic of Dimes

Business owners go to great lengths and expense to recruit and hire the right people. I’ve always wanted people who worked for me to come to work and enjoy what they are doing.

As I mentioned in this article’s opening lines, we all have basic human tendencies. As a leader, we can nurture people through our leadership style and grow the talent we need to continue to achieve the goals and mission of the company.

Try putting ten dimes in one pocket and moving them to the other pocket one at a time with each positive message you give to someone throughout the day. The idea is to try and break old habits, and I am sure that is what many of us have. How many dimes do you have at the end of the day? Track this for a couple of weeks; you’ll be surprised. If you do well, you will also notice a change in the people around you. It is magical.

You can’t be fake about this, nor be insincere. Remember, in the absence of leadership; people will follow the strangest things. With leadership, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Gaining Business Success Through Your Employees

/in , /by

Gaining Business Success Through Your Employees

Learning Without Scars is pleased to introduce our new guest writer, Arlen Swenson. He makes his blogging debut with LWS in “Gaining Business Success Through Your Employees.” Arlen is a seasoned, dynamic, competitive, influencer, motivator Sales and Marketing Executive.  Track record of success recruiting, building, motivating, and managing highly effective teams, developing and implementing product marketing strategies to capture market share.

Success includes being Vice President of North American Governmental Sales & Marketing for John Deere Construction Equipment with annual sales of $255,000,000 while increasing sales 17% annually and reducing selling costs by more than 15% and improved gross profit margins by more than $38,000,000.00.

Gaining Business Success Through Your Employees

Many equipment dealerships struggle meeting or exceeding their business goals due to unforeseen or unknown barriers within their organization. Sometimes top management will make adjustments based on their experience or knowledge only to see negative or lackluster results even though employees are doing as directed.

But the answer to improving business performance is available if management is willing to ask from the right sources and that starts with their employees – all of them – all departments – all branch locations. This will require an open door by management to receive employee input in a constructive manner without threat of consequences for providing input.

This can be accomplished by conducting an open employee meeting with representatives from all departments and branch locations at each meeting conducted. The basic rules of the meeting include hearing input and recording on a flip chart that input from each meeting participant. The other rule is when an individual is providing their input they cannot be interrupted or challenged by the other meeting participants. The meeting chair or person entering the comments can ask clarification questions to make sure they are recording the input correctly.

This part of the process will take some time to accomplish and when each flip chart is filled, and line separated for each person’s comments each filled flip chart is then pasted on the meeting room wall. At the end of the process, you will have several flip charts pasted on the wall. It now time to gain group consensus on what are the top four items recorded on the flip charts that should be addressed immediately and solutions obtained. The remaining items will be addressed and resolved in descending order later, and all reported back to the employees.

To obtain group consensus each meeting participant is given four different colored pasty dots to place on the flip charts entries they believe are the first importance (red dot), second (green dot), third (yellow dot), and fourth (blue dot). Placing of the dots is done in quiet and no talking among the meeting participants. Management will than assign the four dotted items to two meeting participants for each colored dot to work with management on the best solutions for solving the business issue successfully. Progress on completing the top four issues is communicated back through the organization with frequent updates and announcement of completions. The other issues in descending order will be resolved with frequent updates and announcement of completions.

This open exchange of solving problems will become habit and add to the success of the business.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

A Leadership Rule: What You Do is So Loud I Can’t Hear What You’re Saying

/in , /by

A Leadership Rule: What You Do is So Loud I Can’t Hear What You’re Saying

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins takes a top-down approach to customer service in his blog post this week, “A Leadership Rule: What You Do Is So Loud I Can’t Hear What You’re Saying.”

How Effective Are Your Leaders?

You want employees to feel good to be working as part of a team that is working together – and everyone is improving. Many managers would be surprised to learn how little their employees believe management is walking the talk.

You can quickly scan the internet and find thousands of articles on leadership. Hundreds of thousands of terabytes of data on the subject are available. Why then are we still seeing fundamental leadership issues?

Leaders have to be the change they want to see.

