In my opinion, we of the automotive repair industry should always be actively recruiting and on the lookout for qualified staff. That does not mean we are always hiring, but I think we always need to be looking. In my experience, staffing disruptions do not have a rhyme or reason and tend to occur at the worst possible time, usually when we have cars piled up and customers five deep at the counter. For this reason alone, we need to always be looking and always be interviewing.
In 1998, a company called Google arrived on the scene, you may have heard of them! In short order, they revolutionized how we get information, and that impact continues today. It is typical that when we don’t know something, or when we are trying to find something, no matter how obscure, we type an inquiry into Google and in fractions of a second, everything we could ever want to know, whether performing brain surgery or identifying a species of plant, is all right there. Amazing!
That typing action I described is something many of us are not considering in our recruiting strategy, and as a direct result, we are not nearly as visible to potential techs or service advisors as we could be or as visible as we think we are. Most of us use Google to find things and that includes how we find jobs.
The truth is Google is not a job site, but Google for Jobs combines the reach of popular job posting sites and integrates them with the power of their search engine, aligning our efforts to recruit service technicians and service advisors with how and where most of us (those technicians and service advisors included) look for things, including jobs. This is key and important for our recruiting efforts.
Some of the popular job sites that Google for Jobs is integrated with include:
This is not a comprehensive list, and it changes, but many familiar names are there. Like everything, there are good job sites and bad job sites and most of us in the automotive repair industry have one or two that we would swear by. According to Wrenchway, the good sites for automotive include:
- Facebook Job Tab
- Indeed
- ZipRecruiter
- CareerBuilder
- Glassdoor
My guess is that you are familiar with one or more of these, whether or not you are actually using them. You might note there are a number of job sites in common between the two lists, which might help you realign your recruiting efforts to assure you are being seen. If you are already using one of the Google for Jobs integrated sites, you’re good to go. Your listings should be visible to anyone that is looking.
The other way to get your job listings to show up on Google for Jobs, if your job postings do not appear on the list above, it would be best to integrate directly with Google. This method may require help from your IT team. Google outlines how to do this in a technical guide available here. This is pretty intense stuff, and as a starting point, I might suggest the first method, using one or more of the existing popular sites that are already integrated with Google and work your way out from there.
If you are not being seen, you’re not attracting the best or the brightest in your market and long term, that makes a difference. Very important!
An important final step in all of this would be to make sure when they make it to your job posting, you provide them with all the great reasons why they should click “Apply”. Generally, I would recommend against posting a specific salary, but ranges are okay, along with benefits. The more, the better! Remember, this is a competition, and one that you will want to win.
Writing a job description
Even before you post your ad, you need to thoughtfully write a job description. Be brief by making liberal use of bullet points, using descriptive keywords that pertain to the job description, responsibilities, and benefits and using clear job titles that candidates are likely to be searching for. Finally, use photos and or videos to enhance the listing and make it stand out. In this type of search scenario, your goal is to present yourselves, so the type of individual we are looking for is clear, and the benefits of choosing you over the other guys is obvious.
An early test
Go to Google and type in ‘Automotive service advisor jobs’ for your town. A box like the one below will appear. Make sure you include ‘jobs’ in your search.
In the lower left, there will be an arrow to expand to see all jobs that meet the search parameter. You will see the companies that are currently recruiting in your area and what site they are using. To the right, there will be listings of job qualifications, the job responsibilities, a listing of associated benefits, and a detailed job description down below. Do the same for automotive service technicians.
Is your shop listed? No. I wonder why not?
Mr. or Ms. Right is out there, but you have no chance of hiring them if they aren’t seeing you.
If I am a tech or a service advisor sitting on my couch tonight, looking for a job, am I going to see you are looking? If you are not sure of the answer to that question, or even if you are, I would have you verify you are visible where and how folks are looking. The best ad in the world is worthless if nobody is seeing it.
