September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 AFTERMARKET 11 www.aftermarketonline.net before they hit bonus. Once they hit bonus, they are in the next category, which goes to 2%, 5%, 10%, depending on how efficient they are. Power BI automatically works it out.” What we were hearing was this technology was needed to make a bonus system work. When the right management system was applied as part of the mix, it did work. "It works, without a doubt," confirmed Mark. "We have got that working a dream via Power BI. we have a 50 inch monitor in the workshop, I have one in my office, the staff have a weblink so they can see behind the scenes. All our technicians have tablets or phones with that on so they can see how efficient they are." Mark continued: "Anyone can set up a business, but to get where you want to be, to get the staff to work efficiently. You will never get staff doing nine hours out of nine hours, but if you get them doing seven and half out of nine hours, you are doing pretty well." Mark added: "I was never a massive believer in bonus schemes. The more I have looked into it though, and the more work I have done on it and with Garage Hive and Power BI we have been able to get there. The scheme is fair, we are not there to rip the staff off, or scam customers to get more labour out of them. If we can get those guys to work more efficiently, then that is better than average." Motivation So we have gone from a business where they deliberately don't use a bonus system, to one where they have spent years trying to get a variant on the concept to work, to a business where after years of trying, they seem to have it working. These are all high profile, successful businesses, including one that was a finalist in Top Garage 2019, and another co-owned by 2010's Top Technician champ. To sum up, we needed someone at a similarly high level, so we asked The Garage Inspector, Andy Savva, what he thought: "I think the worst thing you can do in a garage environment is to incentivise someone based on a bonus structure, to try and push more work through the workshop to increase sales. It is the most draconian method I can think of. "A lot of the parameters and processes that a technician needs need to be in place for him or her to achieve that bonus is out of their control, apart from their skill level and attitude which are also very important. When you try and incentivise someone on that type of structure, for me it breeds a lack of thought in doing your work, it speeds you up unnecessarily. "Also, what type of work do you give to which technician in the workshop? Ultimately this causes a host of additional problems. Some people will end up getting the same jobs because they are very good at them. Some people get the worst jobs because they are not liked. "Over the years I tried all these, but in the later years of my business I never had bonus schemes for those reasons. If you haven't got footfall, that's a problem for the technician. If the owner of the business does not have the right tooling, that's a problem. If there is a car parking issue, that's a problem. If the diagnostic equipment the garage has is not sufficient to diagnose the vehicles or the type of repair they are doing, that's a problem. The pay structure, that's a problem. "For me there are too many variables that make or break these kinds of bonus systems. It is a de- motivator, rather than a motivator. I have had clients, they tried it, sometimes including the service advisors and the reception staff. A lot of these ideas appear when a business is not making the sales in the first place. What you need to do is look at cause and effect " Andy concluded: "I have a very straight answer for all of this. You pay people a certain amount of money, you employ them, if you employ them, then you must trust them. Pay them well and let them get on with the job, and give them an infrastructure to excel. " There we have it, a completely circular article taking you right around the range of opinion. We hope our reader finds it useful in making his decision. We would like to follow this up. What do you do? Do you run a bonus system? Did you give one up? Let's see what everyone is doing. Contact our Editor on: alex@aftermarket.co.uk . A bonus scheme has to pay out. There is no point having one if it is unachievable. Equally there is no point having one if they can get it without trying. ”