By Joel Little
Every self-storage company has a structure in place. Its there for a reason so theres an order of things and the right person is in the right position to positively affect the company. Theres also someone at the top of the structure ensuring every decision made is a positive one for the company.
Within this well-managed and intricate structure, there should be someone in charge of the training process. This person or team ensures every new employee coming into the company is up to speed on rules, regulations, requirements and show the new employee how to do his job. Every successful company has a person who shoulders this responsibility. Why is a person like this so important?
For just a moment lets take a look at a large self-storage company with more than 100 locations across the country. This company is firing on all cylinders ensuring its attracting customers to its stores, renting units and satisfying its customer base. Of course, there are managers and assistant managers, other staff and people in charge of managing the stores. That seems like a lot of people to monitor and train.
Lets give that responsibility to the CEO of the company. Will he have time to manage and train everyone experienced and new within the company? Should he be training or finding new ways to help the company grow? He should focus on growing the company. The point of this is to show that if there isnt someone or a team focused primary on training and coaching, then someone else in the organization will have to step in and do it. That will take that person or team away from the main job, which will not get the full effort.
With a large company it might be hard to ensure all employees understand their jobs and are doing it correctly. Having a regional team of trainers dedicated to such work can be crucial to a companys success. Their main job can be to listen, evaluate, monitor and even travel to these stores, budget permitting, to have a one-on-one time with each employee in their region.
A trainers job is important to the whole of the company. Without them the people at the top of the corporate structure will have no idea how a particular store or manager is doing. With someone in charge of that process, reports and evaluations can be reviewed to see if employees are improving or if theres a gap in development.
Never put training on the back burner of any companybig or small. Its too important to ensure everyone is on the same page, doing exactly whats expected. If theres a broken link in the chain, then everything could eventually fall apart. New employees have no idea whats expected of them. Having someone guiding their initial time and following up as needed will ensure theyre successful in their job.
Rather than having multiple people juggling multiple tasks, every company should have staff focus on their intricate part of machine that drives success. If you dont have a person or team dedicated to employee training, it might be time to revisit your structure.
Joel Little is the head sales coach at PhoneSmart, a self-storage call center and marketing firm. He's been in the self-storage industry for more than five years, and has been in retail management for more than a decade. He strives daily to help improve the self-storage industry one call at a time, gaining insight from each customer.