Yes Virginia, You Can Teach Old Dogs New Tricks

Erin Bittner (Pierce Hardware) hired a new team member who did not come from the decorative plumbing and hardware industry.  In order to get her up to speed as quickly as possible, Erin tasked his new team member with reading all of the DPHA Education Program manuals and taking the Recognition Program testing modules.  When he logged on to the DPHA web site to provide access to the Education Program however, Erin realized that not all of his team members were registered for access to the Education manual, nor were they receiving weekly electronic issues of Connections and other DPHA information the helps build sales skills while keeping ones fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the industry.  As Erin related, this was a big "Ah-Ha" moment for him and Pierce Hardware. 

 

"The second thing we realized was that only a few of our team members had participated in the actual DPHA Recognition Program,"  Erin said.  His team thought that they were participating in the Recognition Program because they had downloaded the Education manuals and taken the tests at the back of each chapter, but did not realize there was another step.  That's when Erin contacted DPHA Executive Director Jim Babbitt and asked him to explain to the Pierce Hardware team how the Recognition Program works and to walk them through the DPHA web site. 

 

In fact, many of the team members at Pierce Hardware are seasoned veterans with multiple years of experience, but following Jim's presentation, Eric challenged all of his team members to take the Recognition Program sample quiz and offered a cash incentive to the person who earned the highest score.  Amazingly (or maybe not so amazingly), the winner of the cash prize was Erin's newest employee, the team member who had just recently read all of the Education Program manuals.  (Erin scored second best with 61% of the right answers, by the way.)  The test results opened Erin's and his team members' eyes to the fact that you can't rest on your past laurels and that regardless of how much experience you may have, ongoing professional development and education is essential to perform at the top of your game.

 

If you would like more information on the Recognition Program and the testing modules, or simply want your staff members to have access to the Education manuals, weekly issues of Connections, etc., please contact Jim Babbitt at jbabbitt@dpha.net.