Joe Marconi

Money Isn’t The Motivator We Think It Is By Joe Marconi, an Elite Worldwide Blog - We often hear that most people are money-motivated. However, when it comes to employee motivation, there’s much more than just financial incentives. According to Gallup, a management consulting company, when people are looking for employment, money may be at the top of their list of considerations, but once hired, no amount of money can motivate someone if they are not happy in their workplace. Additionally, Gallup’s study revealed that money does not create employee motivation and that there is no direct link between salary and workplace happiness. Understanding employee motivation is crucial for any manager looking to improve productivity and maintain a happy, high-performing workforce. Without understanding what truly motivates employees, high levels of productivity and profits will not be achieved. People are motivated by different reasons. It’s the job of the manager or shop owner to build strong relationships with their employees to find out what truly motivates them. One of the best ways to find out is to simply ask them. You may be surprised by what they say. Now with that said, let’s address when money is important. Everyone needs to cover the basic needs of life. People need to pay the rent or mortgage, put food on the table, and take care of their families. If someone worries each week that their base pay will not cover their financial needs, they will work from a position of fear. This will eventually cause them to shut down, produce less, and start to look over the fence for greener grass. Another area when money becomes a factor is when an employee feels that they are not getting the respect they believe they deserve. For example, you hire a top-level, experienced service advisor and pay that person a higher wage than your current top-performing service advisor. No matter what arrangements you make with the new hire, your current service advisor will find out the pay wage for the new hire, and that will not go well. In some cases, this may cause your current service advisor to quit. Aside from a few exceptions, money is not a prime motivator. In this blog, I will outline five powerful ways to motivate the people in your company, which will also help you create the right culture, ensure long-term success, and help prevent your employees from looking over the fence for greener grass. Satisfy The Basic Needs of Life and Career As I mentioned earlier, when an employee worries each week about not earning enough to cover his basic financial needs, he works in a state of fear. In this state, people cannot function. The stress and worry consume them. When people realize that their basic needs will be fulfilled, they become more engaged with their work, will produce more, and are more inclined to grow and advance in your company. As a shop owner or manager, you need to sit down with your employees. Find out about their goals, both in their career and in their personal life. Another obligation for shop owners is to create pay plans that offer competitive wages, great benefits, and a career path where they feel secure with their future with you. Financial and emotional security is important, not only for the employee but for the employee’s family too. Create a Culture of Mutual Respect Everyone craves respect. This is an area that is lacking in so many workplaces. While employees may be at different experience levels and in different positions, everyone wants to know that what they do gets the attention and respect of leadership. As a shop owner, create an environment of shared and mutual respect. Look to those in your company who have leadership qualities and mentor them so that they can mentor others. When your employees share in their talents and efforts as a team, combined with mutual respect for one another, you have created one powerful motivator. Have Your Employees Compete Against Themselves In the workplace, employees are at many different skill levels. For example, a typical repair shop may have two technicians with over 20 years of experience and one tech with under 5 years of experience. It makes no sense to have the younger tech compete against the more experienced techs. When you do this, you create winners and losers. What you want are all winners. Encouraging self-competition is a powerful way to enhance employee motivation by allowing them to see personal progress and achievement. If you do that, each of them can win. Measure each employee’s production, whether it’s billable hours, sales, gross profit, or other metric. Find a baseline for each employee. Establish a minimum level of acceptable performance, the goals for their position, and the individual goals for each person. Provide the training, support, and a pathway for them to improve and succeed. When people see themselves improving, by measuring their metrics against themselves, they also see themselves winning. They become more engaged, which motivates them to work harder and want to continue to improve. Remember, create a shop filled with winners. MBWA – Management By Walking Around MBWA is a strategy that was written about in a book published in the early 1980s, by Tom Peters, called In Search of Excellence. The strategy is simple but powerful. It requires that managers get out of their offices each day and spend time walking the shop floor. Engage in conversation with your employees. But here’s the key component that makes this strategy so powerful; engage in conversation that helps you to find out more about them, their hobbies, their family, and what they like to do in their time off. In other words, don’t just make the conversation about business, make it personal, about them. When you find out what’s important to your employees, you will also find how to increase employee motivation. Imagine this scenario: Through your MBWA you find that your superstar service advisor enjoys taking her kids to dinner and a movie, and you surprise her with tickets and a gift card for the entire family for a night out. Tell me that’s not a powerful motivator! Praise and Recognition Praise and recognition are perhaps the greatest motivators of all. There’s not a person on this planet who does not want to be recognized and praised for a job well done. Look for reasons to praise your employees. Let the little mistakes slide. If you want your employees to grow and improve, then praise and recognize the behavior you want to see repeated. For example, you speak to an employee about coming in late. If that employee comes in on time for the next three days, praise and recognize that! After all, it’s the behavior you are looking for, right? What happens all too often is nothing is said when the employee comes in on time for a few days but is handed a heavy reprimand when the employee once again arrives late two weeks later. If you only point out when people don’t perform the way they should, that is what you will get; an endless occurrence of people not performing up to expectations. There’s a phrase from the book The One Minute Manager, but Ken Blanchard, “Find people doing things right!” Conclusion At Elite, one of our core values is to never put money ahead of people. We believe true employee motivation comes from fostering a culture where individuals feel valued and respected, rather than relying solely on monetary rewards. When a company focuses on building the right culture and prioritizing employee well-being, great things happen, and success becomes inevitable. This concept is woven into the fabric of what we preach, teach, and coach. Whether it’s our service advisor Master’s Program, our Top Shop Coaching Programs, or our Pro Service peer groups, we will never abandon what has made Elite the company it will always be… a company that will never put money ahead of people. View full article

Wow, I applaud you for taking ownership of the problem. If want a change in our life and business, WE must be ready to accept responsibility! Great job!

