Steve Roennau
Vice President
Compliance
EFG Companies
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.