Finding and retaining quality technicians has become an issue across the country with an immediate need for over 30,000 additional positions available. The amount of new technicians going into the field is low while technicians leaving or retiring is growing dramatically. Technician recruitment has become critical with shops scheduling customers further into the future with available appointments. Proper customer care requires appointments within 48 hours to retain them and meet their needs. Lack of technician staffing also affects the parts Department as a good technician will generate around $75 in parts sales per hour sold. Many dealerships have aggressively offered sign-on bonuses with some exceeding $10,000. Let’s look together at some of the obstacles that face a technician applying for the position at your dealership. If the technician has a good experience and has acquired a three-week vacation pay at their current position why would they want to lose that for the privilege of working at your dealership? If they normally turn 55 hours a week on flat rate they also risk the security of income for the families. Good technicians will be interested to see if the shop is disorganized in such areas of special tools and parts department. They want to note the support staff is well trained and strong in customer care and recommending technician suggestions. Filling technician positions are challenging enough, however, retaining them will be highly unlikely in a shop full of obstacles. It would be like running a marathon with 10-pound weights strapped to your ankles while everyone else ran the race without them. Dealerships must place the proper importance on running an efficient shop that manages technician hours with the respect they deserve. They must have state-of-the-art equipment available and professionally trained support staff. They can’t be thought of as grease monkeys that like to complain about everything. Dealerships need to support technicians that get buried into a job trying to repair properly while under warranty that doesn’t pay anything. A typical technician will have over $40,000 invested in their own hand tools. They might have an additional $30,000 that they invested in their own technical training. Wise dealerships will learn the value of having adequate technician staffing. They will advertise aggressively positions available and work daily on making their technicians ability to turn hours easier. The website I always recommend for advertising available Technician positions is Act Auto Staffing atwww.actautostaffing.com. I understand dealers want to just fill the Technician need now and don’t look at the real issues involved. Those dealers will always struggle for Technicians. Don’t be that dealer!

Sincerely,
Rob Gehring, President
1 (888) 205-8718
Fixed Performance Inc.
rgehring@fixedperformance.com

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