By Tony Netherly
There have been hundreds of articles written about the phenomenon of how every business has a culture and how difficult it is to change. The reality is every business has a personality that is made up of the combined personalities of the employees. I believe this is a true statement, and if so, to change the personality or culture of a business you would have to hire different people, because you will not likely change your employees’ personalities. It is true that some of the time there may be one bad apple that is corrupting the entire staff, and once they are gone you may see improvement in the whole staff. There is also the possibility that everyone may have looked to that individual as their voice, and they may become a martyr and you become the tyrant. So the question becomes can you really change the culture of your business? I believe you can, but I think there are some key issues you must address.
The first issue is getting employees to take ownership of the business. For the last ten years I have been teaching I-CAR classes. During that time I have had over 5,000 students. Often I will ask, “How do you do this or handle this situation in your shop?” There are usually two different type responses I get. One may be, “At my shop we do this or that”; the other may be, “At the shop where I work, they tell us to do this or that.”
The ownership that the first guy expresses is obvious and the dissatisfaction the second guy feels is also painfully obvious. Collision technicians will talk pretty freely, and if you are not certain that every employee feels ownership and pride in your business, figure it out soon. It is the key to your success in changing culture.
The second issue I see is pay plans that pit one employee against the other. You can’t possibly expect to see your business pull together as a team when the pay plan promotes every man for himself. Here is a common scenario: a commissioned technician finds an excuse why the vehicle you need to paint tomorrow is held up today; this tech can now work on an easier job that pays better, so he can flag it on this pay period. Now here is the bigger problem in this scenario: not only does the car you need to deliver end up being late, the tech is calling the shots, and because he is turning hours and is considered a work horse, you feel like you can’t stop him, after all he is paying the bills. I know more than one shop owner who has found a few work horses that are now running the shop. It may appear that they are indispensible, but a closer look may reveal that you could do less hours if the hours you do turn give maximum profit.
Last but certainly not least is leadership. There is the old adage: “There are three types of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what just happened.” If you have people in your business that are wandering around lost, either find a way to lead them or get rid of them. You will be doing them and yourself a favor. For those who are watching it happen, lead them to a level of involvement. Your employees who make it happen each day are your biggest assets, and you need to treat them as such. You can do two things for these people, and you need to talk to them to find which one is right. The two things I am referring to are reward and promotion. We think that every employee wants to be promoted, but this is not always true. Why do we think that because someone has mastered a process or skill it means they want to be promoted into a new position that they have to start all over? They may have mastered this skill because it is what they enjoy and love to do. They may be miserable, unfulfilled and become unproductive if promoted into another position. It may be better to find a different way of rewarding other than promotion for these employees. There are some employees who want to go to the next level and promotion is exactly what they need to grow.
I am more convinced every day that the secret to changing culture in a business is to have each employee take ownership in the business, build pay plans that give people the incentive to work together and pull in one direction. It is hard to push a rope.
Remember, last of all, only you can have the vision for your business, and you will have to lead your employees to fulfillment of that vision. You can change “culture,” but it will take focused and intensive effort. •
Tony has worked in the collision industry for over 32 years. Starting as a technician and working up to manager as well as spending time as an estimator and vocational instructor have given Tony a wide-angled look at the industry.
Tony is also Tennessee’s busiest I-CAR Instructor and the Executive Director for the Tennessee Collision Repair Association. You can contact Tony at 731-394-5628 or E-mail Tony at tony.nethery@yahoo.com
