Training Via Webinar Expected to Save Jiffy Lube $500K

As manager of learning and development for Shell Oil Company, Ken Barber is responsible for overseeing training for the more than 177 franchisees who operate 2000 service centers for Jiffy Lube International. That means 20,000 employees training on things like customer service, management, and service procedures through 100 different courses and 10 certifications as part of Jiffy Lube University.

JLI’s training function began its award-winning climb back in 2004 as it changed from videos and manuals to computer-based and now web-based training. With the adoption of a learner management system, JLI had what it needed to begin tying learning into the company’s bottom line.

Elearning, which accounts for more than 95 percent of JLI’s courses, "gives us the breadth and depth we need to get new people up to speed quickly and performing at a high level. We use a four-step process [elearning, certification testing, on-the-job training, and proficiency as determined by a manager], to accomplish this,” Barber said. "The instructor-led training is the other part of our blended learning solution, and it’s primarily focused on mangers and assistant managers, because of the role they play at the store; we feel that’s worth the investment, to spend the time, to give them instruction and mentor them during that week of training so they can go back to their stores and do the same with their people.”

Elearning also allows JLI to get new employees involved in training and bettering themselves and their chances for advancement quickly. "We know that there is a direct correlation between the number of certifications, the level of certifications, that an individual achieves and the length of service he or she typically has,” Barber explained. "If we can have an employee plugged into a training program within the first 90 days, there’s a very good probability he or she will stay for two years or longer because most of the turnover we experience is within the first 90 days.”

The webinar phase of Jiffy Lube University is now being piloted. "We needed a cost effective way to expand our capacity to meet the training needs of the Jiffy Lube system," Barber said. But webinars and virtual instruction was new to JLI so Barber made a phone call to The Bob Pike Group and Becky Pluth. "We realized two things:  First, virtual instructor-led training (VILT) classes are different from instructor-led training classes and, second, we are not expert in VILT set up or delivery. As a result, we needed help from experts and turned to The Bob Pike Group because of the confidence and past experiences.

"When I first got into training, I took classes from a number of companies to learn presentation skills. By far the best was from The Bob Pike Group, and ever since, I have gone back for help in training my people and for help in developing ILT presentations and now VILT course development and delivery," Barber said.

Becky "took our ILT class PowerPoint presentation and converted it to a VILT presentation including the Session Plan with interactive functionality to keep the students engaged," he said. The project is now being piloted through the end of 2012. "We intend to measure the following:  Level 1 Student evaluations on the quality of the instruction, content, and overall experience. We will also measure the technical challenges and look at the before and after business metrics to determine the business impact," Barber said. "We expect when fully implemented this will save us over $500,000 annually."

Bringing Becky in to consult "helped us accelerate the pilot and thus kick off full utilization and the related cost savings faster," he said. 

So what did Becky do exactly? "We took Jiffy Lube's 90-minute classroom-based training and converted it to a webinar--a real-time, synchronous online training. Mainly, we added into the course interactivity that works online."

"After developing the webinar, I did a live session with just Ken where he gave me feedback. He made a lot of great observations; I incorporated those changes and then did a train-the-trainer for his team," Becky said. "In designing, I needed to keep in mind that many of the participants would be novice webinar-attendees and that a lot of the interaction techniques would be new to some of the facilitators.

"When designing, I had to add in extra time to teach the participants how to use the tools when creating interactions," Becky said. "I also know that the energy level is different online so you have to work harder to keep your own energy up since you can't gain energy from seeing the in-person participants. Teaching online is a completely different animal."

For more information on how The Bob Pike Group can partner with you to do custom solutions or custom design, call us at (800) 383-9210.