I have through many horror stories too. As an industry, we need to stick together on issues like this, but sadly, we often don't.

Many shops these days are complaining that business is slowing down. While I am not against advertising, let's consider the following before you throw money at the problem: Are your service advisors doing all they can to provide an amazing customer experience? Are multipoint inspections being done properly? Are your service advisor proactive with making sales and trained properly to handle objections? And are you booking the next appointments for deferred work, future maintenance work and other future services? What else can we do to maintain sales, BEFORE we spend more money on advertising?

Makes a lot of sense! Agree!

With the internet, social media, etc.. today is much different than years back. While we need a balanced approached to marketing, what people say about us and how they use technology to find our more becomes the norm. Essentially word of mouth is still powerful.

Way back in the 1980s and 1990s, a general auto repair shop was possible. But back then the dominant cars on the roads were GM, Ford And Chrysler, with a sprinkle of Japanese cars. Today, is it possible to be a general repair shop, and work on all makes, all models?

Labor dollars is becoming the main driver of profit. Years back it was parts and labor, a 50/50 split. Not so anymore. Our labor needs to be our main profit center. The problem is it's not that easy at times due to so many variable we encounter on a daily basis.

We all know that word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertising. But there are some auto shop owners that say that due to Google and social media, it's not as effective as it once was. I still say that building strong relationships with your ideal customers is the best marketing strategy. Your thoughts?

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things in business is dealing with aftermarket warranty companies. Whenever a customer showed me their warranty papers, I could feel my blood pressure raise. Most of these companies want to dictate to us how much we can charge, sometimes the parts we can use, and want to be in control of the entire process. How do you deal with the aftermarket warranty companies? Or should you???

More and more shops are hiring or taking one their techs and make them the shop foreman. What are the pros and cons of having a shop foreman?

As a business coach, I get to talk to a lot of shop owners, and many are complaining that while sales are down, their car counts are still high. Here are a few things why this is happening: Complacency: For the past few years, customers just said yes, now they are a lot more conservative with spending. Inflation: While inflation has eased, we are still left withe higher prices in so many areas- food, entertainment, housing etc. This affects the consumer purchasing power. Not Understanding your business model: Too many shops are trying to be everything to everyone, and this leads to doing many unprofitable jobs. Focus on your business model, focus on your ideal customer. There are many more reasons for a decrease in sales. What are your thoughts?

Makes sense, and agree.

I am in total agreement. You know, way back in ancient times...the early 1980s, I only accepted cash and checks. As the price of repairs and services began to increase dramatically, it became unreasonable to expect customers to only pay in cash or check. We are on the same page.

Many auto repair shops are adding a fee to the final invoice for customers using credit cards. I get it, but don't agree. For me it's simple. First, do your best to negotiate the best deal from your credit card provider service. Next, take that fee and add it to your cost of doing business. To me, I consider this fee an expenses, just like all other expenses: office supplies, utility bill, insurance, taxes, training, travel expenses, maintenance, etc. etc. From your total average monthly expenses, you will be able to determine your breakeven, and from there, set your net profit goal. In other words, forget about the charging the customer a fee, just build into your overall prices. You will accomplish the same thing, and not bring attention to the customer that small fee that may be a big deal.

Great points, and I agree. Too many things can go wrong in our business. We need to protect everyone involved.

You make a lot of sense, and I agree!

Not a fan of earbuds. Too many hazards in the shop, you need all your senses. Plus once those earbuds are in, the person is in their own world. The wrong message in my opinion. If employees are overconcerned about background music, and the shop cannot come up with a compromise, that alone is an issue.

Agree 100%!!! Shop owners need to sit down and do a deep dive into their operating expenses, and track it back over the past few years. That will open a few eyes! Many shops are doing better in SALES (not profit) because of increases in labor rates, and increases in parts. BUT the gross and net profit have probably not increased, and I would wager a bet, have gone down. When ever you hear about a shop stating their numbers, it's always the Top Sales Number. That number means nothing. It's the NET, what you keep that matters.

There are so many issues with our industry, and you point out some of the more severe. The auto aftermarket needs a reset. Shops need to do all they can to get more younger people to enter our industry, we need to provide the best training available, great pay with benefits. And most of all, create a culture where people (including the boss) is respected. This takes money. Too many shops don't understand this, and undervalue what they do. To think we can hire "THE PEFRECT TECH" is no longer a reality for most. Another thing, techs today are always looking over the fence for greener grass. is it for money only? Or do have have bigger issues? I don't have any easy solution, and you bring up great points. Perhaps is starts with these conversations.

Sometimes to narrow your focus ends up being more profitable.

Upstate NY? I live in Putnam County NY, originally from the Bronx! Now that I am a business coach with Elite Worldwide, after spending 41 years as a shop owner, I have seen labor rates around the country raise increasingly the past few years. While EVERY shop MUST do their own calculations, I can tell you that $150 to above $200 per hour labor rates are becoming more and more common. It needs to be if we are going to attract and retain qualified employees and pay them the wages they deserve. AND to allow the shop owner to earn the pay he or she deserves.

You bring up a great point; marketing must be consistent and continuous. How do you measure the effectiveness of each marketing strategy?

The only reason I asked is because I have shop owner friends around the country, and I hear too many cases where the overtime laws are very confusing, even with flat rate. When I had my shop I used an HR company (SESCO). They opened my eyes to a lot that I was doing wrong. One NOTE, my two shops were in New York, so that too makes a difference.