Why it’s time for you to become a training company

With the war for talent and the high wages that go along with that, it’s far more effective for a shop to train from within rather than find talent from elsewhere, suggested an expert.

“How many of you are willing to accept the fact that you need to wrap your head around the fact that you need to become a training company: Training technicians, training advisors, training managers,” Bryan Stasch, vice president of product and content development at the Automotive Training Institute, asked shop owners at NAPA Expo 2022.

Yes, this will cost money — but it’s an investment in making your staff better and improving your shop.

“We’ve been fighting an age-old battle with technician training. They don’t want to lose a day’s production, they don’t want to pay for it; you don’t want to pay for it, you don’t want to lose a day’s production — and you want them to do it at night,” he said in his presentation, Finding Money by Understanding your Financial Numbers.

Stasch was straight to the point: Get over it.

These days, profitability is more important than ever, he explained. “How many would agree none of us know what’s going to happen over the next couple of years?” he asked. “The demand on profitability of your businesses more than it’s ever has been.”

So that means ensuring your technicians, service advisors and managers are attending training to be better employees.

“The demand on training is a necessity to carry you into the future,” Stasch added.

This ties into having a proper labour rate that supports the cost of training. When you factor in the higher demand for increased wages as well, shops need to review what they’re charging.

“You need … an effective labour rate [so] that effective labour rate can support that cost,” he said.

Often, shop owners can get lost in thinking it’s just technicians who need training. But don’t forget about service writers, he advised.

“Your writers have more control over profitability than you do. Teach them the numbers,” Stasch said, adding that they should be shown “what good looks like.”