The Last Word
36 SUCCESSFUL DEALER Last w o r d John G. Smith Contributing Editor the L earning is supposed to be a lifelong experience, but it is easy to understand why the managers of many dealerships are scrutinizing the costs that relate to staff training. Every expense needs to be justi-fi ed in the current economic environment and training budgets are no exception. Still, I have heard reports about organizations that are making wholesale cuts to their training budgets and that could leave a business at a disadvantage when the market begins to rebound. Rather than completely trashing the company's fi scal commitment to training, the managers of truck dealer-ships should instead be focusing more attention on the results that training efforts need to achieve, and carefully measuring the results that actually emerge. It sounds like pretty obvious advice, but a number of professional trainers have admitted to me that many of their clients fail to measure the real outcomes of training initiatives. Employees are sent into a training center, a seminar is delivered, and that seems to be the end of it. The money is poured into a process with the blind hope that members of a team will become more productive. In contrast, those who manage their training dollars effectively are able to determine exactly what the training achieves. Every program is carefully analyzed to ensure that trainees have the opportunity to absorb the content in a number of ways, whether the teaching tools involve written documents, role-playing exercises or practical ap-plications. Participants are tested to see if they retain the information and steps are taken to closely measure any change in performance on related tasks. The key to managing a tightened training budget simply begins by prioritizing the real needs that ex-ist. A relatively small gap in skills may need to be ad-dressed immediately if it directly involves a role that is fundamental to an employee's job, but a big gap in skills may not need to be addressed if the job can be left to someone else. The technicians who specialize in engine mainte-nance will need to be thoroughly trained in the latest enhancements to an electronic tool that can speed up the diagnostic process, but they might not need to be cross trained in the skills that would allow them to di-agnose problems with a suspension system. Managers also may need to look beyond those em-ployees with dedicated sales responsibilities when de-ciding which employees should enhance their so-called soft skills. For example, the maintenance personnel who perform on-road service calls for Wiethop Truck Sales in Cape Girardeau, Mo. are able to draw upon their customer service training. Sure, repairs in the fi eld require a broad level of technical expertise, but they also require technicians to interact directly with cus-tomers at the side of the road. Now imagine the increase in revenue that could emerge if everyone who interacted with a customer had a little sales training. It is just a matter of treating training like the invest-ment that it is, and measuring the returns that emerge. Leave Some Budget Room For Smart Training Ideas