Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019 - F21

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

MENTORS
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"When younger techs come in, if they're not
trained correctly, they'll make that older, experienced journeyman tech a victim," Harkins
adds. "They'll continually be going over to
them and saying, 'Hey, how do you do this,
did I do this right, what should I do now?'
They pester them, and the older techs just
throw up their hands because they're not getting compensated to help the guy."

Need for structure

Tips on effective mentoring

ealerships that aim to create training programs that assign veteran
service technicians to mentor apprentice techs should follow clear
guidelines, fixed ops experts say.
Dealership consultant Lee Harkins, CEO
of M5 Management Services Inc., says one
key is to prepare a detailed job description
that spells out the responsibilities of the
mentors and how they will be paid. In that
way, he says, mentor applicants know what
they're getting into and there won't be surprises down the road.
More advice from Harkins:
 "Interview the dickens" out of mentor
candidates to find the right people, because
they will be passing their attitudes on to
younger techs. "You need to make sure you
want four or five people just like him," Harkins says.
 Set goals for the mentors and apprentices to achieve every 90 days, and test the apprentices to see whether they have reached
the objectives.
 Don't expect every apprentice to blossom
into a productive master tech, even with the
help of an effective mentor. "We have to kiss a

A structured mentoring program, in which
apprentices do the work and an older mentor
acts as a coach and trainer, develops productive line techs faster, Harkins says.
The mentor is the team leader who oversees
five or six apprentices, he says. "His responsibility is to make them journeymen technicians. The mentor's incentive is that his pay is
based on how many hours his apprentices
produce and the measurable progress they
make towards becoming line techs."
Harkins acknowledges that the concept has
been hard to sell to many dealerships because
it initially reduces production and raises
costs. Instead of generating his own flat-rate
service technicians.
hours, the experienced tech is mentoring
At Todd Wenzel Buick-GMC in Davison,
green apprentices, who might produce only
Mich., fixed operations director Scott Kohagen
three or four hours a day at first.
started a program about seven years ago, when
But Wright says the higher initial cost is an
one of his best techs developed multiple scleinvestment. He used advice from Harkins and
rosis at age 40 and could not turn wrenches.
others to shape Shaheen Chevrolet's mentor"We tried to think of every option we could
ing program. It pays mentors so they make at
and turn every stone over on how we could
least as much as they did wrenching.
possibly still allow him to continue his career
"This isn't a fast fix for anything, it's a longand utilize his skills," Kohagen says. As a menterm program," Wright says. "You
tor, he says, the tech "was physically
have to have the owner's backing to
forced to coach these guys through all
do something like this, because the
of the hands-on portion of it, because
initial cost of sale for this mentor prohe literally couldn't do it. He became
gram is probably 35 to 40 percent
a very good coach."
higher than for a normal A tech."
Requiring the apprentices to perOnce C-level apprentices become B
form diagnoses and repairs under the
or A techs working on their own,
guidance of the master technician
Wright sees the investment paying off.
built their confidence and sped up
"As the apprentices become more Kohagen: 12-18- their learning process because they
productive and more knowledgeable, month process
knew they couldn't rely on the ailing
the mentor's piece of this becomes
tech to bail them out, Kohagen says.
less," he adds. "That raises the capacity in my
"If you want the mentored technicians to beshop and drives down my cost of sale. In a shop
come good and put them on a timeline that's
with 60 technicians, if [initially] I'm paying two
quicker, you have to restrict the lead techniof them considerably higher to train five, I can
cian from performing repairs, so they have to
live with that."
coach them through it," he says. "Then the apOther dealerships and dealership groups,
prentice gets the repetition and all the prosuch as Ganley Automotive Group, headquarcesses and tricks, all the things that the technitered in northeast Ohio, and West Herr Auto
cian has learned over a long period of time."
Group in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., have develWhen the older tech with MS had to retire,
oped sophisticated mentoring programs for
Kohagen had another mentor who left the

bunch of frogs with these guys, because they
either don't have the ability, the knowledge or
the desire," Harkins says. "If they don't, you
need to cut the line pretty quickly."
Dave Wright, fixed operations director at
Shaheen Chevrolet in Lansing, Mich., recently launched a mentoring program at his
dealership. Among its major features:
 The mentors get to choose their apprentices. Shaheen Chevrolet has 38 lube techs
in its quick-service department, and the
mentors observed apprentice candidates
and got to know them before making decisions.
 The starting pay plan for the apprentice
techs includes both hourly and commission-based compensation. As they progress,
they make a transition to less hourly pay
and more commission pay.
 Mentors are paid based on the production
of their apprentices, and they are assured they
will make at least as much as they did when
they were turning wrenches. "We put some
guarantees in place so they wouldn't get hurt
financially and not have to worry about making their paycheck," Wright says.
- Rick Popely
dealership to return to wrenching. Four of his
17 techs were trained in-house by mentors,
and two others left to work for a General Motors supplier, Kohagen says. Currently, the
dealership doesn't have a mentor tech.
"I haven't found the perfect candidate yet,"
Kohagen says. "Also, that area in the shop
where we had the mentor working is now
housing the two most recent technicians who
went through the program and are doing really well. This is a bit of a space constraint, and
we need to figure that out when we put the
program back in place."

Patience pays off
Kohagen says the mentoring period before
his apprentices become line techs is roughly
12 to 18 months, "depending on how green
they are when they come in."
At Shaheen, Wright says, "We're guessing
from six to 10 months, but we're in no hurry. If it
takes a year and a half, that's OK, because they
can absorb a lot of knowledge in that time."
Because it takes time to develop skilled
technicians, Kohagen advises other fixed ops
managers to look in their shops for older techs
who could become mentors before they leave.
"I suggest they put them in a scenario where
they're pouring their knowledge into these
younger technicians," he says. "They're extremely valuable, and they're not going to be
there forever." 

AUGUST 2019

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Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019

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