Whether Bruce Lee or Gandi said it first, it’s a powerful metaphor for leaders. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a cliche statement, but a modeled behavior makes this a reality. You can’t fake it with lots of words or bravado. You have to walk the talk.

I helped a group establish a renewed mission and vision for their company. First, we had to talk through how they created their first set of statements, how they outlined the behaviors they expected staff to have, and then how they communicated this to their entire organization.

Previously, they discussed their competition many times but tended to over-analyze how they compare to the other companies. They were trying to be just like the other companies their customers touch instead of understanding how they made the customers feel and replicating the same feelings from their organization. Once everyone recognized this, it started a whole new discussion. You just can’t put words on paper and expect everyone to automatically adopt them into day-to-day behaviors.

Every time a customer comes in contact with your company, you have the opportunity to create value by managing these touch points. These “touch points” of interactions form the impressions of your business. Every front-line employee has to walk the talk because hundreds and even thousands of these touch points happen daily. Nearly all of them are manageable by leaders and create coachable moments.

Specific customer service behaviors should be in your mission statement and your employee’s job descriptions. When you include these into training sessions, you begin integrating them into the hearts and minds of your employees. When it is trained in employees and in their job descriptions, they remember it and work towards it. These ideals aren’t just going to happen by chance; they must be planned for.

There is a lesson on the importance of having things detailed, organized, fast service, doing what we tell the customer, etc. If we take care of our customers, they will take care of us. That is such a simple statement, but it has far-reaching consequences in the business.

Remove Pass the Buck Bill

Nothing upsets a customer more than having an employee tell them to see someone else in the business that created the problem. Putting a customer on hold only to wait and wait for the next person in line to start the conversation all over again doesn’t make those enduring experiences customers expect today. I call those employees, Pass the Buck Bill. 

Passing on the responsibility to another employee or department is a common occurrence, yet; it drives customers away and makes your company just like all the other average ones out there.

Can These Touch Points Be Managed? 

Yes, They Can!

Each employee is a manager of customer relations. Even the janitor, because they come in contact with a customer, so they create an impression of good or bad service. Everyone needs to focus on the customer’s needs even if they don’t deal with or come in contact with the customer. Even a ticked-off customer is everyone’s responsibility. The more you can include your employees in this leadership role, they are more likely will become committed to doing an excellent job.

Every Customer is Heard Through Many Ears

As a leader, you’ll sometimes get “employee ears” telling you all kinds of negative rhetoric about one department or the other. Someone in one department hears a customer say something about another department, etc. It is difficult to listen to these negative comments and not do something, but at the same time, you have to become aware that there are three sides to every story.

Implementing cross-departmental meetings to discuss customer service starts to create a deeper understanding of individual responsibility.

The idea of having different groups together within the business and discussing “how do we rate today on a scale of one to ten” starts the internal conversations about improving customer service. If one group says they are a seven at greeting customers with a smile, then ask why. This opens the discussion about how to get better tomorrow. Even if you start this out as once a week or once a month, it gives the employees their chance to have their say and make it more personal. This whole process intentionally gives them the power to try to improve.

It would be nice to have this just naturally happen between staff, but that’s not the reality. A leader has to set the tone for customer service. The leader has to walk the talk of leadership and be the change they want to see.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Training Is a Waste of Time and Money!

/in , /by

Training Is a Waste of Time and Money!

In this week’s issue of “Lifelong Learners,” guest writer Mick Vaught takes a strong approach to employee development with his blog post entitled “Training Is a Waste of Time and Money!”

That is, unless it is applied correctly within the scope of the company’s core values. I said this before and I’ll say it again…. training should be used as one of the last disciplines in developing a competitive organization. Herb Kellerher, founder of Southwest Airlines, built his success by hiring “Attitude” first, followed by putting the right people in the right position, and lastly, training the heck out of them.

Here’s an example of how most employers misuse training in their dealer organization. 

“A very successful dealer organization has seen a continuous decline in revenue over the past year. What’s the first thing upper management does? Bring in corporate sales product specialists to launch a “sales” (Selling Process) training event.” 

