Onboarding new hires goes far beyond just orientation

July 28, 2017
It is critical to your shop’s service readiness to have a detailed onboarding process that ensures your new teammates fully understand you, your company, your culture, strategic goals, as well as what you expect of them every day.

Hopefully you’re looking to grow your team in order to take better care of your customers and positively impact your bottom line. Onboarding is a new buzz word that many equate to orientation. While onboarding does include orientation of new teammates, by no means should an orientation be the only element of onboarding. It is critical to your shop’s service readiness to have a detailed onboarding process that ensures your new teammates fully understand you, your company, your culture, strategic goals, as well as what you expect of them every day.

Recent studies show that two decades ago the average worker held 4-5 jobs in their lifetime; today, the average has grown to 11 jobs. This is reflective of the transient nature of today’s workforce and presents a serious challenge to every business owner as it relates to the costs associated with recruiting, hiring, onboarding and developing loyal team members. I can remember when I was in my 20s I decided to move my family to Denver to take a job with Arapahoe Datsun (stop the old jokes already!) because I wanted to ski and experience the opportunities a big city offered. I got the job by responding to a classified ad in the Denver Post, followed by a phone call to the service manager who hired me over the phone. After moving my family 350 miles west, on my first day on the job I hauled my tool box to the dealership and met the service manager. He gave me a tour of the shop where I met the other techs, service advisors and parts countermen. He showed me where my bays were and said, “Unload your box and go grab a ticket from dispatch. If you need anything just come get me.” That was it, but in those days, that was all that was needed. I had the tools I needed, and the shop had all the special tools we’d need. I stayed for five years before the dealership sold to Toyota. If this sounds like your technician onboarding process today, read on.

Today, the onboarding process should consist of three main efforts. First, prior to the new team member coming to work you should take care of any paperwork and associated setup in your backend systems. This includes items like W9s, insurance forms, workman’s comp forms, drug test policies, etc. And, if you use a digital point of sale system, ensure the new employee is added before they arrive – set up an email account and get their calendar prepopulated with an orientation schedule that starts the next day. Orientation should begin with a shop meeting to introduce the new team member to your team. A great best practice is to hold an informal team event prior to the first day: it can be as simple as dinner out or a group activity where you invite the new teammate and they can get comfortable with your team.

On the first day, personally introduce your new team member to everyone else. Walk them through the workflow processes, lay out expectations regarding inspections and service standards for jobs like brake service and alignments. This is important: do not shortcut these introductory steps. Most people you hire–technicians, service advisors and managers–all have their own processes in mind based on past experiences. It is your job to help them fully understand what you expect of them when they get a ticket. For example, for a brake job in your shop the standard may be to wash rotors in hot soapy water before installing and to use a dial indicator to check lateral runout on every brake job and to note the readings on the repair order. Unless you explain these standards, have them documented as reference materials, and have a mentor in the shop demonstrate the standards, your new team member is most likely not going to know the standard. You will also want to explain your process for handling come-backs and establish your expectations for ongoing training. Ensure you have a career path for all teammates and positions. Establish your expectations with respect to attendance in after-hours training sessions or their completion of online training programs. Accomplish all of this the first or second day when your new team member joins.

Finally, schedule time on your new hire’s calendar to connect them with various mentors in your company who will demonstrate the proper use and care of your capital equipment and the standards for every service you employ. It is not uncommon for a new technician to encounter a brand of equipment they’ve never used. For example, you may use an on the car brake lathe and your shop may be the first time they see one. Dedicate the time to get team members up to speed. And, you should pay your team to assist in onboarding new employees to ensure its not a burden. In most cases, allowing the new teammate to shadow one of your mentors is all it takes. Show people the right way and how you are going to hold them accountable–whether that is part of an employee handbook or worksheets or checklists to guide both the manager and new team member through the onboarding process.

And what about newly graduated vocational students? If you hire a graduate, whether it is a student you helped sponsor through school or someone recommended to you by the school, you need to have an equally organized onboarding process for them, too. Consider an apprenticeship program; an organized apprenticeship will allow the new technician to learn to apply the skills they learned in school or learn those skills they didn’t in a way that meets the needs of your business. Apprenticeship is essentially a longer term, more detailed onboarding process that we will cover in future articles. With an apprenticeship, you can ensure your new team members ultimately provide customers with the service standards you promise in a timely and productive manner. Investing a year or two in new technicians will pay dividends for your business in the long run.

At the end of the day, when a customer arrives you want to ensure they will receive the service you both expect. These basic steps will help ensure your new team members’ success in providing that service, and ultimately–when implemented correctly–build you a more loyal team that will provide you with years of high productivity.

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