Shop staffing and the choice between excellence and mediocrity
One of the most consistent and pervasive challenges facing repair shop owners and service managers is keeping their shops fully staffed with technicians who are up to date on their training and capable of working on late-model vehicles. Finding an experienced technician at all can be a challenge in many parts of the country, but finding capable, productive, quality technicians in many cases is a near impossibility. Finding capable service advisors is nearly as difficult.
The reasons for this are many and varied, but big factors in all of this are our lack of a game plan in recruiting as well as negative perceptions of the industry. If we do not put automotive repair out there as a viable career option early, making employment opportunities highly visible, attractive, and available to young people graduating from high school today, we might find ourselves in an ever-tightening staffing crunch that will begin to impact our business and our ability to compete or even survive. Come to think of it, this kind of sounds like where we are today.
Is your shop a destination, not a stopover, for your staff?
A very important point that needs to be made here is that the number of qualified candidates out there is finite and limited. Competition for these candidates is fierce, not only from within the automotive repair industry but from across all industries, to a much greater extent than previously seen. This not only means that we in the automotive repair industry are going to have to work harder to identify and hire new staff members, but we also need to recognize that our existing staff members will find a hiring environment ready and willing to help them find a new home. Even as we are looking to fill vacant positions, we need to play a bit of defense and work extra hard to retain the technicians and service advisors we have. Don’t assume that everything is fine; make sure your shop remains a destination -- not a stopover -- for your staff. Pay, benefits and a sense of belonging are all key.
Fish or cut bait; you can’t do both
We in the automotive repair industry are reliably poor at interviewing and hiring the right people. We are lackluster in our recruiting, often invisible to potential service advisors and technicians searching for jobs. We ask poor questions in the interview process, we hire out of desperation, we hold onto bad employees who do not begin to meet our needs or expectations, fearing to be without and then wonder why we have trouble hitting our sales and production numbers. We complain loudly and bitterly when we are missing our sales and production goals month after month.
Hiring the right tech or service advisor is tough enough but holding on to incapable, or unmotivated (lazy) employees is prolonging our misery. In the staffing world, there are gems and there are rough stones that we can work with and polish and make into gems. There are even rougher stones that we can work with, and they, too, will eventually shine. Then there are the staff members that we are focusing on here who will never live up to our expectations. When it comes to staffing, we can either fish or cut bait; we can’t continue to do both. Do yourself and your shop a favor and let these underachievers go, the sooner the better.
Whether it is an unproductive technician or a service advisor who is falling short of our expectations, we need to make every effort to bring them into the fold quickly or recognize that we have a bad fit and be prepared to let them go and move on. We need to see genuine effort to achieve, improve and excel, or we need to renew our search. Once we have defined the job, set expectations, and provided training, it is reasonable to expect performance. We either accept something less or renew the search and find that somebody who will give us what we are asking for. Most of the shop owners I know have worked ridiculously hard over the years, much too hard to settle for something less. This is not a time for procrastination; it is time for change.
Be constantly recruiting, or at least visible to job-seekers
A suggestion I would have for all shop owners would be to constantly be recruiting, or at the very least, be visible to any technician or service advisor scanning for potential employment. And what I mean by this is being visible, all the time. You do not have to hire but being visible will have potential candidates applying and interviewing, which will put you ahead of the game when you have an actual need. Who knows? You might even find that perfect match you have been looking for. One thing is for sure, if you are not out there, if you are not visible, you are vulnerable, and your shop is at risk.
Right now, this very second, if you were to Google “automotive service technician jobs” in (your town), what would come up? Try a similar search for automotive service advisors. If your shop is not listed, you are not visible to technicians or service advisors where they often start their search. That is a problem!
Be visible, do your best to hire tough, live by your standards of excellence, and achieve through the extraordinary effort of your knowledgeable, experienced, highly motivated staff.
Excellence is always a choice, just like mediocrity is.
