Train your employees
Once you hire somebody, your training systems can really be thecatalyst for getting him or her to understand your interest in quality.
Capó’s company has El Dorado University, which is a trainingprogram where instructors from the company get qualified asdepartment experts to teach new people the ropes. Rather thanjust send a salesperson out on the floor, El Dorado Furniture givestwo to three weeks of training before a new person can even talkwith a customer. Giving extended time purely for training has distinct advantages, like the opportunity for a second look at anemployee’s professionalism and a chance to instill how importantyour standards are.
“Part of the training is the same way, if they’re supposed to comein for training at 9 o’clock and they’re not here, they get a warning:‘Tomorrow, if you come in at 9:01 and you’re not excused, pleasedon’t even show up. Because discipline is very, very important inthis business or any business,’” Capó says.
El Dorado Furniture is also constantly circling back withemployees to make sure they’re on top of the concepts they shouldknow. The company regularly sends leaders into stores just tocheck in on front-line employees. Capó also sits down with hisquota-based salespeople every two weeks to show people howthey are doing. Anyone who isn’t making the mark is sent back toa more expedited retraining session. Capó lays out an example of what the company does with salespeoplethat are coming up short: “We go throughthe entire process of the sale and say,‘Where are they, what are their faults?’because there is something that they’redoing wrong, and we say let’s look at thatand do a particular retraining on that particular subject, — and of course, we do arefresher on everything else,” he says.
That retraining session is not availableover and over again. If someone can’t do itin sales after the retraining session, Capóoffers the employee the opportunity totransition to another position — providedthe person is a good employee overall.
“We have some people that we know thatthey’re not going to make it in sales, butthey’re very good at everything else thatthey do — their paperwork, attendance,their personality, taking care of the customer issues and so forth,” he says. “So wegive them an opportunity, if we have anopening, to work in another department.”
If the problems a person goes to retraining for are about areas of professionalism,there is no such grace after a first coachingsession.
“Now, if the person is off in other areas,where they don’t have good attendance orthey don’t have good productivity, we dogive them the coaching, we train themagain, but from there, they are basically outthe door,” Capó says.
By giving the extra training and givingpeople the warning of being put throughretraining, Capó says you draw a clear linein the sand about expectations.
“We tell them, ‘If you keep doing thisthing, you’re never going to make it, soeither you try to make an effort or if youhave a problem, let us know, and let’s dealwith it and move on,” he says.
That personal attention doesn’t fix everyproblem, but Capó says it rehabilitates manyand even helps a few people realize they areexpected to and can do much more.
“I would say that probably about 60 percent of them [become good employees],”he says. “They might not become a super-star, but they actually get back on trackand see this is for real. And believe it or not,a lot of people don’t know their potential— there are people who have a lot of talent, but they’re missing that spark thatmakes everything else evolve.”
