Training

Tailoring to Your Facility

by Jennifer Jones, JKJ Marketing

When you consider what a manager can and can’t do for your business, you realize how important training and hiring really are. A manager is part of your brand—the personality of your facility, the person who makes sure things are working properly. Depending on the size of your facility, they can wear many hats from marketing and maintenance to operations and revenue.

Trusted Self Storage Professionals has new assistant managers work with an experienced manager for two to three weeks before being scheduled to work alone. New managers work with an experienced manager for several weeks before being assigned their property. “We have one site that does most of our training, which makes for consistency,” says Mike Gately. The manager doing the training is a strong manager who likes training others and uses a written checklist of all tasks to be trained that must be completed and sent to the property supervisor. Good training is critical to achieving operational excellence and to have confident, competent employees.”

“Move It is larger than some of the other operators, so we’ve used our benefit of scale to set up an online learning management system (LMS),” says Katie Cowen. “Our managers get a combination of live, one-on-one training, training via review of an operations manual, and training via modules in the LMS. The LMS modules can include written lessons with a test afterward, video lessons with a test afterward, or a combination of both items. We also utilize training resources and certification from our software provider (SiteLink) and our ancillary truck rental services (U-Haul/Penske).”

Sarah Cole says that at Oakcrest Management, each new manager gets one week of training with a seasoned manager, two days of customer service phone skill training and one week in their store with a seasoned manager/ supervisor. “By the third week, they should be able to handle day-to-day functions on their own. On lien process days (NOC, cut lock, etc.), a supervisor will be with them to make sure notices are done properly and the new manger is learning how to do them properly. Oakcrest Management also has quarterly training webinars on various topics, such as collections, closing the sale and auction process.”

So, what do you do if you don’t have multiple facilities or don’t want to hire third-party management? You can write your own training manual. Each day you are performing a task, write down your thoughts and start creating checklists. Implement some of the tactics used above at your facility. You may only hire a new manager once in a blue moon or you may have higher turnover. Creating a training manual, although a time-consuming process, can ultimately save time when you hire a new manager.

Creating checklists for leasing, maintenance (as well as schedules), operations, procedures, new hire orientation, marketing and more will ensure your new manager is aware of your systems and expectations.

At RPM, training never ends. They have a designated trainer who gives personal, interactive training following a two-week program. At each subsequent store visit by a district manager, time is set aside for ongoing training for the entire staff. RPM also provides employees with paid tuition for online business management related courses.

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