By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP:
It has been said that adults do not need to be taught what to think they should be taught, but rather how to think. How does this apply to the parking and mobility industry?
My answer would be significantly! We all employ adults, whether part-time or full-time, that need to be onboarded and be expected to work independently. Often these are the very people that make the difference between out one star and five-star ratings.
Adults should be approached in a different way than children and we manage parking considerations for adults. When we are onboarding new employees, we often don’t take the concept of education into account. We tend to think about training. This approach may have worked well when most parking was gate controlled and paid for in cash. Today’s parking patron expects so much more. Not only do they expect a wide variety of services and payment options, but they also expect the people servicing them will have a higher level of technological understanding.
The industry continues to evolve to more reliance on technology. Managers would be wise to invest some time in their orientation programs. Standing in front of a group of new employees and asking them to recite facts or memorize policy manuals.
I suggest that the social experiences that an employee has encountered allow them to observe other students’ attitudes toward information and successfully emulate good practices through dialogue and observation. We are really in business for two reasons, customer service and problem solving. As professionals, we (and our staff) need to be good at both.
Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP, is the Director of Public Safety for Wesleyan University. Scott can be reached at srohde@wesleyan.edu.
Forum Question: What are effective strategies to help adult employees adapt to rapidly changing parking technologies?