Fixed Ops Journal - February 2020 - F20

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

The NADA Academy provides a range of training programs for employees and
managers. Keeping workers engaged can help with efficiency and productivity.

GETTING SCHOOLED

Training in the service department can pay off in better bottom line and retention
quote attributed to Henry Ford probably rings true at many dealerships:
"The only thing worse than training
your employees and having them
leave is not training them and having them stay."
Technicians need to attend training programs at community colleges or trade schools
just to get into the shop at most dealerships,
and even then, it often takes years of experience and more training before they become
productive line technicians.
But service advisers often are taught only
the systems and basic processes that their
dealership or group uses before going face-toface with customers. And frequently, experienced techs or advisers one day are tapped on
the shoulder to become service manager
without having any management training.
The result is that neither management nor
labor may have the knowledge or skills they
need to be their most efficient and productive,
says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training, a
Columbus, Ohio, company that specializes in
service department training programs.
"He's never managed anybody in his career,
he's never written a pay plan, he's never managed a financial statement or even seen a fi-

PAGE 20

through the ranks. "Those guys need to be
trained as well."

FEBRUARY 2020

Training days

"

"Why wouldn't you make
that investment in your team
members so that they want
to stay, and they also can do
a good job because they
know how to do a good job?"

"

A

RICK POPELY

foj@autonews.com

CAMRON WILSON, director of
business development for NADA
Academy

nancial statement, and suddenly, he's managing a department with 30 or 40 employees,"
Reed says of service managers who rise

Investing in training can improve the bottom
line and employee retention, especially
among millennials, now the biggest segment
of the work force, says Camron Wilson, director of business development for NADA Academy. The academy, the education arm of the
National Automobile Dealers Association,
provides a range of management and service
adviser training programs.
Wilson cites a 2019 study published by Southern New Hampshire University that shows 42
percent of millennials rank learning and development as the most important benefit in deciding where to work, and 86 percent say they
would stay in their current job if it provided
training and development opportunities.
"Turnover in dealerships is a huge problem,
and training is a huge retention tool," she says.
"Why wouldn't you make that investment in
your team members so that they want to stay,
and they also can do a good job because they
know how to do a good job?"
Everyone, from top management down,
see TRAINING, next page
Fixed Ops Journal - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - February 2020
