In the new Technician Excellence Program (U.S.), enrolled GM dealership service technicians can earn quarterly earnPOWER points based on their certifications across 11 service categories. (Fig. 6) Technicians are recognized for achieving Gold Certification, Master Technician Certification (MTC), or World Class Technician (WCT) status, as well as meeting other required training and service criteria.
Fig. 6
The more certifications technicians obtain, the more points they can earn. Here are a few tips to help achieve the maximum rewards.
Stay on Track
Service technicians enrolled in the Technician Excellence Program by their dealership received a confirmation email from Program Headquarters. Use the GM Excellence Executive Dashboard found in the GlobalConnect App Center (Fig. 7) to monitor your progress toward achieving Gold, MTC and WCT Certifications.
The Dashboard includes technicians’ progress and earning potential for each certification as well as indicates if they’ve met the qualifiers of the minimum 25 RO count and 100% completion in Emerging Issues and Fundamentals.
Fig. 7
Training Fundamentals
Fundamentals must be at 100% by the end of the quarter (March 31). By design, all Fundamentals courses are web- or video-based and can be completed in-house. They are an important first step in each technician’s training plan and are required for any technician to reach Gold Certification.
Technicians can view their training progress toward certification, including which required courses still to be completed, on the Center of Learning website.
Emerging Issues
Emerging Issues Seminars must be at 100% at the end of the quarter, which will mean that course credit has been applied for viewing the following Emerging Issues Seminars:
10221.11V – November 2021 EI
10221.12V – December 2021 EI
10222.01V – January 2022 EI
ASE Certification
If any ASE Certification or Renewal is required to achieve/maintain Gold Certification, it must be completed by March 31, 2022. Use the myASE Renewal App, or go to www.ASE.com/GM to find available dates and times for an ASE Certification test if needed.
Check Your Training Status
A technician may show MTC or WCT status, but they may not be up to date on Fundamentals, Emerging Issues, and/or ASE certifications. It is recommended to validate your status on the Center of Learning for these areas throughout the year.
Create an earnPOWER Account
Current records indicate there are still a few technicians who have not yet created an earnPOWER account. Technicians should click on the earnPOWER app in GlobalConnect and establish an account as soon as possible.
My GM Rewards
For WCT technicians and technicians working toward WCT Certification, a My GM Rewards account also must be established to allow Program Headquarters to be able to provide the additional exclusive rewards. Technicians can enroll today at the My GM Rewards program site. Once created, the technician’s My GM Rewards account information will be automatically connected with the Technician Excellence Program as long as the My GM Rewards account email matches the GlobalConnect Profile email. Refer to the program guidelines for complete details.
For additional information about the Technician Excellence Program as well as training opportunities in your dealership, talk with your dealership service manager.
– Thanks to Patti Marino
I would like to thank the people responsible for the program. I have been a GM mechanic for 20 years, first time anyone from GM asked what I wanted was when I got a WCT plaque. This is pretty nice to get a pat on the back for towing the ship from the deep end. It’s nice to see that all the rewards don’t have to go straight to management. THANK YOU for a step in the right direction, hopefully it will continue.
as a newer tech (2yrs with GM, 16yr industry) who hammered the training and is already master certified in multiple areas this program is great. for those concerned with the 25RO count, I guess my shop is the odd ball because every tech here has well over 100 ros done so far this quarter. my only concern is the lack of information about the program coming from service management, I know more about the program then my SM does. I had to show the other techs how to check their process and how to setup an earnpower account.
I wish there was not a minimum RO count needed. As a transmission technician between the amount of extended warranty tickets we get at my location, hitting the 25 is not going to happen for me. Master certified in multiple areas so I was very hopeful for this but not so much anymore.
It pays to be at the top of your game , Thank You , Hope they do it next year too
Thank you for the feedback. If you are a World Class Technician, you need a My GM Rewards account and an earnPower points account. If you are not a World Class Technician, you just need an earnPower account (same used for MOE). We need these to provide you the rewards. To be eligible for a payout: take the training … we will take a snap shot on March 31 for the first quarter payout. You need to be up to date on EI Jan/Feb 2022, be 100% in Fundamentals, and have performed 25 warranty repairs; the RO will be added in the next few days. The 25 RO’s requirement ensures we are paying the people who are doing the work on our vehicles. We have service consultants and service managers that have enough training to get paid, but the program is not for them. It’s for technicians! We apologize for the delay in getting this populated, we had to work through a lot of data share issues (privacy) to get it set up. Be sure your dealer is submitting the RO’s under the correct GMIN’s (your ID’s) or it can create an issue. Unfortunately, I have seen in the data where a dealer is submitting everything under one person’s ID. We will work through these issues together! There will be some growing pains for sure, but please know that we want to do the right thing for our technicians with this program.
Special note for World Class Techs – You need to have the basics up to date in order to be considered a WCT in this program. That means Gold certified Y, EI and Fundamentals up to date by March 31st to receive your 250K My GM Reward points on April 8th. If you are missing an ASE or any training courses in a category, you will not be eligible this first quarter for the points. You will earn the points when you are up to date.
I hope this helps.
Eric Kenar, GM Manager, Technical Training and Technician Environment
How many more hoops and obstacles will be put in place just to qualify and get the tech rewards? This is becoming a bit ridiculous.
Special thanks to anyone involved in starting this program. As a technician with 28 years of working for GM, I can say this has been a morale booster for me and others at my shop. Thank you for the time and effort in this.