EMPLOYEEDEVELOPMENT

EMPLOYEEDEVELOPMENT

69March 1999

BUSINESS SENSE

How your technicians develop and grow depends agreat deal on keeping the lines of communication open.

In this case, communication is a two-way street.

By Art Vasconcellos800-622-2776

This investment will pay big dividendsdown the road. The most important benefitis better quality work. Also, customer satis-faction will increase, employee morale willimprove and fewer comebacks will increaseshop productivity and net profit. Plus, you’llexperience the personal satisfaction thatcomes from developing a wrench-turner intoa top-notch technician.

Where Do You Start?The first step in creating an employee devel-opment program is to evaluate your job per-formance. We often blame employees forproblems that really are our fault. For exam-ple, have you ever fired an employee who wastruly shocked because he honestly thought he

was doing a good job? If the answer is Yes,then ask yourself one more question: Did youtake the time to communicate verbally or inwriting what you expected of that employee?If the answer is No, then you were part of theproblem. If we want employees to meet ourexpectations, we must take the time to com-municate those expectations.

It’s easy to find out how you, as a manager,are doing—just ask your employees. A tech-nician survey like the one shown on page 70will help evaluate your job performance as amanager and show you what you need to doto develop better employees. But prepareyourself. Some of the results may shock ordepress you. Remember, the only way you’llbe able to address problems and develop

If it’s going to get done right, I guess I’ll have to do it myself.” That’s whatmost of us say when a task we delegate to someone else doesn’t get done cor-

rectly. But face facts—we can’t do everything ourselves. So our only alternative(if we want a successful business) is to invest time to develop our employees.

70 March 1999

BUSINESS SENSE

Then his productivity will drop to thelevel of everyone else in the shop.Why? Peer pressure. The other techni-cians don’t want to look bad or losetheir jobs, so they convince the highproducer to do just enough to get by.

The only way to change employeeattitudes is to communicate what youexpect of them. Tell them that theirbase pay will increase based on pro-ductivity, not seniority. As managers,we must create an environment inwhich our employees can grow andprosper. If we do that and reward em-ployees accordingly, their attitudes willchange dramatically.

Technician TrainingThe second part of employee devel-opment is technical training. Theproblem is that many techs don’t

think they need training, or don’tthink they’ll benefit enough to investthe time. Again, this is where your at-titude and your shop’s policy make abig difference in employee attitudes.

Some time ago, I arranged to have atraining company teach specializedclasses at my shop for my techs andothers in the area. I called one shopowner to find out how many of histechnicians would attend. He ex-plained that he asked all ten of histechs to attend the classes and everyone refused, saying they didn’t havethe time. The truth is, they probablyhad the time. They just didn’t want tomake the time because the shop own-er didn’t have a policy that encouragedcontinuing education and training.

My shop’s training policy is clearlystated in our employee manual:

better employees is if you know thetruth. If you want a full-size form,write to MOTOR Magazine, TechnicianSurvey, 5600 Crooks Rd., Troy, MI48098, or download a copy at MOTOR’swebsite, www.motor.com.

Attitude DevelopmentThe most important part of an employ-ee development program is not techni-cal training, it’s your employees’ atti-tude toward their jobs. If employeeshave the right attitude, teaching themwhat to do and how to do it is easy. Toomany shop owners hire a new techni-cian and say, “Here’s your stall, andthese are the guys you’ll be workingwith. Good luck!”

If a new technician is competent andproductive, you’ll notice great produc-tivity for the first two to four weeks.

71March 1999

“Every technician is required to at-tend at least 24 nights of training peryear. Only employees with legitimatereasons for not being able to attendwill be excused.” I support this policyby covering the employee’s wageswhen he’s gone, and paying for hisdinner, the cost of the class and thegas he uses to travel there. I evensupply a car, if necessary. So when wetell our technicians there’s a trainingclass available, they typically respond,“I can’t wait to go!”

What about the cost of this trainingpolicy? Many shops require their em-ployees to pay for training, since, theyreason, it benefits the employee. Butin reality, the shop benefits the most,through better quality service andgreater productivity. That’s why youshould pay for the training. More-

BUSINESS SENSE

over, if your shop’s policy requires ad-ditional employee training, you mustpay for it. If you don’t pay wages andtraining costs, then terminate an em-ployee for not attending a trainingclass, you may wind up in court.

The key point is that training playsa critical role in an employee devel-opment program. If your employeesdon’t get periodic training, they’llnever grow and develop. So makesure your shop’s policy mandates con-tinuing education and training.