  • Opportunity number one: There is a huge disconnect between most manufacturers and their dealer organizations. When I was a product specialist with some of the top equipment manufactures in the U.S., all too often I would get a call from a frantic dealer sales manager requesting “Sales” training for his/her team. In reality, our understanding of “Sales” training and “Product” training did not align with each other. Yes, product knowledge was certainly vital and understanding the “Selling” process was equally important. However, I quickly realized the gap between an understanding of what the dealer wanted and what I delivered was not the same. As a corporate product specialist, I was not equipped with the knowledge nor expertise of the retail selling process. 
  • Opportunity number two: (and this is a big one) The root cause in the decline of revenue is typically misdiagnosed in the first place. Typically, the first area most dealers focus their attention towards is sales, when in reality the deficiency is caused by a communication/collaboration issue between both the dealer sales and product support teams. While sales are a critical component of the revenue stream, the backbone of just about any organization is their Service Department.  Sales can sell that first machine to a new client, but from that moment on, future sales will depend on how well the customer will receive superior service! Some of the most effective training I have done was when we coordinated an overlapping session with both sales and service, bridging that communication and collaboration gap.

That brings me to the next point that must be addressed. Training is a waste of time if top management does not offer buy in. Checking off an item on the “To-Do” list just doesn’t cut it. If management thinks behavioral change can be accomplished in a one- or two-day session, they are totally not in touch with reality. A comprehensive perpetual training plan (to include follow-up, measuring, accountability and targeting the various levels of learning) must be executed if that organization will be successful. 

Today more than ever, I see a tremendous deficiency in young people going out into our work force. Most problematic is their ability to communicate, collaborate, and the ability to solve real problems. One of the biggest reasons for this deficiency is our national public-school systems. Educators have morphed into paperwork administrators, dealing with a lack of student discipline, myopic support from administrators, and a lack of involvement with parent’s participation. This now leads us to take a totally new perspective on how we assimilate new hires. 

  • Opportunity number three: Initiate a new philosophy on how and when to apply effective training.  I think Jim Collins hit the mark with his book titled “Good to Great”. Mr. Collins examined a number of good companies over a period of time and compared them to those companies that became not only good, but great!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  And what he found out was (important stuff here) the great companies:
  • hired the right people (they fit the company culture) 
  • put them in the right position (set them up for success)
  • training the heck out of them. 

Notice, training was the last initiative in the process!

In conclusion, those organizations who hire the right people in the very beginning, place them in the right position and are willing to invest the time and capital in offering effective and continuing training platforms will ultimately achieve greatness!

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

The Wonderful World of Disney – Customer Service on the Front Line

/in , /by

The Wonderful World of Disney – Customer Service on the Front Line

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins tackles how customer service looks when it is done with exceptional skill in this week’s guest post “The Wonderful World of Disney – Customer Service on the Front Line.”

Disney has been in the news recently. Some would say for the wrong reasons. One thing that has been true for decades is they deliver outstanding customer service. Disney provides millions of people every year with an experience of a lifetime that keeps customers coming back generation after generation. You can’t fake that level of excellence and customer service.

A good friend of mine just returned from taking his family to Disneyland for the fourth time. Of course, I love to hear his stories about their family experience, but it also piqued my interest in “how are they doing”; with their customer service.

Customer retention is more important than ever in all businesses as we find ourselves in an increasingly competitive world fighting for a piece of market share and the customers’ wallets.

Disney is an excellent model to consider because of the high loyalty level among its guests. They serve as a guideline for anyone who wants to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The Red Zone

Walt Disney said, “Just when everyone is saying how great you are is when you’re the most vulnerable.” At Disney, it’s known as the Red Zone. Every business that gets positive feedback from customers regularly can quickly become complacent. Something changes when you get all the right people in the right positions and things go smoothly. Many businesses feel like they are unstoppable. That’s the reality of running any business.

The problem is that in any short two-month period, you can have a lot of things go wrong that probably set you back six months or even a year of growth. It could be just a few little things, but it still causes plans to slow down or stall completely. This shows that being prepared all the time for the unexpected is the only way to stay ahead of the competition. Arrogance and complacency can cause a lack of attention to detail. Keeping your front-line people focused isn’t always easy, even in the best of times.

