Claudio Herrera Earns Pacific BMW Collision Center's Employee of the Year
There’s no greater honor than being recognized by colleagues and Claudio Herrera, painter at Pacific BMW Collision Center, earned the 2025 Employee of the Year from his teammates.
“Claudio came to our team three years ago with zero experience in the collision repair industry,” said Manager Andrew Batenhorst in a post on LinkedIn. “With consistent training and a hunger to learn, he has quickly moved his way up the ladder on our team and is honing his skills to eventually become a painter.”
FenderBender followed up with Batenhorst, and he shared that he emphasizes employee recognition. Since his first year as manager in 2018, he created the Employee of the Year award using an old DeVilbiss spray gun as the trophy. He doesn’t select the winner, though; the team anonymously votes for who deserves it most. The honor comes with a $500 bonus.
Batenhorst said team members vote based on which employees best represent the core values of the operation, are committed to the team, and prioritize quality above all else. The values of the shop are SHIFTED – sincere, honest, innovative, family-oriented, teamwork, empowered, delight. Batenhorst said Herrera exemplifies all seven values every day in the shop.
“Employee recognition is not hard to do, and given the record levels of employee disengagement in the workplace, this is an easy way to praise our people and foster engagement,” he said.
About the Author
Peter Spotts
Associate Editor
Peter Spotts is the associate editor of FenderBender and ABRN. He brings six years of experience working in the newspaper industry and four years editing in Tech. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western New England University with a minor in integrated marketing communications and an MBA. A sci-fi/fantasy fan, his current 2010 Honda Civic is nicknamed Eskel, after the character from the Witcher book series, for the scratch marks on its hood.
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