Employee EvaluationsAn employee evaluation is nothingmore than stating verbally and inwriting what you expect of each em-ployee. While most employers andsupervisors would list employee eval-uations as one of their least favorite

things to do, they’re extremely impor-tant. A formal evaluation forces you,as a manager, to communicate whatyou expect of every employee.

A formal evaluation should also pro-duce improvements in the quality ofemployees’ work and their productivi-ty. Most employees do make an effortto improve their performance if theyknow improvement is needed. With-out an evaluation, though, employeeswill never know whether they’re doinga good job or a poor one.

Many shop owners also put offevaluations because they feel employ-ees would expect a raise in pay aftereach evaluation. That may be true forannual evaluations, but you can elimi-nate this expectation and improvecommunication at the same time bydoing evaluations twice a year. A copy

of my employee evaluation form isshown on page 71. It’s available bywriting to MOTOR or by downloadinga copy from MOTOr’s website.

Doing the EvaluationAn employee’s first evaluation shouldbe a relaxed and informal meeting.Your objective is to evaluate his per-formance, offer suggestions to im-prove it, if necessary, and agree on aplan of action.

The technician is primarily inter-ested in hearing the positive pointsbecause he wants a raise. You, on theother hand, must review both thepositive and negative points of his jobperformance. And you must do it in away that neither raises false hopesnor tears down the technician’s self-esteem.

Start the evaluation by asking somequestions. This approach lets the em-ployee talk and puts him at ease. Suchquestions as, “How’s the job going?”or “How’s the family?” might providesome important insights that will helpyou during the evaluation process.When it’s your turn, alternate be-tween the positive and negative pointsof the employee’s performance. Whenyou criticize his work, offer construc-tive suggestions for improvement. Forexample, if the technician has toomany comebacks, suggest ways thathe might quality-check his work.

Never be insulting or overly harshin your criticism. If the employee fla-grantly violates a shop rule or policy,such as often arriving late for work,simply state that “All employees areexpected to be at their workstationsready to start work at the officialstarting time [and remind him whatthat time is!]. If you don’t adhere tothis policy, your employment may beterminated.” This approach is directand factual, and avoids a personal at-

tack on the technician’s conduct.Although these are difficult things for

any supervisor to say, they must becommunicated, especially if the techni-cian faces the threat of being let go. Re-member, there are very few instanceswhere you can terminate an employeewithout some type of prior warning.

Setting GoalsThe next step in developing your em-ployees is to build a plan to improvetheir job performance. Tie any in-crease in pay to achieving certain spe-cific performance goals. Make surethe employee signs off on these goalsand agrees that they’re achievable.Giving a pay increase without havingan employee achieve his goals will notguarantee improved performance. Toget lasting performance improve-ments, you must tie pay increases togoal achievement.

Find out about the technician’s in-come goals, then show him how toachieve them. If the technician wantsto increase his income $500 permonth, tell him what needs to bedone—and be specific: “You can makethis much more money if you do thesethings: Increase your productivity tothis level, find training classes or at-tend the local college’s automotivetechnology classes to get training onelectrical and computer diagnoses,plus automatic transmissions.”

At our shop, we show a technicianwhat is expected of him, then givehim a goal to reach. If the additionalincome he needs is to buy a house, Iencourage the technician to get a pic-ture of the house he wants and hangit over his workbench. That serves asa daily reminder of his goal, and it’slikely that no amount of peer pres-sure will stop this employee fromreaching that. But remember, thegoal must be achievable.

The best goal to set for an employ-ee is increasing his productivity. Atechnician with a 60% productivityrate produces $240 of labor per eight-hour day (at $50 per hour), or $4800per month. A technician who’s 80%productive, on the other hand, pro-duces $320 of labor per day, or $6400of labor per month. The 20% increasein productivity generates an additional$1600 in labor sales per month, plusan additional $1400 in parts sales.When you add the increased laborsales and parts sales, the shop shows arevenue increase of $3000 per month,which translates into a monthly netprofit increase of $2160. If the techni-cian achieves this productivity in-crease, you can more than afford togive him a $500 per month raise.

Tying employee incomes to pro-ductivity increases and achievementof realistic goals sends this importantmessage: The better the shop does,the better the employees who con-tribute to that success will do.

Employee development is nothingmore than making a sincere effort tomake your current employees betterand more productive. The key ingredi-ent is establishing good lines of com-munication with them. Find out howyour employees feel about their jobs,what their goals are and what youneed to do to help them reach thosegoals. If you listen and respond, every-one will succeed and prosper.

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For a free copy of this article, write to: Fulfillment Dept.

MOTOR Magazine 5600 Crooks Rd. Troy, MI 48098 Additional copies are $2 each. Send check

or money order.

72 March 1999