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Q&A: Finance guy becomes training guru.
During 20 years of financing franchise food operators, Robert Neagle has run the gamut of pitfalls and problems when companies fail to train employees properly. Chief among the problems is losing a competitive edge.
Neagle's interest in the industry began in the late 1980s when he was working for a national finance company that offered financing for real estate and equipment to franchisees. Later he started the franchise finance business at AT&T Capital, which became a leading provider of financing to multiunit operators. Most recently, he was senior vice president and general manager of CIT's Franchise Finance business before he went out on his own as a consultant.
Neagle launched Restaurant E-cademy earlier this year to provide restaurant operators Internet-based training.
How did you get interested in training issues?
In my experience, I have seen over and over again the obvious: Know what you want people to do, hire a person who wants to do the same thing, tell him exactly what you need done, tell him why you need it done, give him the training he needs to get it done, and support and encourage him as he goes about getting it done.
I'm a case in point. I joined a financial services company right after finishing my Ph.D. in 17th-century English literature and was trained on the job by people who did just what I described above.
It seems pretty obvious and simple. Why isn't what you describe commonplace in the industry?
What always surprised me about restaurant operators, including chains with multiple locations, is that they consider high turnover the cost of doing business. Say you own 50 restaurants, and your turnover is 25 percent. You've got a 13-week training program. How much money are you wasting every year in turnover? It's huge.
They don't think anything of buying an ice machine or walk-in freezers. Those are tangible things that produce a return. They don't have a way to measure the return on investment in employees.
Training affects top-line sales and bottom-line profit. Rather than viewing it as an expense, it should be viewed as an investment.
Trainers and human resource executives should make the argument for training a financial one?
Right. [Operators] need to understand the financial impact. Here's how to present it. Say, "Here's a model that shows the cost of training and turnover. What would happen if you trained more and increased sales 5 percent? What does that do to your operating income?" Once they plug in their data, the numbers become significant.
- Dina Berta