Your Personal Investment = Training Dividends

Today, most dealers in the automotive industry would agree that employee training is critical to business success. However, it can be tempting to simply “check the box” when it comes to employee training, (i.e. a manager simply offloads training to an outside party, schedules the training event, and calls it a day). No goals are set; no metrics are defined for skills development; and, no baseline is given to determine employee growth. Rather, the mindset is, “My staff needed training and they attended training – mission accomplished.”

The problem with this thinking is the lack of accountability on the part of the manager, the trainer, and the employees. If you are going to invest the time, money and energy into training, it’s imperative that you build in a measure of accountability to ensure a return on that investment. This starts with leadership support.

For any training to be truly effective, dealership leadership must fully support the training content and methodology. Remember, all training is not created equal. When engaging with training providers, it’s important that you have the opportunity to review the content, modify it to address specific dealership concerns, and provide final approval. If there are content changes that need to be made to ensure the training aligns with your operation’s processes and business philosophy, then the trainer should confirm with you that their delivery is in line with your dealership’s needs.

It’s also important to remember that everyone learns differently, and every dealership has different training needs and requirements. Ask yourself what you want your team to get from training.

• Are you looking for a pump-up session?
• Do you want a class based purely on memorizing information?
• Are you looking for changed behaviors?

Discuss with your managers where your team can improve, and what they want to see change. Then, communicate those end-deliverables to the trainer. Securing management input will help increase leadership buy-in, resulting in tracked improvement measures and long-term success. Understanding and effectively communicating your desired outcome will put you and the trainer on the same page, better ensuring the training content, methodology and delivery is in-line with your needs.

Lastly, management should participate in the training whenever possible.  This will serve two purposes. First, it will provide an opportunity to inspect what you expect – i.e., answering the crucial question “Is training delivering what I expected it to deliver?” Additionally, it sends the message to employees going through the training process is important for all levels of leadership.  When management supports training outside of the classroom with benchmark setting, one-on-one sessions and progress tracking, they will set the standard of accountability for all team members.

Leadership support of training from development, to active involvement, and post-training practice and performance will pay dividends in driving training accountability in your dealership. With almost 40 years of experience helping dealers achieve their profitability goals, EFG Companies knows how to provide lasting success with ongoing training and engagement in all aspects of your business, including compliance, F&I, and sales. Contact us today to learn more.