Taking Training to a New Level
AAA Refrigeration Service, Bronx, NY, has embarked on an exciting training adventure. The team at AAA has modified a 14-ft. enclosed trailer to serve as a mobile refrigeration training simulator, to serve AAA technicians in the home office, as well as its branch offices in Connecticut and New Jersey.
Vice president Dan Steffen called to tell me about the trailer, which came to light as a way to offer increased levels of hands-on training to apprentices and established technicians.
I've come to expect nothing but great ideas from AAA. Those ideas — related to service, training and business management —have propelled the company to its 75TH YEAR IN BUSINESS this year. President Donald Steffen and the entire team were chosen as the Contracting Business.com 2008 Commercial Refrigeration Contractor of the year (see bit.ly/AAACB).
Dan Steffen said the training has helped build stronger teams.
“As with any real-life supermarket project, they overcame hurdles, made field modifications, experienced some delays, and learned from their mistakes. The guys would arrive in the morning and know what the job was. They took ownership of it and wanted to be successful," Steffen said. "They applied a team effort and a sense of what it takes to work together, how important it is to keep crews working, and each person's importance."
Kurt Woods, a AAA field supervisor for 25 years, who served as lead supervisor for the training, said the classes provided — and will continue to offer — valuable lessons in team building.
Woods added, “They entered the class as individuals, and at the end, they were one unit. That's what you need in the field: a group working together."
You know the importance of training. This trailer idea is not brand new to the industry, but how many have tried it? It's one more way to build a better-educated team and give employees something to make the work more rewarding, their service more professional, and their careers more enriching.
Read this story at: bit.ly/AAAtraining
ARE YOU BUILDING SIMILAR TRAINING TOOLS FOR TECHS? IF SO, LET ME KNOW ABOUT THEM, WHEN YOU "GOT A MINUTE."