Do you have a super-star technician that your shop can’t function without? Is there a plan for who will replace you as fleet manager?
Not having a succession plan in place for leadership or top talent at your fleet operation can leave a gap in productivity and consistency.
The COVID-19 outbreak may have made this more evident recently. If your shop was forced to lay off employees unexpectedly or had some staff members opt for an early retirement, it might have left your operation struggling to replace key roles and trying to quickly replace experienced workers.
To prepare for employees’ departures, it’s important to have a succession plan for all key positions in your operation.
One of the first steps in succession planning for your fleet is to determine the key positions and employees.
Identify which positions are most important to keeping your shop running day-to-day and long-term. This can include your technicians, parts manager, drivers and yourself as fleet manager. This list will vary by fleet, depending on what roles are most key to your operation.
It’s also important to identify your top employees. Are there people on your staff that everyone relies on to complete jobs and keep the shop running? Are there individuals that go above and beyond and fulfill the role of several employees? Who on your staff can’t your operation function without? Knowing this will help you determine who to keep in contact with about their plans for the future, and who to have mentoring other employees to pass on their knowledge and work ethic.
Once you identify who your key employees are and what roles are the most important to your fleet operation’s success, it’s important to create formal mentorship and training programs to train your employees and bridge any talent gaps.
For mentorship programs, partner your superstar employees up with newer staff members. This allows your top workers to train others and pass on their knowledge and work ethic. This helps ensure that when that employee leaves, the staff members he or she mentored will be able to take over.
You can also create more formal training programs. These can be internal where you are having veteran employees train new employees shop processes and procedures to ensure there is consistency when employees leave the shop. You can also create an external training program where employees go to formal classes to learn more skills and close any gaps in experience and knowledge they might have from other veteran employees.
One of the keys to succession planning is knowing which employees are at higher risk of leaving the operation. To try to keep tabs on which positions you might need to replace in the near future, encourage open lines of communication with your staff members so you can be aware of pending retirements and any employees who are unhappy and want to leave the shop.