How can you best utilize current technology to improve training within your ecosystem? One of our own customers, Meritor, had some amazing ideas in our recent technician training webinar! If you haven't seen it yet, it's still available for free replay. You can get a full hour of great ideas on recruiting, training, and retaining technicians from experts across multiple industries.
Some of the best practical ideas came from Peter Adair, the Technical Training Manager at Meritor. Meritor is a major supplier of after-market vehicle parts such as engines, drive trains, and brakes, and they provide parts and services to some of the biggest fleets in the nation. So it's imperative that they have truly excellent technician training programs, especially in the wake of COVID. How do they handle their training? Here are some of Peter's insights.
How Meritor Trains Fleet Maintenance Technicians Around The Country
1. Deliver virtual instructor-led classes
According to Peter, Meritor tries to avoid basic slideshow-based training whenever possible. They prefer live instructor-led classes, handled via Skype and Zoom and similar videoconferencing services. Instead of staring at slides, learners watch the instructor doing hands-on work, disassembling and reassembling systems live on-camera. Since these sessions integrate voice or chat, they're also able to take live questions from students on the fly, making these classes almost as good as in-person training - but at a much lower cost.
Plus, even after the live class is over, the resulting video can be archived and made part of their curriculum for years to come.
2. Make classes convenient
Groups such as sales reps and service technicians are busy, and Meritor recognizes this. They try to integrate as much flexibility as possible into their training schedules, with a variety of different types of classes, times, and session lengths. This way, learners have as many opportunities as possible to avail themselves of training sessions, while still fitting it into their standard work schedule.
3. 'Be your audience'
As Peter put it, 'Be your audience." When putting training material together, really think about who you're talking to - their demographics, their job role, their day-to-day experience. The more a training session can connect with the learners, the more effective that training is likely to be. This is a foundation of good communication skills in general, but it's particularly important to keep in mind when building training sessions.
4. Experiment with what's new
New communications technology and techniques are coming out every year, so make use of them. Any new communications tech can potentially be turned into a training tool, and Meritor are constantly experimenting to see how new ideas can improve their training programs.
5. Use a centralized shared eLearning system
Meritor makes use of white-label LogicBay technology to power their eLearning hub, which they call The Bullpen. The Bullpen is accessible across their ecosystem, to their own direct employees, as well as to all their customers and those customers' technicians. It houses all of their training programs in a single central location, where everyone has access to the same information. Also, this makes it easy for Meritor to audit and oversee the content available. If a video is out-of-date, for example, it can be instantly removed from everyone's access at the same time, and swapped out for more current information. This keeps the entire ecosystem on the same page, in terms of up-to-date technical info.
If you're looking for an excellent solution for centralizing and standardizing training across your ecosystem, LogicBay can do the same for you. Our white-label tools allow you to provide a superior hub for hosting a nearly-unlimited number of training courses, videos, tests, and more. It also supports Zoom integration, so you can host live demonstrations and classes, while tracking participation data on every session.
To learn more, just contact us. And in the meantime, if you haven't seen our webinar, it's still available to view.
