Yesterday afternoon, Ken Barber from Jiffy Lube University showed off the amazing tool he helped develop. It is the Jiffy Lube University. This is a well-designed program for presenting and tracking training for the entire Jiffy Lube organization.
Jiffy Lube University
Barber outlines five keys to their success:
- Alignment
- Blended learning
- Learning brand
- Business results
- External recognition
When deciding to move toward a virtual university, Barber outlined the challenges. They were having issues with standard procedures, brand integrity, trust of franchisees, extensive curriculum, dispersed audience, and high turnover of employees.
Aligning Training With Business Partners
To be successful, Barber indicated they had to align with three major groups: the business, franchisees, and vendors. Within the business, they had to build relationships with resources who controlled the budget and personnel, the information technology folks, and the legal department. Barber also regularly met with operations to get direction. He would hand out states of training reports to keep others informed. He developed a training committee to determine the focus. The training committee worked through review processes, met twice a year, and reviewed products for quality. He stressed select key business partners to help deliver quality materials.
Combining Online and On-the-Job Training
Jiffy Lube University uses a blended learning model. Trainees start with Web-based training that has lots of video and lots of questions with robust feedback. After trainees complete this training phase, they must take a Web certification test to proceed. After passing the test, they begin on-the-job training. Supervisors evaluate their progress with a daily training observation guide. Once the supervisor signs off on all training, they consider the trainee fully trained. Throughout the process, learners can see where they are with a dashboard (see image above).
During the presentation, Barber emphasized the soft skills necessary to develop the program. He said, don’t set rules; instead, set standards. He referenced The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team by Mike Krzyzewski.
Barber also showed off the amazing dashboard for tracking training across all individuals, stores, franchises, regions, and nationally. He indicated that there was a great deal of transparency at all levels of the organization. Colors were used to indicate the status of all teams and people.
Jiffy Lube University Dashboard
Building the Learning Brand
Barber discussed the development of the Jiffy Lube University brand. He outlined the different stages of brand development such as the birth of a brand, growth of a brand, and mature brand. Jiffy Lube University is a mature brand because everyone assumes it has been there forever. He recognizes they must work on continuous improvement.
Measuring Business Results
Barber showed statistics on the level of training increase, customer loyalty score increase, and revenue increase. The training provided is not only technical but also includes soft skills like customer service. He also showed an increased employee retention based on the amount of training the employee had. The more training employees had completed, the increased retention they had.
Earning External Recognition
Finally, Jiffy Lube University competed for and earned several prestigious awards. Additionally, they developed alliances with organizations such as the American Council of Education (ACE) and the University of Maryland University College (UMUC).
Barber showcased a fantastic product that everyone should benchmark as a model of success. Great presentation!
Additional Reading: Jiffy Lube University “A Success Story” (PDF)
