In “All Aboard,” featured in Professional Carwashing & Detailing’s March issue, Group Editorial Director/Editor in Chief Rich DiPaolo discusses how employee training impacts car care businesses.
“While the professional carwash industry appropriately focuses on managerial- and owner-specific training, such as covering management and procedure best practices, front-line employees at most carwashes either rely on in-house, secondhand training or, as is often the case, on-the-job training,” writes DiPaolo in the article. “However, now is the time for owners and operators to really concentrate on correcting this issue before it is too late.”
He continues in the article, “No longer at stake is only the issue of clean or unclean cars coming out of your wash.”
Because the cost of labor is increasing, maximizing your workforce investment is more critical now than ever before. And, to ensure optimal results, your hiring and training strategies go hand-in-hand.
“Quickly hiring crew employees to simply fill a gap and viewing it as a short-term decision is something small businesses, including carwashes, simply cannot afford to practice any longer,” asserts DiPaolo in the article.
In the article DiPaolo notes, according to the Harvard Business Review, as much as 80 percent of employee turnover can be attributed to bad hiring decisions. And, although various research and studies conflict in this area of focus because so many variables are involved, adds DiPaolo in the article, the Labor Department estimates it can cost on average one-third of a new hire’s annual salary to replace him or her.
“Simply put, as minimum wage continues to rise in the U.S. and as carwash competition increases, investments in employee satisfaction — for the purpose of retaining quality employees — and implementing proven carwash-specific training for crew employees are essential today in order to compete in the car care business,” says DiPaolo in the article.
To help increase your chances of success in your employee training efforts to ensure an optimal return on investment, the PC&D team created a short infographic, provided below.
Read more about how employee training can help car care businesses achieve productivity and profit goals here.
Related content: 4 major variables of employee turnover
