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The Role of the Shop Owner in Technician TrainingPosted 5/7/2002By Bill Haas
Your association has a position on technician training. Were you aware that such a position existed? Historically, the Automotive Service Association (ASA) board of directors apparently has had some strong feelings about technician training. They demonstrated their commitment to the issue of technician education as early as July 1987 when they adopted the following position: “The Automotive Service Association supports a national training effort whereby technicians employed by Association members will receive a minimum of 36 hours of approved technical education each year.” It is interesting to me that this took place long before there was much talk about today's technician shortage. For a minute, just think about the changes to the automobile and our industry in the last 15 years. The technological advances and the pace at which they have taken place make a strong case in favor of technician training. The message is clear; the leadership of your association has and continues to bestow the responsibility of technician training on you, the member/shop owner. The language in this position is strong. It states a member's technicians will receive, not should or might receive. Also, it states a minimum number of hours. Stop for a moment and review the training opportunities you provided your technicians in the past year. Did all of your employees receive the minimum number of training hours? This is not a simple task for a shop owner. Often shop owners will encounter objections or obstacles that prevent them from having an effective training program for their technicians. Now that we know what the expectation is, let's focus on your role as a shop owner. To meet the goal of providing a minimum number of training hours to your technicians, you may face some challenges. Typically, there are a number of questions to answer. Oftentimes, there are many concerns that are given little or no consideration in developing a plan for training technicians. It is important to keep in mind that you do not provide training just for the sake of saying you did it. You want to realize a value from the time, effort and expense associated with training technicians. Last year a shop owner told me he was no longer going to train the technicians at his shop. He cited the fact that the last three technicians he had trained all left after about three years of employment. The reason they left was because each had been offered a job at another shop that paid 50 cents more per hour. He was tired of training technicians for someone else. Believe it or not, it took a long time to convince this person that the issue was not technician training but a management issue. Apparently the only person in this case who realized the value of technician training was the owner of the other shop. My discussion with this shop owner made me stop and think about the incredible challenge that technician training presents to a shop owner. The shop owner must accept responsibility of all facets for technician training. It's unlikely there will be many true opportunities for training provided to a technician until management sees a value in the training. The value of the training will be measured by the impact it has on the shop's profit and loss statement. Technician training has to become a line item on your budget. This must be a planned expense that will yield a positive return on the investment. It is no different than when you are planning to purchase a piece of equipment for the shop; all the same rules apply. You must apply best management practices to analyze the expenditure over time plus the associated costs versus the revenue generated. If this evaluation is overlooked, your training is doomed to fail. Neither management nor the technicians will be satisfied with the results. The shop will not realize increased productivity from the technicians and technicians will return to work after attending training only to tell you what a waste of their time it was. A shop owner must be prepared to spend the time necessary to address the many questions associated with training. Who needs what? Who will provide what is needed? When and where will it be available? Let's spend some time with each of these questions. Who needs what type of training? To be successful in identifying the training needs of technicians, a shop owner must use a method of needs assessment. This is the only way to ensure you are providing the correct training to an individual. In the past it may have been difficult to find some help with this area. Today, needs assessment is available at the Council of Advanced Automotive Trainers (CAAT) Web site. There is a link to the CAAT Web site from the ASA Web site (www.asashop.org). You will likely find this to be an invaluable tool. Now the shop owner can seek solutions to the training needs that have been identified. This step can be complex. Who are the training providers? The answer might be anything from instructor-led training, video or CD-based self-study courses or an Internet product like the ones Melior Inc. has made available to ASA members. The Melior training courses are also linked to the ASA Web site. When and where will the training be available? Of all the questions an owner will have to face this can be the most difficult. The training may be available at a variety of times: during the workday, in the evening after normal work hours or on the weekend. The shop owner is responsible to make the technician available to attend the training. Expect to pay the technician for the time he or she attends training. Training may take place in a wide variety of places. The place could be as close as home if the technician is using a self-study program. Or it could be as close as a local community or technical college. Other training opportunities might involve travel and lodging - for example, when you bring your technicians along to attend the technical training classes at the Congress of Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) and the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE). If you are interested in saving some time when it comes to finding training, you need to register at the Training for Techs Web site. Training for Techs allows you to select the types of training you are interested in and then you are notified when a training provider is offering a course that fits the parameters you have indicated. The ASA Web site also provides a link to the Training for Techs Web site. Do you ever question whether you can afford the training? The answer to this question is simple. You cannot afford not to train your technicians. The ever-constant changes in technology, along with the shortage of qualified young people entering the industry, dictate that a shop owner must train technicians just to sustain the business as the shop owner knows it today. During the 2002 ASA Annual Convention April 8-13 in Washington, D.C., the board of directors approved a new three- to five-year strategic plan. A priority in the plan is to provide technical training and education to ASA members. The initiative in the new strategic plan provides direction to continue the commitment that your association made 15 years ago.
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