Who is Your Competition?

According to Disney’s philosophy, anyone that raises your customers’ expectations is a competitor. That is really true and something many think little about. If someone likes how they get treated buying a car or new home or getting their dry cleaning done, how can your team help the customer feel even better when dealing with your business?

The customer compares you with all other businesses they deal with. We are all competitors when it comes to customer satisfaction. Every front-line person must realize that every interaction they have with a customer forms an impression at that point of contact, or touch point as I call it. Not every other one, but everyone. The customer leaves that interaction with being, in the simplest terms, mad, glad, sad, or scared.

The customer doesn’t just look at the product when making a purchase. They rate the way they are treated on the phone, the invoice accuracy, the follow-up when they inquire with a question, the warranty claims procedures, and the list goes on and on.

Some internal customers look for and expect the same attention and focus as external customers. This is an important point to remember in any business. How often do we take a customer for granted and just think he will buy from us again? How often are you surprised that one of your front-line people suddenly quits?

Conduct the “How Are You Doing?” Test With Internal Customers

Disney isn’t unlike many other retail businesses; they make every effort to implement common sense practices. It’s always easy to say any business could adopt these practices, but that’s not true. As I’ve often said, common sense isn’t always common practice.

Leadership and cultural components impact the ability to implement these practices, and consistent communications are needed to sustain them. When it comes together, it’s like magic and full of possibilities. A major essential item is to take the time and effort to look at things from your customer’s perspective. Creating purposeful internal communications and setting the correct behavioral expectations doesn’t just happen by chance.

When in your weekly department meetings, ask the question, “How are we doing?” I know that is a pretty broad question but start the conversation about what people are hearing about your organization during their business transactions with customers. Also, ask what they overhear in a conversation between two customers or a group of customers. Begin asking for feedback from each team member; what in their opinion can we improve or what are we doing right? Create the entire list of items, then pick the top two or three that you could improve on and discuss how you can improve as a team. Give yourselves some timelines to see these issues resolved. Gather the successes and discuss the achievements at the same time. Never let the number of flaws outweigh your accomplishments.

Personal Development is the Key to Organizational Development

I contend that when you hire good people in a growing organization, you can generally find a role for them. Hiring front line people who want to learn is easily identifiable. Remember, personal development is the key to organizational development. If they don’t want to learn, how valuable is that person on the team?

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Why Job Vacancies Are Surging & Likely to Continue

/in , /by

Why Job Vacancies Are Surging & Likely to Continue

Guest writer Ed Gordon continues to explore the aftermath of the great disruption with this week’s blog post “Why Job Vacancies Are Surging & Likely to Continue.”

As the labor market starts recovering from the severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some reasons for hope and many reasons for concern. The labor participation rate which continues to remain 1.1 percent lower than before the pandemic’s start, may rise somewhat as normal schooling enables more women to return to the workforce and the fear of contracting COVID subsides. On the other hand, reports are showing that students at all levels have lost a year or more of learning and community college enrollments have declined at a time when job skill requirements are growing.  

The biggest and most persistent negative factor is the shrinkage of the U.S. working age population in this decade. The baby boomers who caused a huge surge in the working age population are retiring in droves and this will continue until 2030. As the U.S. birthrate declined precipitously starting in the 1970s, a much smaller cohort is now entering the workforce. Also, since 2017 fewer immigrants have been admitted to the United States.  

Current Job Vacancies Soar 

The rebound from the pandemic and the shrinking labor pool has caused the unemployment rate to plummet and job vacancies to soar. An estimated 10.7 to 12.5 million jobs are now unfilled. The Bureau of Labor Statistics June JOLTS Report showed high rates of job vacancies in many major businesses sectors: information 7.9 percent, health care 9.1 percent, education 8.4 percent, professional/business services 8.3 percent.  

The National Federation of Independent Business reported an all-time high of small businesses that cannot find qualified applicants for skilled positions. A January 2022 Fortune/Deloitte survey reported that 71 percent of CEOs expected that labor and skills shortages will significantly disrupt their business strategies over the course of this year.  

