Last month, BDN looked at the problems the trade is having with sourcing staff, particularly workshop technicians. This month, we’re looking at how one firm – P&H Motorcycles of Crawley, is taking a different approach to solving this issue. And it’s one which could work for more dealers.
Paul Searle, MD at P&H Motorcycles, started his business in a shed in 1980 and has since built it into a successful multi-franchise dealership – so he knows what the sharp end of the trade is all about.
“Getting technicians, yes, that is difficult,” he told BDN. “But funnily enough, we’ve been working on it for a few years and changed how we do things dramatically.
“We’ve given up trying to get technicians from other dealers because they can be such hard work. They can be set in their ways, and we want to do things differently. If you’re trying to build an outstanding service team, you only need one person who’s a little bit negative, and it stops you from progressing in terms of how everyone thinks. If you want a real high quality, well-motivated, driven, happy set of technicians – because it doesn’t take much to make them grumpy! – you can’t afford to have anyone who’s a bit negative.”
A problem, then. And P&H had tried the traditional way of sorting it out with a conventional apprenticeship programme . But the results weren’t quite what was needed – for anyone.
“A few years back, we looked at the problem and decided that the whole apprentice thing was not working. The problem with it is it takes three years, and what happens is they get bored after three years of being an apprentice and being on poor wages. I think we were like most dealers in that we saw an apprentice as a slow way to get a tech and that it costs time and money when they leave halfway through.
We looked at what we want from our apprentices and what they need from us
“We really brainstormed the whole apprentice situation and realised that we were looking at it all wrong. We saw it as taking too long to get any benefit out of an apprentice. We were bound up by the way traditional training is structured. We were expecting it to be all done for us by the training bodies, who work on a three-year process. For dealers, it’s hard to know where apprentices are training-wise and what they are capable of. Because of that, we don’t really push the apprentices along.”
Searle and his team re-thought the approach to training new staff with more of a task-oriented training programme. By taking advantage of the quiet months in the autumn and winter, P&H has been able to train new recruits in basic tasks – taking wheels out, changing tyres, and uncrating bikes. Then, the apprentice becomes immediately useful and is building skills from the ground-up. Best of all, as they are making money for the business, they can start to earn more themselves.
“We looked at what we want from our apprentices and what they need from us. We want them to be earning the company money as soon as possible, to develop their skills and become expert techs. We want them to stay with us for a long time, and we need them to have a good positive attitude. To keep them motivated, we need to be able to pay them properly, providing daily training over and above the apprenticeship course. They need to feel they are progressing quickly, are appreciated for their efforts and are important team members.
“Three years ago, we had two lads that worked in parts and valeting who wanted to become techs. It was the end of summer, and we had six months before the season kicked off again. We asked ourselves, ‘How much can we teach them in six months’? We quickly realised that we could probably get them doing 50-60% of the jobs. We start them on bike uncrating, bike builds, PDI, first service, tyre-fitting, wheels in and out, and so on. We put them with a senior tech who mentors them. At each stage of development, they have to do the task independently with their mentor watching. If they do it correctly, they then need to do the task again on another bike with a different tech observing. If it’s completed satisfactorily on both occasions, we will sign them off on that task. I really need to know the jobs we give them; they can do properly. In the past, they would go to college, but we would not have anything to tell us if they were competent at various tasks.”
And the programme was a big hit for both parties. “Very quickly, we could see that they were billing out a good amount and earning a surprising amount for the company. We were able to increase their pay which really motivates them. We reviewed their performance every month and were able to give a pay rise each quarter based on their ability and performance. This is such a motivator because they can really see and feel their progression. We get them to do the manufacturer training courses and put them on an apprentice course to get the paper qualification. When they attend courses, they find they are well ahead of other apprentices, which gives them confidence and an appreciation of the advantage of working for a company that gets them ahead of the game.”
And the in-house bespoke training programme is now becoming self-fulfilling, with P&H ‘graduates’ now passing on their skills and knowledge to those following them.
“We now have two apprentices that are qualified and are now learning more in-depth fault finding and doing engine rebuilds. We have another that is two years in and doing well. Our latest joined when he finished school last year and got his Yamaha expert qualification before he was 17. It is self-perpetuating as the first two (just qualified) apprentices are now training the new apprentices.”