Doug Rosendahl said that getting his employees to enough I-CAR classes to earn the Gold Class Professionals designation makes good sense for his business for a number of reasons.
"First, I think it's good publicity," said Rosendahl, owner of Rosendahl's Auto Body, one of only three collision repair businesses in Fresno, Calif., that can tell consumers and insurers it has earned the Gold Class designation because of its level of employee training.
"Plus there's a lot of liability involved in what we're doing," he said. "It's good to know the proper procedures to make good quality and safe repairs."
That's exactly the vote of confidence for I-CAR training and the Gold Class program that Tom McGee said he likes to hear. As the CEO of I-CAR, McGee said he has overseen a number of changes within the organization, particularly within the past year, designed to make it easier for shop owners such as Rosendahl to get the training for his employees to qualify for the Gold Class designation. Parts & People recently sat down with McGee to ask him how the changes will benefit the industry.
P&P: Beginning this year, in order to qualify as a Gold Class Professionals business, employees of the business must have earned five Gold Class points, plus earn two additional points each year. An individual earns 'Platinum' status by earning 10 points and continuing to earn two points a year. Why did I-CAR switch to this system?
McGee: Simply put, to simplify the system. It was confusing. Shops were finding it difficult to understand how many points each of the different positions within their shop--refinish helper, structural technician, estimator--were required to have because each position had a different point requirement. It was difficult for shops to calculate where they were in terms of Gold Class, which made it difficult to plan and budget for training.
So we tried to eliminate the need for a calculator. You basically get one point for each four hours of I-CAR training. The point system for Gold Class is now "5 and 2." Each employee must have five points in the first year, and two additional points each year after that for a business to qualify as Gold Class. For Platinum Individual status, it's "10 and 2."
P&P: So does this make it easier to qualify? Do Gold Class and Platinum now require less training?
McGee: It's easier to track and to see where you are and what you need, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can earn it with less training. Given the changes taking place in cars and light-duty trucks with the new materials, new manufacturing processes, and new electronics, we felt it was important to have a continuing-education element to the program, thus the required two points per year. That sends the message that you can't just take a bunch of training and then think that you don't need any more.
P&P: What kind of impact is the change having?
McGee: In terms of the Platinum Individual program, as part of the simplification we also eliminated the application form and application fee for this designation. We made it automatic. When a person qualifies as Platinum, they are notified and sent a certificate. So we saw a tremendous spike in the number of people who currently qualify for Platinum.
The number of Gold Class shops has really been unaffected because those who qualified under the old program were grandfathered in this year, so it will be a year or so before we see what happens to the number of Gold Class businesses.
But another important change we made is that the transcripts that we send to individuals and employers now include a box that shows how many points you have toward Gold Class or Platinum, and how many more points you need, and by when, to qualify for or maintain the designation. I think this will help people easily see where they are and what they need to do.
Q: Some I-CAR committees say I-CAR classroom numbers are down somewhat this year. Do you think the change to Gold Class is impacting that, and what are you doing to encourage people to get the training they will need?
McGee: It may be that some grandfathered Gold Class shops haven't gotten their employees to their two classes this year yet, and we're encouraging people not to wait until this fall because we're expecting a lot of interest and those classes may get filled quickly. So we're trying to get the word out about spring and summer classes we're offering now, so people won't wait.
P&P: Does this change affect the Training Alliance?
McGee: Not really. You can still earn Gold Class points through the Training Alliance classes offered by paint or equipment manufacturers. That helps reduce the redundancy that an individual has in attending different training programs as well as the costs and the time associated with that training. And students completing entry-level training at career and technical schools and colleges that are part of the Alliance can still earn Gold Class points for that training even before they first go to work in the industry.
P&P: I-CAR now offers online training and has trucks equipped to conduct welding-qualification tests in shops or locations away from I-CAR's test sites. Do you see that helping more shops earn Gold Class?
