Five tips for finding, retaining auto technicians

AKRON — One of the best ways to find future automotive technicians is to identify kids in middle school and high school who are good at taking things apart and putting them back together.

Problem is, you can't just recruit them.

You have to recruit their parents, too.

"When I talk to young people and we do focus groups, they say, 'You can get me excited about cars and I get all the advanced technology, but you have to get my parents out of the way,'" Jennifer Maher, CEO and executive director of the TechForce Foundation, said during a recent Tire Business livestream.

"The parents are the ones who are like, 'Heck, no, you're not going to do that. You're going to go into something else.'

"We have to do a better job of educating the parents about all the opportunities. We say it's no longer a blue-collar career but a new-collar career."

Ms. Maher discussed the technician shortage during the livestream with Tire Business reporter Kathy McCarron and Dan Gilley, president and owner of RLO Training, which provides training for automotive service professionals. Non-profit TechForce describes its mission as encouraging and promoting students into careers as professional technicians.

Cars already are considered "computers on wheels" — working on autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles fits especially well with STEM educations, Ms. Maher said — but the industry still has a hard time shaking its "grease monkey" reputation, particularly with parents who were raised on the idea that every student should get a college degree.

"We have, for 30 years, drank the Kool-Aid that there's only one road to success and everyone has to go to a four-year university," Ms. Maher said. "We tell kids, 'You're smart and you're not. You need to sit still. Don't touch, Don't move.' That is not how that kid is wired.

"Our automotive technicians are the ones who want to get the wiggles out. They're project-based learners."

And they're in high demand. Thanks to baby boomer retirements, a high industry turnover rate and a steady number of technicians leaving the industry, new entrant demand is expected to be around 78,000 this year. That number will jump to 82,000 by 2024, yet post-secondary automotive technical programs are turning out only about 37,000 graduates each year and many graduates don't end up pursuing a job in the industry.

Ms. Maher and Mr. Gilley suggested four other things dealerships can do to find and retain technicians.

Adapt to the next generation

While shops are mostly run by Boomers and Generation Xers, they're hiring technicians who are either Millennials (born between 1981 and 1994) or from Generation Z (1997-2012).

"We don't necessarily see the world the same way," Ms. Maher said. "This is a generation that will not work blind. They will not just plow away and work for a year or two years or five years, hoping you recognize them and advance them. No, no, no, no, no. They can just hop on their smartphone and realize they've been doing this for a year or two years and are ready for the next step.

"If you treat them like crap, they're moving on. Unless you can say, 'We have a pathway to support getting you where you want to go,' you're going to lose them."

Millennials and Gen Zers also are very socially conscious, valuing things like environmental sustainability and workplace diversity.

"They want to make an impact," Ms. Maher said. "You need to appeal to their hearts and not just their wallets."

Nurture young talent

Fewer than a quarter of new graduates from certified auto tech programs are still in the industry three years later, which is a poor reflection on shop owners, Mr. Gilley said.

A graduate of a two-year program may have only about 1,000 hours of experience and it takes about 10,000 to 12,000 hours to master something.

"So he has about 9,000 to 11,000 hours to go," Mr. Gilley said.

While it can be frustrating to work with young technicians, dealers need to treat them like sons and daughters, not servants, Mr. Gilley said.

"We need to change our attitude," he said. "If you have a problem finding people or keeping people, it's not the industry, it's you."

Mr. Gilley said dealers should consider each graduate a four-year project, which includes paying for their training. Dealers used to budget about 40 hours a year for training, but that number is probably closer to 80 now, Mr. Gilley said.

"There are technicians who are so dedicated, they are paying for their own training, which is embarrassing," Mr. Gilley said. "In what other trade do you have to get ongoing training and pay for it yourself?

"If you're worried about where the money is going to come from, it's called charging your customers. Because they're the ones who are going to get the benefits from them, so they should pay for it."

Pay well

Dealerships don't just lose technicians to other dealerships. They lose them to other industries.

"In too many instances, starting-entrant technicians are making about the same as if they were working at Chick-fil-A," Ms. Maher said.

"You had to go to school, you had to get some kind of training, you have to get your own tools and you have to prove yourself. A lot of them look at it as, 'I can go to Chick-fil-A and they'll pay for my college education and I don't have to work on Sunday.'"

The starting wage for an auto technician is between $13 and $16 an hour. By contrast, Mr. Gilley said, the Seattle Times recently had a full-page ad for an electricians' union that read, "Do you want to make $47.50 an hour? We can show you how in three years."

"I know techs that make $47.50 an hour, but they don't make it in three years," Mr. Gilley said. "They're going after the same kids we want. The same kids who don't want to go to a four-year school and want to work with their hands."

So, Mr. Gilley said, it's important to pay more — and those costs should be covered by customers.

"I ask them, 'Do you want to be Nordstrom or do you want to be Walmart?'" he said. "Because Walmart is all about price, price, price and Nordstrom is all about service, service, service.

"If we are going to pay people correctly, we need to charge for our service."

Upgrade facilities

Does your shop look like a dungeon? Is there stuffing coming out of the customer service couch? Do you need a tetanus shot before using the bathroom?

These things matter — and not just to customers.

"One hedge fund group was buying collision shops and the first thing they did was spend $20,000 on the employee lounge and the employee area," Mr. Gilley said. "The first thing they did was tell people they were important."

Shop owners may not have $20,000 to spend on upgrades, but they could probably upgrade the lighting or swing $20 for a new employee coffee pot.

"You spend 40 hours a week or more there," Mr. Gilley said. "You need to ask yourself, 'What can I do to make it comfortable for the most important people you have?'"