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By Joe Marconi in Joe's BlogI recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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Episode 163 - Balancing Business Ownership & Technology With Gregg Rainville & James Harris of SteerBy Changing The Industry
Episode 163 - Balancing Business Ownership & Technology With Gregg Rainville & James Harris of Steer
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By Joe Marconi
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By carmcapriotto
On this Episode of Business by the Numbers, Hunt reflects on his time at the STX conference in Nashville, sharing stories about the connections made and lessons learned from industry experts.
• Economic News Breakdown: We get into the latest economic updates that dropped last Wednesday. Hunt breaks down what these changes in numbers might mean for your wallet and business this year, especially when it comes to interest rates.
• Tax Talk and Government Spending: Hunt explains the proposed wealth tax and what the latest federal budget might mean for us. There’s a lot of talk about balancing the budget without raising taxes too much, and we'll explore what that could look like.
• Capital Gains and Your Money: We take a closer look at potential hikes in capital gains taxes and how these could affect your investments and long-term financial planning.
• Understanding the Numbers: Inflation, GDP... these terms get thrown around a lot. We’ll unpack what they really mean for the economy and for us as workers and business owners.
Thanks to our partners, NAPA TRACS and Promotive
Did you know that NAPA TRACS has onsite training plus six days a week support?
It all starts when a local representative meets with you to learn about your business and how you run it. After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice.
Let us prove to you that Tracs is the single best shop management system in the business. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at NAPATRACS.com
It’s time to hire a superstar for your business; what a grind you have in front of you. Great news, you don’t have to go it alone. Introducing Promotive, a full-service staffing solution for your shop. Promotive has over 40 years of recruiting and automotive experience. If you need qualified technicians and service advisors and want to offload the heavy lifting, visit www.gopromotive.com.
Paar Melis and Associates – Accountants Specializing in Automotive Repair
Visit us Online: www.paarmelis.com
Email Hunt: [email protected]
Get a copy of my Book: Download Here
Aftermarket Radio Network
Click to go to the Podcast on Remarkable Results Radio
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By Changing The Industry
The Basics of Owning An Auto Repair Shop - Balancing GP per Hour and Productivity
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rpllib
A year and a half ago, my lead tech, in his early 50's), came to me and said he was done, after 30 years with us. He had an especially frustrating few weeks with diags that did not go well. He knew he couldn't quit working, as he has young children still at home, but he was going to find something less frustrating, even if it meant taking a big pay cut. He had already discussed it with his wife, and they were in agreement that they would do whatever was necessary to get him out of this industry, that he felt he was too old to manage any longer.
I could tell he did not want to quit, he could just not see any way out of this frustrating situation. We made a few small changes, one of which was to implement 1 hour virtual(mostly) or live(occasionally) training sessions weekly, with all techs, grouped by primary job duties.
I see this as a retention and growth tool. If nothing else, it puts the owner in front of them weekly to discuss any variety of opportunities/challenges, and provides them an opportunity to express concerns in an open environment without front counter involvement, well training on actual challenges we are seeing in our shop.
It serves to help me understand the difference between what my techs want and what my leadership wants from them. Here is some data regarding this thought, that came across my desk recently:
the following answers have been given by 396,000 employees who have taken SESCO’s Employee/Management Satisfaction Survey:
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