Who are the certified trainers and new store opening trainers for your concept?

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Heersink on February 6, 2009 at 2:26pm

Hi Heather,

I work as the head of the store opening department for a large regional pizza chain. We've opened about 50 stores in the past 4 years I've been with the company. We just started a certified trainer program here. Before we just sent anyone who was willing to go, and we just kinda trained them on the go. We do have a few full time trainers that do most of the work. For our "Part Time" trainers we now do a 2 day interview and training session at their home store. We only use people who have worked at a store for at least 6 months. We also require them to be 21. If its their first store opening, they can only be opening support. They assist the management in making sure a specific area is doing things correctly and according to standards. As much as possible, we make the employees of the new store do the work. We only bail them out and jump in to work when the guest is going to notice that things aren't smooth. We pay a per day wage, mileage, and any meals while they are on the road. This includes traveling meals to the new store from their home store and meals while at the restaurant. We do try to eat out at least every other day at a different restaurant. When we don't have openings, our part time staff don't help us, they just work at their store as they normally would. For our full time staff, they work in our office getting ready for the next opening (making smallwares orders, food orders, etc) as well as creating any training materials needed for new and existing stores. From time to time they also assist in manager training at on of our training stores. For performance, we don't have any real measurement tool. We get a general feeling for them at the store by talking to the other trainers and the new store owners and managers. I know one thing some other chains have said with the whole hourly/salary thing is to be careful for overtime. If they work long hours and you pay them daily, they may approach falling below minimum wage when you factor overtime. Hopefully this helps a little.

Feel free to message me or contact me if you'd like more information.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Clute on March 21, 2009 at 7:13pm

Hello Heather,
Just the job description is well beyond the scope of this brief reply, but with many years in training, I always looked for a person that could represent the brand well, a person that not only knew the why and how of the skills they were training, but could put it into a context that added value.
I always looked for excellent communicators, that work confidently in unfamiliar surroundings, with ability to engage everyone from management to part time team members. If they were recruited from outside, they had to internalized a lot of information very quickly and be able to demonstrate it convincingly. Basically they had to own the "black and white" of knowledge, because it always would get "grayed" by the trainees.
For new store openings, they were the SME, and must be prepared to assure that every part of the opening process went smoothly, from the orientation through the "friends & family" and onto the first days after the opening.
Your core training team has their travel dictated by the New Restaurant Opening schedule. One company that meant traveling up to 80% of the time. Even when I was in a leadership role, I was on the road up to 50% of the time supporting openings and field training. I have never used local restaurant employees unless we were opening in the same market as their home restaurant, and then only in a short term support role.
I guess the benefits are that you get to travel a lot! That plus the dynamic experience of really making a difference for each new opening. There are certain perks that appeal to a certain kind of road warrior, such as not being confined to a desk or office. We always provided lots of recognition, comp time off, in addition to the usual corporate benefits packages.
If there are no openings, there is still a lot of work to do with continuous performance improvement, from revision of job aids, to improving individual training performance. We also used Training Team members to do followup visits to recently opened restaurants and to conduct field training programs supporting new marketing initiatives and product rollouts. There were always lots of things to do!
The key performance indicators are varied. At the core is: can the restaurant team members do the job they need to do? During the Ops Department followup within 30 days of the open, there should be ample evidence of recipe and quality compliance that directly reflects on the training they received. In the corporate restaurants, the same key metrics used to evaluate restaurant performance were owned by the Training Team for the first 30 days after opening. It's a little more subjective with a franchise owned restaurant but still the results of training should be visible in the skill level of the restaurant team.
I have always believed in salary. Hourly can ruin your budget when you throw a bunch of openings in a short period of time, with Training Team on site for 12 plus hours per day for 10 days in a row.
I hope this provides more information, than questions!
Good Luck!
jimclute

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Permalink Reply by Steve Paterson on March 21, 2009 at 8:14pm

I've done my share of openings in various trainer roles....mostly casual dining, but not all.
Here's my 2 cents

1. What are the criteria (or job description) for being a certified trainer?
This position should start at the unit level...trainer for new hires in-store. Perhaps something like successfuly training 3 new hires, before being offered an off-site opening opportunity.

2. Is this a promote from within position, is someone hired from the outside or both?
Perhaps both...depends on size and goals. From within, you don't need to teach culture. From outside your organization, it's the first thing you should do. Also consider the structure you want to create...e.g.) Co-Ordinator who oversees the training team. Team consists of x,y,z station trainers.

3.What are they responsible for in their 'home' store?
Consistent execution and solid job performance, training new hires properly, a leader.

4.How do they support new store openings?
That's up to you.....or i don't understand the question.

5. How often do they travel?
Some can travel more than others....too many new unit openings can be brutal and lead to burnout. Besides, mix up your trainers, but not the co ordinators. Try to avoid assigning back to back openings.

6. What are the benefits?
Of what?

7. If there is no one in training and no openings, what do they do?
Visit units, teach, help, focus on efficiencies...there are always opportunities

8. What are they key performance indicators of a trainer?
. Leadership, knowledge, communication skills and organization

9. How is their success measured?
The success of the unit once the training team is gone.

10.. Are they paid salary or hourly?
Depends...they could be an hourly employee who is paid a salaried (fixed) training rate when doing openings. Random numbers, but say a $10 hourly rate employee gets a flat salary equal to $150 per day...something like that.

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