PERSONNEL FILEs

By Alex Baylon

CROSS-TRAINING

Lessons Learned From The COVID Crisis

We have all learned some tough lessons during the past year. Traditional roles and responsibilities were among the first COVID casualties as dealers had to learn to do more with less than ever before. Throw in the counter-intuitive sales surge in dirtbikes, UTVs and even scooters and you have many employees forced out of the areas of expertise.

Now that we can finally catch our collective breath, what lessons were learned during the pandemic? How about cross-training? Assembly lines do it all the time to prevent repetitive motion syndrome and to actually increase worker engagement and productivity over the long haul.

In fact, employee cross-training is a great way of helping an employee expand his/her skills outside of their immediate role or department. So why aren’t most companies in the motorcycle industry doing this? What about dealerships? In my opinion, dealerships should be at the forefront of cross training. Let’s just stay within the dealership departments as these examples will apply to the majority of the readers, but honestly the concept is applicable to most companies, big or small. Let’s cover the advantages of cross training your employees first.

New Blood = New Perspective & Fresh Ideas

When you have a person from a different department helping and cross training it can become a great collaboration of ideas. Einstein suggested that ‘If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself…” so can you demonstrate how to do your job to a co-worker in a manner that they can understand it? Getting another perspective is also a great way to get another set of eyes on how the process can improve. Encourage them to ask questions and to give feedback!

Maybe a parts guy working with the sales department can suggest some highly requested add-ons to be installed on the unit. If the sales department is working with parts, it might work vice versa and they get to take away processes and ideas back to their department. Service writers, and mechanics on a slow day may also be able to go help in parts or sales. I know a mechanic not busy is unheard of these days… but why couldn’t the Parts Dept. or Sales Dept. lend a helping hand to the Service Department?

Make It Voluntary

This is a great way to see which employees have some drive to learn new things. When something is voluntary there is a different feeling about working a task than when its mandatory. However, if cross training is mandatory with the employees turning this into a positive, it is always the better way to go. The biggest takeaway is you could have an employee that shines a whole lot brighter in a different position.

Cross training is also rewarding in the fact that they learn something new and it breaks up the monotony of doing the same old thing day after day… which is exactly why workers are cross-trained on an assembly line. More importantly the line doesn’t come to a screeching halt if the lead widget installer gets sick one day.

Workflow / Vacation / Sick Leave Coverage

When a department is overwhelmed or busy with customers, other employees can step in and help customers — after all, customer service is more important now than ever. Have you been in a situation when a valuable employee takes time off or sick leave, and all their tasks pile up while they’re gone? Not only does this disrupt workflow, it discourages employees from taking much-needed vacations because they’re faced with a mountain of work when they return.

Cross-training allows you to get others to pitch in and get some, if not most, of the absent employee’s work done while they’re out. And face it, some of you have been working overtime since the sales surge began and are going to need a break when the vaccines are delivered and “normal” work flow resumes.

Job Sharing

With work-life balance becoming a critical factor among job seekers, cross-training allows dealers to offer some flexibility in schedules to attract more qualified

It falls on management to work with these employees to provide the options and flexibility they need. Crosstraining ensures that critical tasks get done at the dealership when an employee needs a day or two off.

When cross-training, it is important to keep the individual’s primary job with the company in focus and avoid putting them in a situation where they will neglect their daily duties or cross-train in a scenario where they cannot easily grasp the information and concepts presented to them.

Try to keep the job in which they cross-train relevant to their current job and make sure it isn’t a far reach from what they are currently familiar with, so maybe putting your mechanic with the bookkeeper isn’t the best idea. I know that you’re thinking “We don’t have time for that” and I get it, but making training a priority improves employee productivity and morale… And maybe even makes for a couple of vacation days without sweating it?

For this to become a priority for department managers, this needs to come from the top down. In other words, consider cross-training the next dealer principal… that is if you can explain what you do to a six year old!

MIJ Industry #PROfiles

Dealernews is honored to work with Motorcycle Industry Jobs to recognize the people who make up this great industry. “When you start reading the Industry #PROfles, you will notice that 80-90% of them get their start at a motorcycle dealership,” says MIJ founder Alex Baylon. “The dealers are on the front lines and have always been the heart and soul of the industry. Without motorcycle dealerships, most of us wouldn’t be where we are today, so part of our message is always going to be ‘support your local motorcycle shop.’”

In addition to recognizing industry pros, Dealernews is also working with MIJ to create a job ticker tape of the latest positions opening in the industry at the Dealernews.com site. Check it out at: www.dealernews.com/Industry-Jobs

“Tell us your story,” adds Baylon. “We would love to feature you! Click here to fill out the questionnaire:

www.motorcycleindustryjobs.com/industry-profiles/

MotorcycleIndustryJobs.com founder Alex Baylon has been hiring and firing people in the powersports industry for 25 years.

Currently with a major distributor, he has also been with Dragon Alliance, Ceet Racing, MX GP Services in Europe, Acerbis USA, Motonation/Sidi Boots and Scott USA. He started MIJ as he saw a need in the industry for people who are passionate about the motorcycle industry to have an employment outlet. The motorcycle industry like many others has always recycled employees from one company to another and it has always been done by word of mouth. MIJ allows companies in the industry to post their openings and give others in and out of the industry a chance to apply and insert new blood and fresh ideas in the many opportunities in the motorcycle industry.