Secrets of Good Training | Lois Schulte
Lois Schulte has been in management and training for a long time. Here, she shares some of her top strategies and observations.
What are the pros and cons of ownership with an eye toward training?
Good question. The biggest pro is that you have the opportunity to shape your vision of the company to be successful, and I’ve really enjoyed that in previous management roles here. When you become owner, you still have to listen to other people; we have sharp people at this company. When they tell you what they need or what they believe is coming, you better listen and provide the tools and training opportunities.
The flip side is you don’t get to blame other people for mistakes when ultimately it’s your decision. You feel more concern for your staff. We’re fortunate we have many long-term employees, particularly in our Missouri market. Unemployment in Arkansas is 2.9 percent, so it’s very challenging finding and retaining good people in that market.
How do you track your technicians’ training/metrics?
Our techs have to maintain so many hours per quarter—now it’s six hours per quarter, 24 per year. As long as they maintain those training hours, they get an extra dollar per hour. If you take the 24 hours per year they had to do and divide per hour, they’re making a ton of money for those training hours; the way we do it, they make more money over time for maintaining levels of training hours per year instead of one-time bonuses.
A few techs get behind on training hours due to life circumstances and I rarely have to drop their bonuses. We work with them to see how to get their training hours up.
I send a report at the end of every quarter for ASE certifications and training hours and try to keep it top of mind. It motivates them and allows us to be successful.
Do you find digital training is adequate?
I do. There’s a variety of training, but if you’re looking for it and really trying to be proactive, there’s great quality out there. MWACA—and I do mean this—has been great in this market for training. They’ve been able to bring good trainers in. The VISION conference is top-notch as well.
Many of the guys who go to VISION every year want to go to VISION. Sometimes they get their whole year’s worth of training during that weekend. We sent 8 or 9 people this year (I wasn’t able to go—grandchildren!).
Do you find certifications and training to have something of a snowball effect upon your team?
Most of them do; a few wouldn’t take advantage of training if the incentive program wasn’t in place. I think it’s something many shops deal with. Some technicians are hungry for it and understand it’s an opportunity, and they tie it to their success and their ability to make more money and be more knowledgeable.
Do you get the feeling your techs would enjoy additional training without any incentive?
I do have some technicians—and I brag about it—who get 40, 50, 60 hours of training in a year. Kevin Markel, for example, is a great trainer, and my team gets so much out of his sessions. He teaches diagnostics as well as critical thinking: how do you look the car over from stem to stern? He teaches those strategies. He also helps increase transparency between the digital inspection tools and the customers. He’s very engaging.
Which KPIs do you monitor that are directly affected by your staff’s training?
I track efficiency, though I find it doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with training. You may be an ASE-certified master technician, but that doesn’t mean you’re the most productive technician. I have productivity incentives in place to help create good habits.
How have you (and will you) adapt your training habits for the booming tech/telematics tide?
That’s an excellent question. I rely on our trade associations for some of the training we need now; the aftermarket industry is becoming more prevalent. Hybrid and electric cars will be coming through our shops; as we’re going to training, they’re going to start pushing that info to us—here’s what these cars will need. I rely on them for some of the challenges we’re going to see.
My techs told me we’re going to need new Freon! We’re going to have to get a new type of machine to be able to service for that. What will we need to face new challenges? What new equipment and new training? They’re the ones coming to me, and it’s a great habit. I can’t imagine successful shops that don’t listen to the technicians.
What’s next for A-1?
In the short term, we are actually getting ready to move to new software with a digital inspection form. We have not moved toward digital platforms yet but we need to do it to remain competitive. We had our own internal software that was paid for and didn’t cost anything; it worked well for us, but we need to integrate with other automotive platforms for marketing, digital inspections, texting customers and more. We’re getting ready to do that in the short term.
In the long term, maybe an expansion is possible. We have six shops now—three Seeburgs, three A-1s.
What else has been great in the last year or so is we’ve started some in-house training. I’m fortunate I have really sharp guys in supervisory roles. Shop owners should identify those people in your organization, and after paying for a lot of training, it’s great to bring that home and share it in-house.
Lois Schulte owns A-1 Custom Car Care as well as Seeburg Service Center. She began working at A-1 in 1994, moved into a management position around 2000, and purchased both A-1 Custom Car Care (formerly A-1 Muffler & Brake) and Seeburg Service Center in 2015 along with her husband.
Celebrated for her training savvy, Schulte sat down with MWACA Magazine to talk shop about, well, shops, and what good training can do.