McGee: The mobile welding-qualification program just supplements the physical testing locations because even with 100 sites, some businesses were still faced with sending staff several hours away, possibly overnight, for the tests. With the trucks, we can bring the tests to their work environment to eliminate some of those costs for the shop. We are receiving a tremendous number of phone calls right now requesting the mobile qualification tests, and those schedules are beginning to fill-up.
The online training continues to pick up, and I think demographics play a role. The average technician today may not be as comfortable or experienced with online, self-paced training. But it will continue to grow in popularity as they try it and as more young people, who were born and raised in that kind of environment, get involved in the industry.
The online training started out with mostly new-vehicle-specific information but we're moving in to more non-vehicle-specific information, such as keyless entry, as well. You'll continue to see more variety as we continue to expand that library of programs.
P&P: What do you see as the primary benefits of earning and maintaining the Gold Class or Platinum Individual designation.
McGee: Return on investment on training is not an easy thing for a lot of people or businesses to really get their arms around. Certainly, Gold Class is being used in several situations as a benchmark to participate in an insurer's program. So it certainly establishes the credibility of that business with potential insurance partners.
But I think one thing a lot of businesses may not look at real closely is what it does for employee morale and retention. A business that is actually investing in training of its staff, I believe, is more successful in retaining employees. It demonstrates a genuine concern for their professional development.
It's also a way to distinguish yourself from other businesses when communicating with the vehicle owner. We continue to find ways, like the Gold Class Web site (www.GoldClass.com), to help consumers understand the designation. In particular with customer-paid rather than insurance-paid work, I think it's going to be more important for businesses to be able to distinguish themselves from the others.
We also see more and more businesses making ongoing training an integrated part of employment, such as tying it to incentive programs or making it a condition of employment or expectation for promotions.
And I'm also aware of several businesses that have done some internal benchmarking related to the repair process or estimate accuracy and found some pretty significant differences in their staff that is Platinum vs. staff that is not.
Similarly, we are in the process of analyzing some data that I think will show clearly the benefits in a couple of different ways to both repairers and insurers (comparing) Gold Class to non-Gold Class. It's something we are working on because I think it's important to continue to show the value of training and investment in employees.
sidebar: How $100 could help improve tomorrow's technicians
If you are among those who have complained about the challenge of finding qualified entry-level technicians, here's a fairly easy way for you to do something about it.
The I-CAR Education Foundation is asking shops to donate $100 to help the nonprofit foundation attract entry-level students to autobody training and assist in preparing them to enter the industry.
The foundation will return 85 percent of funds donated by shops within a region back to collision repair training programs in that region to help these schools acquire up-to-date curriculum or other training tools they lack--and for which they may not have a budget.
"The program is designed to pool small donations from shops to help their local career and technical schools and colleges produce well-trained entry-level employees for the industry," said Tom McGee, CEO of I-CAR, of the foundation's efforts.
By helping buy up-to-date curricula, for example, the $100-a-shop program could help a training program meet the qualifications that would allow students to enter the industry with better training and Gold Class points to boot.
Among the first 60 businesses to contribute to the effort are: Anchor Auto Body in Sunnyvale, Calif.; Artistic Auto Body in Tigard, Ore.; Automotive Impressions in Rio Rancho, N.M.; Body Craft in Marysville, Wash.; Dick Taylor Collision in Springfield, Ill.; Don's Auto Body in St. Charles, Mo.; Evergreen Paint in Longview, Wash.; Motor Guard Corp. in Manteca, Calif.; Mr. B's Paint & Body in Albuquerque; Park's Royal Body Works in Boise, Idaho; Precision Body & Paint in Beaverton, Ore.; Shelton Collision Repair in Derby, Kan.; Wicklund's CARSTAR in Liberty, Mo.; and Zara's Collision Center in Springfield, Ill.
For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation and receive a framed certificate and window decal, visit the foundation's Web site (www.ed-foundation.org) or call 888-722-3787, ext. 283.
Comment on this article
Send This Link To Friend