Why You Should Invest in Employee Development Now More Than Ever

This year has proven to be a challenging for all industries, as businesses have been forced to revise plans and practices as a result of the global health pandemic. Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer has been no exception.

As our locations have made multiple changes to our operating procedures while enhancing safety and health plans, one thing has not changed: our organization’s commitment to training and continuing education.

At the onset of 2020, pre-pandemic, the Stoops team implemented a mentor-training program for a group of 40-50 of our teammates who are in leadership capacities at the Stoops organization, ranging from members of the upper management team to leaders in individual dealership shops.

The initial training was conducted in two large-group settings. However, company leaders soon realized the one-size-fits-all training were not efficient for such a wide selection of company leaders.

Enter Tim Hagen, of Progress Coaching. With the assistance of Tim and Progress Coaching, the Stoops organization was able to refine our efforts to include one-on-one training for our leadership group.

Here’s what a few of our leaders/managers had to say about the coaching they received:  

• “First, I have learned to be more supportive of employees who come with ideas that end up being unsuccessful. This section of the coaching has given me another approach with employees when we make mistakes. Being supportive of ideas and initiatives that fail but were created with the best interests of the organization in mind, helps encourage others to step forward without fear of scrutiny.”
  
  
• “I have learned to be a more efficient coach, as I realized I was spending too much time with certain employees in my day-to-day tasks. This area of training helped me set up a schedule to spend time with teammates, but while keeping our meetings short and to the point.”
  
  
• “One of the big things that I took away from the coaching is to make the time to have one-on-one meetings with my employee.  It is important to take more time to listen to each and every one of them and learn more about the employee on a personal level. This helps me understand the best way to provide coaching and training in the most efficient ways.”
  

While many organizations have been forced into survival mode during a difficult 2020, at Stoops, we took the approach that the way to a bigger and better future, was through continuing our employee development programs. We look forward to reaping the rewards from these training in the year ahead, as the world returns to normal. 

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