HVAC Contractor Training Program Manager

Overview

Johnstone Supply, North America's leading wholesale distributor of HVACR equipment, parts, and supplies, has a great opportunity to join our team. Over the last seven decades, Johnstone has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry leader with over 470 distributor branches and 6 distribution centers throughout North America. We work with some of the largest companies in the world, including Daikin/Goodman, Bosch, Copeland, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Fujitsu, to provide contractors with world-class products, technical expertise, and quality service.

Now is the best time to join Johnstone Supply. Relationship-building is the key to our success, and it shows in everything we do. The Power of Johnstone is everyone who works with us. Our customers, our partners, and our people. Johnstone is growing, and so can you.

Responsibilities

Drive Adoption in stores:

• Partner with individual store teams to identify barriers to university utilization. Co-develop store level activation plans.
• Evaluate training program effectiveness and results through follow-up surveys, outreach and measuring business outcomes.
• Build a community of partners, suppliers, store leadership and contractors and facilitate sharing of training best practices.
• Travel to stores and trade events for in-person training walk throughs, promotional launches, and contractor-facing events.
• Act as a trusted field resource that stores can work with to position new courses, advertise, and troubleshoot a program design. Provide tool kits and in-store university materials for store use with minimal lift.
• Utilize monthly/weekly scorecards and dashboards to track sales and promotions by store and region.
• Guide store Power Users in development of customized training tracks and learning plans for contractors and coordinate with eLearning team to assist with university setup.

Enhance Contractor Programs

• Perform training need assessments, recommend new solutions, and training curriculum plans for contractor jobs
• Maintain and promote contractor training best practices, including positioning for customer acquisition & growth, store training profitability, training facilities/equipment, trainer competencies / hiring / onboarding, curriculum & programs, training materials, promotion, and safety & compliance vendors.
• Reach outside the HVAC industry, as needed, for training best practices to meet HVAC-R industry challenges
• Partner with stakeholders to identify and refine relevant & profitable contractor training opportunities and address pain points. Establish a voice of the customer process for feedback directly from contractors.
• Crowd-source and curate new contractor training content. Provide customer support, and infrastructure for our stores to develop, house and sell contractor training content.
• Work closely with Content development team for design and acquisition of new training content. Identify gaps and recommend new content or vendor partnership to fill them.

Marketing and Promotion:

• Design and execute effective campaigns, advertising, outreach and promotions that drive contractor enrollment and course completion.
• Manage national programs with contractor training licensures (i.e. NATE, State CE etc.), trade schools, suppliers and other resource providers in support & promotion of Johnstone contractor training programs
• Partner with Marketing, Sales and Product Teams to align with their strategic map for promotion, supplier focus and shared materials.
• Collaborate with corporate marketing and external suppliers to support branding, marketing, and communications for all contractor related content.
• Present or support training program topics at Johnstone Annual Meetings, trade events, and training seminars

Manage Project Planning & Execution:

• Create business case, plan, and manage projects assigned
• Develop and manage project budgets; Create and deliver project status updates (written and oral) ; Perform risk assessments and recommend alternatives
• Document and communicate results; Ensure timely and complete communication to all stakeholders
• Work as an effective partner with other university team members.

Perform other tasks as assigned by Supervisor.  Johnstone Supply believes that each employee’s contribution should not be limited by the assigned responsibilities.  Therefore, it is our expectation that each employee will offer his/her services wherever and whenever necessary to ensure the success of our endeavors.

Qualifications

Education/ Experience: Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Five or more years of experience in HVAC, contractor development, training, learning programs, distribution, manufacturer rep programs, or a related field. Experience developing marketing campaigns, training resources, content, communications, and customer engagement programs preferred.

Job-Specific Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Problem-solving
  • Advanced critical thinking skills; self-directed, collaborative, comfortable building programs with ambiguity
  • Ability to understand, diagnose and rectify problems without conflict
  • Diagnoses why utilization is low in a given region (awareness, relevance, price etc)
• Communication & Facilitation
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to build effective working relationships and credibility with store teams and contractors
  • Ability to write formal business documents, including proposals, reports, project plans, and training guides and manuals, and promotional articles in a consistent and professional manner with proper grammar and spelling
  • Ability to present information to small and large groups; launch events, and use industry language to build trust
  • Listen to others to identify needs, concerns and root causes
  • Skill in influencing and leading others to achieve business goals; adjust communication style between technical contractor audience and corporate or store partners
• Project Management & Organization
  • Ability to manage a project life cycle, including course correction and results; manages multiple store roll outs, campaigns, and projects simultaneously.
  • Ability to develop and use systems for organizing and keeping track of information
  • Ability to define project budgets, negotiate and successfully work within budget/contract requirements
  • Ability to prioritize tasks and adapt to changing work priorities while working in a fast-paced business environment
• Training
  • Ability to assess contractor learner needs, environmental factors, and job content, to define training objectives
  • Knowledge of adult learning principles, instructional design practices, and blended learning approaches.
  • Experience supporting learning management systems (LMS) and learning technologies.
  • Ability to coach and support users in maximizing training platform capabilities

• Software/Technical Skills
  • Proficient in MS Office programs: PowerPoint, Word and Outlook; strong experience in Excel and BI is helpful
  • Experience with LMS reporting and learning technologies.
  • Knowledge of content development, video editing, email marketing, and course authoring tools preferred (e.g., Articulate, Camtasia).
• Business Math
  • Demonstrated understanding of basic business finance and promotional math (discounting, margins, ROI)
  • Ability to create and use formulas in Excel and create and use pivot tables to analyze data

Preferred:

• Knowledge of HVAC-R industry operations, terminology, certifications, and workforce development challenges.
• Knowledge of wholesale distribution business models and customer engagement practices.
• Familiarity with instructional design principles and learning program development.

Physical Demand

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.  The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and lift up to 50 pounds.  Specific vision requirements for this position are close vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Company Values

We’re also interested in hiring a great candidate that holds these values so we can further build a strong company culture:

• Safety: Always prioritizes safety, both at work and at home, while ensuring those who work for you work safely.
• Customer Focused: Take the perspective of those we serve, anticipate their needs, and responding quickly.
• One Team: We win together by collaborating with each other, focusing on the common goal, and leveraging the strengths of the team.
• Own It: Take the initiative, act with a sense of urgency and pride, do things right the first time, and always act with integrity.
• Innovate: Embrace and create change that drives continuous improvement and customer-valued solutions.

Benefit Overview

At Johnstone Supply, we recognize that our employees’ growth, well-being, and success drives the company’s success. We offer a competitive wage, in addition to health and wellness benefits including medical, dental, vision coverage, and options for supplemental care. We provide the resources you need to take charge of your well-being, including:

• Competitive Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Safe Harbor 401(k) – 100% employer match up to 5% of base pay and immediate vesting
• Holiday pay – we recognize and pay our employees for 7.5 holidays per year
• Paid Parental Bonding Time
• Employer subsidized medical, dental, and vision plans
• Employer paid life insurance and short-term disability
• Voluntary long-term disability, accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity insurance
• 24/7 Access to virtual care/telehealth options
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution; Flexible spending accounts (FSA)
• Wellbeing program with opportunity to earn reduced medical costs
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for you, and your family
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee referral bonus program
• Employee service milestone recognition program

We understand that our employees are the cornerstone of our success. Our commitment to continuous improvement & investment in our people is only matched by our commitment to superior customer experience.

EOE & E-Verify Participating Employer.