U.S. defense contractors have major staffing shortages. Their aging pool of high-skill specialized employees – particularly engineers with security clearances – is rapidly shrinking as they reach retirement age. These are also tough times for military recruiters. As of late June, only 40 percent of the 57,000 new recruits that the U.S. Army wants by September 30 had been enlisted. The Navy, Marine Corps, and even the Air Force are also having trouble finding personnel that meet their fitness and educational requirements.  

To retain workers and recruit new ones, many employers are raising salaries or offering special hiring bonuses. So far in 2022 the average increase in base pay in the United States is 4.8 percent. As there currently is a shortage of one million registered nurses in the United States, hospitals are offering an up to $40,000 signing bonus to nurses who sign a two-year contract. Walgreens Boots Alliance is offering signing bonuses of up to $75,000 to pharmacists who agree to stay in their jobs for a specified period.  

The Society for Human Resource Management reports that projections for 2023 indicate that salaries will increase from 4 to 5 percent driven by continuing shortages of skilled workers.  

Can We Enlarge the Labor Pool? 

As we cited earlier, the labor participation rate remains below pre-pandemic levels. As of June 2022, there were about 100 million American of working age that are currently not employed or looking for work. We estimate that about 21 million are deterred from seeking employment because they lack the skill requirements for vacant jobs but could gain them if provided with entry-level training. Many of the 5.6 million Americans currently listed as unemployed also are in the same position. Yet only 20 to 25 percent of American businesses have training and education programs. This includes both entry-level job training and upgrading the skills or knowledge of current employees. For every dollar our chief foreign competition invests in worker training, U.S. business contributes just 20 cents!  

Can Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Fill the Gap? 

Many industry analysts are saying robots will largely solve current worker shortages. Businesses are investing billions in robotics and AI. A Material Handling Institute survey found that their members plan to increase robotics in warehouses by 50 percent over the next five years. However, as nations such as Singapore that have successfully automated industrial facilities illustrate, this approach relies heavily on having a high-skill labor pool and providing retraining to workers whose jobs now require programing, monitoring, or repairing automated equipment.  

While AI software can now generate text and field telephone inquiries, it can’t go beyond the set of data with which it is programmed. It can’t solve cause-and-effect problems or learn about the world like a child. Advancements in AI and robotics will require HI (human intelligence), i.e., more knowledge workers. 

How to Expand the Knowledge Pool

Raising salaries will not generate more qualified employees, it will only increase job churn and fuel inflation. The Fourth Industrial Revolution requires a higher proportion of workers to be high-skilled, and their skills and knowledge need to be continually updated to keep pace with rapid technological change. Surveys indicate that most American workers want to work for employers that provide workers with opportunities to upgrade their capabilities. 

Cooperative options for providing training and education need far more support. Small businesses particularly can profit from participating in regional associations in which businesses, educational institutions, and training providers work together in developing programs that develop and retrain workers with in-demand job and career skills. 

Edward Gordon is available to provide customized presentations on talent and the current and future U.S. and global labor market. Please visit our website www.imperialcorp.com for more information or contact us by email at imperialcorp@juno.com or by calling 312.664.5196.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

You Should Not Be Planning to Fail

/in , /by

You Should Not Be Planning to Fail

In this week’s blog on education, curriculum designer and writer Caroline Slee-Poulos walks us through all of the reasons you should not be planning to fail.

There is an old adage that tells us “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” When it comes to phrases like this, I believe that sometimes we hear them so often they can become meaningless. In business, we always create plans and projections. We have processes in our departments, and systems that keep things running smoothly.

When it comes to employee development, we have spent many years without a solid plan. I think it is simple to say that this leaves us without a way forward – a path – for your staff and for the future of the business. Employee turnover is an expensive proposition for any business, and this can leave us reluctant when it comes to our training budgets.

When you invest in the future of your business, you should also have a plan for investing in the development of your employees. Just as a course is planned out with each segment, from content through assessments, your employees need to have a plan to map out their future with your business.

It’s time to make a shift towards the future: don’t you want to be planning for success at every single level?

As Ron would tell you, the time is now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.