"To keep the college's auto body program viable, it would help to have an online course that could be taught nationwide," he says.
Crandell developed an online, entry-level course in paint prep to teach students with no experience how to prepare for a career in auto painting.
"There is a high turnover of paint preppers in the industry and you can train them fairly easily online," he says. "If a shop hires somebody who has no experience, they can enroll them in this online class and in two weeks they will have somebody who is productive. It's actually less than two weeks because they can do things in the shop while they are learning."
The course is designed to be taken over one or two weeks, depending on the student's reading ability, so students have a chance to absorb all the knowledge while working with their hands. "If you send students to one eight-hour class, that's asking them to learn too much too quickly," he says.
The class is a framework for the body shop to teach new employees. Students spend part of the day working through lessons on the computer and then do exercises in the shop to build skills.
"Students write down and learn how the body shop does things," Crandell says. "For example, they'll learn about paints and mixing ratios. These are different from shop to shop. But they will fill out a refinish guide during the course and have it as a reference when they are done."
The online course was designed with a heavy hands-on emphasis, Crandell said. "Auto body techs learn by doing, not by reading. A lot of my students don't read books. The online slides are narrated and there are lots of pictures, so they don't have to read everything if they don't want to."
The course was born out of Crandell's and the college's self-preservation instinct. A Maytag factory closed three years ago and displaced workers qualified for a state program that paid their tuition, books and mileage.
"At that time, I had 28 students," Crandell says. "But we've trained all the Maytag people and now we average about 12 students, but it dropped this year to eight students."
The online class is called "In the Shop Training: Paint Prep." Students can visit www.paintprepbasics.com to enroll or get more information. It costs $200 per student and consists of 10 lessons and exercises, followed by an online quiz. An instructor at the body shop fills out an evaluation form and, if the student passes, faxes it to the college. Students who pass receive certificates and also earn 1.5 hours of credit at Carl Sandburg College.
"I am trying to make online instruction the wave of the future," Crandell says. "It doesn't cost much, can be taken in any shop so there's no travel expense, and is available 24/7. It is meant to be convenient for the body shop. It also is very effective. If students do the exercises they will learn the skills, which include block sanding, paint mixing, paint spraying and masking."
Crandell, who is writing a book on auto body repair, worked at a body shop in college, and had a shop for 17 years. He has been with the college's auto body repair program since 1991. In addition to auto body classes, he also teaches biology at the college.
Use exit interviews to gain valuable insight
If you want the truth about your company, ask people on the way out. Exit interviews can deliver important inside information, according to the Automotive Parts Rebuilders Association. The way departing employees view your organization might be the way things really are. Here are some points to covering topics with outgoing employees:
Get third-party interviews. Many departing employees don't want to burn bridges or sour an ex-employer against them. One way to get them to open up is to have a third party conduct exit interviews. You can contract with a human resources consultant if your company doesn't have the capability to handle the task in-house.
Get to the heart of the matter. One way to talk to employees about why they are leaving the company is to have them fill out a questionnaire. In addition to asking why they are leaving, there are a number of other questions you can ask, including what their new employer may be offering the employee that you are not. Was their workload a problem (too much or too little)? Did they have the support (people, equipment, technology) to be as effective as possible? What did the employee like best about the job? What was most frustrating? In what areas could they have benefited from training? Would they recommend your company to prospective employees or to potential customers?
Scrutinize the comments collectively. Individual exit interviews can be interesting, but when viewed together, they take shape as a powerful management tool. For example, you might discover that one department has turnover problems, and decide to send that manager for additional training. Or you might find that long commutes are driving people away and add options such as flexible schedules so employees can escape rush hour.
Departing employees can be important agents for positive change at your shop. Use the opportunity to help your company improve.
