Training of Employees

[Matt Parsons]

OK Folks, after the acquisition of ARG from EDS to ADP, one of the key items our dealer council (and clients at large) told us was to invest heavily in developing training options for our clients to partake in.

Well, ARG has now delivered a robust catalogue of training options known as Coach Training that allows employees to take job specific training via the internet (net meeting style) and a 1-800 connection to a live instructor for a virtual classroom feel. We have seen significant participation in these training classes by the Saturn retail community, but little by the other clients of ARG.

Would seriously like any feedback from ARG clients regarding this training. Brochures (training catalogues) have been sent to every department manager every 3-months and I believe there are approximatley 80 different classes that can be taken. Classes typically last 45 minutes to 1.5 hours and are scheduled several times per month.

In addition, training for year-end was offered at no charge and yet few clients participated in this as well.

So, what is the scoop?

[aksales]

Hey Matt,
I do know that sometimes it is hard to sell training for something that people "already know". "Already Know" as in was trained by the last person that did the job, with all the personal workarounds, and everything that was forgotten within the (two weeks if your lucky)window of opportunity.

[Matt Parsons]

I know what you mean and this is so frustrating. The DMS applications are the key 'tools' that many employees use to do their jobs and yet people receive little to no training on how to use and what functionality/capability exists. Most of the Coach Training sessions are $100 and we even offer a package that for $249 a month everyone in the dealership can take as many courses as they want as many times as they want. If you look at your store, I have to believe there are at least 50 users of the systems, if you divided this into the monthly fee for training access, that is less than $5 per employee per month. Seems like a pretty low number to insure your team members get the most out of a significant purchase.

This is what we seem to struggle with, getting the person with the purchasing authority to understand the value of training for office people, service writers, countermen, sales people, etc. They would not consider not training the technicians on the tools to do their job, yet they make little to no investment in the others to understand their tools.

[Fixedopsmgr]

I for one have always had a problem with the fact that a DMS charges for training. Seems to me that this should be an onging thing that should be done for no-charge. After all, the better trained a person is with a system the better they make like it which in turn would create postive feedback for the product..

[APM]

just a quik suggestion. Propose this training (which I think is invaluable and very much needed) in dollars and "sense", in terms of productivity hours, in terms of efficiency that would free up users to do more proactive oriented projects for the dealership.

[Matt Parsons]

Fixedopsmgr, many of ADP's classes are free, and the ARG division of ADP use to offer free training but people had to come to the class in Michigan - few takers.

ARG provided free training for all year end procedures and had less than 6 dealer participants, but then people called the support center and expected that we would spend hours on the phone training them (either forgot how to do year end procedures or were new and never were trained). When asked why they had not taken the training, they advised they had no time to participate in a 30 minute review? I am not convinced free is the right path, it makes people think the training has 'no value'.

I am not aware of any other industry that gives continuous, free training. There is actual expense to design and deliver the training. The OEM's don't give the training away for technicians (please correct me if I am wrong).

The thing that I see is that many clients have no training plan for their non-vehicle technical employees. At my company, each associate is required to participate in 40 hours of training a year and detailed plans are developed with each associates objectives and needs in mind. Do dealers develop training plans for office people (as an example)? They are expected to use a system that may well be costing the dealer thousands of dollars per month (maybe even tens-of-thousands) and yet often they are never given the opportunity to understand what the tool does and what it can do.

Being that the average dealer has around 60 employees and lets assume 1/2 use the system, is it really too much to ask the dealer to invest approximately $8 per month per user to have them be fully trained on the system?

[This message has been edited by Matt Parsons (edited 03-14-2006).]

[Fixedopsmgr]

Matt,
I have been to several ADP classes in NJ that there was not a charge for. I do agree that dealers not training their personnel is a problem that should be dealt with. I am sure that we as a dealer probably call with some pretty stupid questions from time to time due to a lack of training. But the biggest problem I see is that when you don't know how to do something you call and get help but you then don't have a need for that information except maybe once or twice a year and you forget. If cost is a factor then just build into your contracts.
In any case I agree that training is not necessarily a DMS problem but more of the clients laziness.

[69mach1]

Matt i know this is a little of key of your original question, it would be nice if ADP made availible via Dealer Suite all the english statements and RPG reports so somehow we can go in and look for a type of custom report instead of calling or waiting for reply from Dealer Suite, I know training is great but this tool would increase productivity of our systems

[homesleym]

I agree with 69mach1. This would be easy for ADP to post on their site and allow us to take advantage of English statements/RPG reports already constructed.

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[This message has been edited by homesleym (edited 04-12-2006).]

[Matt Parsons]

I am investigating this and will respond as soon as possible.

As an FYI, for those clients that use the ARG platform (DMS@NET) and our data mining/reporting product called Executive Assistant, we have a section of the ARG Dealersuite site that 'posts' hundreds of reports that can be downloaded and run or adjusted by the clients. All of these reports are free and in essence 'shareware'. The area of the site is the Dealer Download Center and it has EA reports for all major departments and some third-party providers as well as system documention and release information, etc.

Enjoy.