In our last two articles, we discussed the value of a technician and steps you can take to improve the success of your new hires. For this discussion, we are going to assume that you have a new hire coming into your department today. What are you going to have this new hire do? What is the plan to make him or her a functional technician as quickly as possible?
Too often, there is no specific plan. The new technician is brought back to the service manager’s office and they visit for a while. Then, because the service manager doesn’t know exactly what to do, and there are three people lined up outside the door already, the manager calls a technician in and has that technician take the new employee for the day. This pattern may continue until the new technician goes to school. The result is a waste of the new technician’s time, the service manager’s time and a less than optimum outcome.
Make a Plan
The first step in solving the issue is to develop a new hire plan. You need to identify what the new technician needs to learn and accomplish in the first three months, including company procedures, forms and rules. The new hire also needs to start manufacturer’s training courses, and this usually includes both classroom and on-line training (OLT).
You should also make sure that someone introduces the new hire to the people he or she will interact with. You also might want the new hire to spend some time in departments like Parts and Dispatch, to learn how those departments function.
You will need to identify current employees or supervisors with training ability to use for ride-along visits. These visits will foster the new technician’s skills and growth. The people you pick for this task should be good examples of what the company expects in its employees.
To help the new hire with training, provide a procedures manual that outlines the normal activities of a technician.
Make a Procedures Manual
At a minimum, a procedures manual should cover the activities that the technician will accomplish in the field, along with the associated forms. This is a time-consuming process the first time, but it will pay off every time a new technician comes onboard.
The procedures manual should cover work hours, including start and stop times. It should additionally cover company HR policies and important contact numbers.
I recommend that for every form, there is a document that explains how the form should be filled out, what the form is used for, and where the completed form should be submitted. By having this document, paperwork starts to become more standardized. Additionally, the technicians can find the answers they need without your help.
You should document the minimum steps the technician must perform on each type of service call. By doing this, evaluating a technician’s performance becomes greatly simplified. It also helps to standardize the service department, creating more consistent results.
It’s also useful to ask your current technicians’ help in writing and reviewing the information. By getting their input, you will also get buy-in from the technicians. For example, if you asked each of them to provide a description of a minimum acceptable service call, it would allow you to see how the technician approaches the task. You may find that there are steps one technician does that should become part of every technician’s process.
Document the Plan
Now you want to create a plan for the technicians as they come onboard. These plans need to be detailed and structured. They should be self-explanatory so a new technician can follow them with minimum assistance. For example:
- 8:00 to 8:45: Supervisor takes technician on tour of facility, pointing out needed landmarks, such as restrooms, break rooms, smoking area and other important building features.
- 9:00 to 10:00: Manager briefs new technician on training plan. Manager provides copy of procedures manual and training plan. Manager enrolls technician on manufacturer website and enrolls technician in first class. Manager explains first day’s tasks and directs technician to appropriate work area.
- 10:00 to 11:00: Employee assigned to read first chapter of procedures manual.
- 11:00 to 12:00: Lunch
- 12:00 to 4:00: Employee continues reading, completes first form, and identifies the form’s purpose and where the form goes once it is completed.
- 4:00 to 5:00: Employee reviews activity with manager and they confirm the plan for the following day.
Utilize the same process and format for the remainder of the 100 days. Each day’s activity will be different, but let the plan explain what needs to be done and who is responsible.
Use the Plan
Now let’s go back and replay the scenario we started with. It is a new technician’s first day. The supervisor meets the technician at reception and provides a tour of the building. The technician comes into the service manager’s office. You give him or her the information discussed and a copy of the training plan. The manager reviews it and takes the technician to the day’s workspace.
So the process begins. There is never any question of what needs to happen. This process results in technicians with a consistent work product and requires minimal intervention during the first three months. And when it is time to make a decision on whether to retain or terminate the individual, you have objective standards to measure the technician’s success.
