Aftermarket Insider Issue 75 - (Page 10)

A SS o C i AT i o N N E w S head of the class kOi auto Parts This is the second in a series of articles profiling 2011 AAIA Head of the Class Award Winners. Winners of the inaugural 2011 award were chosen for their continual investment in employee education and training and their promotion of the value and benefit that this investment provides to their companies, employees and the industry as a whole. Below is insight from Denny Shroats, head of employee development, KOI Auto Parts, the recipient of the 2011 Head of the Class Award in the warehouse distributor category. KOI is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. We have started the process of providing our field sales force with laptops and software to enable them to know their customers better, as well as to allow them to be better consultants to their customers. how did Koi recognize that training is so important? KOI has always held training as a key component to the development of our people; however, our training program did not crop up overnight. As KOI expanded into new regions, it became increasingly difficult to bring all our people together in one location. We figured if we could not get our people together, we would get information out to our people in an easily-accessible manner — through a learning management system (LMS = software for the administration, documentation, teaching and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events) that they could access from their locations, either the office or at home. how has Koi’s training strategy evolved? there was no focus on a particular product category at a certain time of the year. Therefore, we had to become more proactive becoming: a) More seasonal; and b) More focused in getting information out to our people on new products offerings. Though we are not experts yet, we believe we are improving all the time. When we first put training (short videos, PDF files, webinars, PowerPoint presentations) on the LMS site, there was little structure. For example, 10 | AFTERMARKET INSIDER | VOLUME 75 http://www.koiautoparts.com/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aftermarket Insider Issue 75

Aftermarket Insider Issue 75
Contents
President’s Message
Aftermarket eForum™
Government Affairs
Association News
Green Highlight
Toolbox
Industry News
Market Intelligence
Association News
Telematics Trendline

Aftermarket Insider Issue 75