Competition often brings out the best in people. You might want to think about trying it with your technicians.
There are many ways to encourage your technicians to improve their performance. Jane Clark, Vice President of Member Services, in a recent IdeaXchange blog notes that setting up competitions could be one of those ways.
Citing the TMC’s SuperTech competition and how that gives technicians a way to show off their proficiency and expertise. But not everyone can make the grade for this super-competitive event, so Jane notes fleets may want to set up their own internal competitions or register their best technicians for local, state of national events.
These competitions can turn into real morale boosters, allowing your own people to exhibit their skill levels where others in the organization or in the public can view them. Plus, by promoting competitions, fleets make it abundantly clear to their technicians how greatly they are valued. One very important condition, however, is to make these events competitive but friendly. What you want is overall support and great performance from all of your technicians. In fact, you want this from your entire workforce.
Jane suggests that fleets check out a brochure published by TMC, “How to Conduct a Professional Technician Skills Competition.” The brochure lays out a number of actions fleets should take, including:
- Gather support from volunteers to help you organize and run the event
- Build partnerships with a variety of trucking industry-related firms
- Hold the competition in conjunction with an existing event to cut down costs
- Inform technicians of the rules before the event
- Invite students from local vo-tech and high schools to observe
The reality is the industry faces a technician shortage and anything we can do to promote the profession will help all of us.
For more suggestions on how to run a successful technician competition, read Jane’s full blog.
