Look for new places, fresh sources to promote job openings
If there's one issue that virtually every shop in the country struggles with it's the challenge of recruiting quality new employees. Even a classified "Help Wanted" ad — often costing hundreds of dollars — in a major metropolitan city newspaper may generate only one or two responses.Savvy shop owners seem to be taking other approaches to attract top talent. Here's how.
Cast a wider net
Patty Denny is fortunate that she doesn't have a lot of turnover at her 16-employee company, Denny's Valley Autobody Inc., in Puyallup, Wash. When she does have an opening, she's advertised not only in papers throughout her area, but also nationally through the employment Web site Monster.com and through the free job postings online at Craig's List (www.craigslist.com).
It's a message repeated by several other shop owners. Look for new places to advertise job openings. Two other places that offer free online job postings are Autobody Online (www.autobodyonline.com) and the Automotive Service Association's Web site (www.asashop.org). You also can post job openings on your company's Web site.
Another shop owner saw the growing Spanish-speaking population in the area and decided to hire a bilingual estimator to help him serve customers whose English is not good. That estimator subsequently helped the shop tap into new markets for technicians by helping the shop owner place ads in a local Spanish newspaper and at other places that particular community was likely to see them. The shop got twice as many applicants as it had in the past, the shop owner said. Many of those applicants knew English, but don't read the local paper. Instead, they saw the shop's ad in the Spanish paper or the fliers it posted at some churches, clubs and restaurants.
Think outside the box
Mike Anderson, president of Wagonwork Collision Centers, said as part of a joint effort to battle the technician shortage, his local trade association worked with an insurer that was willing to pay $3 toward a shop apprentice's hourly wage for 40 hours a week for one year.Still, the association had difficulty finding shops to participate.
"I think we all want a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the majority of us don't seem to want to invest any time and energy," Anderson says. "I don't think there is a miracle cure for this or a magic wand we can wave. We just have to really want to invest some time into it."
Anderson said the growth of such cable television shows as "Monster Garage" is reigniting young people's interest in automotive careers. He's worked to capitalize on that interest by getting an insurer to donate a totaled vehicle as a recruiting tool for one of the six schools in which his company is involved. The school had the vehicle in its shop on a day when they were trying to recruit students into the program."We just got out the panel cutters and plasma cutters and things like that and just let the kids go to town," Anderson says. "It really generated some excitement."
But Anderson also is not one to limit his own shop's recruiting efforts to just local students and collision repair programs. He said police and fire departments often have people retiring in their early- or mid-40s after 20 years on the force.
"They love cars, they're mature and they have supervisory skills," Anderson says. "They're not looking to make tons of money because they have a [pension] income, and they don't necessarily need the benefits."
Similarly, those leaving the military post their resumes on searchable Web sites (such as the Army Career Alumni Program, www.acap.army.mil) that also enable employers to list job openings nationwide.
"And if you hire someone out of the military through this ACAP program, the military as part of the GI Bill will pay for them to take I-CAR classes, get ASE certification and things of that nature," Anderson says.
He's also successfully hired overseas students through the Association for International Practical Training (www.aipt.org). Under immigration rules, the students can work in the United States for only 18 months, he said, but they may know others looking to come work in the industry from other countries like Germany that may have a glut of technicians.
"I'm not trying to steer people away from recruiting from the local vocational programs," Anderson says. "That's probably where 80 percent of my employees come from. But I think we need to also think outside the box."
Check for government help
Like Anderson, Kathy Mello has recently hired a military veteran through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mello, the owner of TGIF Body Shop in Fremont, Calif., said the former hydraulics mechanic is apprenticing at the shop as a body technician and will eventually get trained as an estimator as well. The VA will cover some of the costs of getting him trained, she said.
Mello, who said she gave up on recruiting employees through local newspapers about three years ago, also has found some employees through the "One-Stop Career Center" (www.careeronestop.org).
"It's a resource center for people who are unemployed, making a career change or having to go from part-time to full-time or make more money," Mello says. "The primary focus is for people who are on unemployment or unemployed. I've been working with them, and in some counties, they have funding for 50 percent of the first 90 days of employment. So I can call them and say this is the profile I need. They will try to help me find someone."The program understandably seeks to work with employers who retain the employees for at least a year, but Mello said she's rarely had to let anyone hired through the process go prior to that.
Get help creating a 'pool'
While many shops make sure their vendors know about job openings in case they know of technicians looking for work, fewer think to turn to their local trade association. Barbara Crest, executive director of the Northwest Automotive Trades Association based in Portland, Ore., said her association is among those that offer several employment services for members. The association, for example, accepts resumes or other information from job seekers, making this information available to members who call with job openings.
"We also will post 'Help Wanted' ads on our Web site, and in our monthly publication, at no charge for our members," Crest says.
It also helps to keep an eye out for potential employees even when you don't have an opening for them. One multi-location shop chain regularly runs "Help Wanted" advertising so it has a pool of potential candidates when it openings arise. Again, you can check with your vendors or association about when business is slow for many shops in your area so you can time such advertising when there's more likely to be a larger number of employees seeking new opportunities.
Think about 'who,' not just 'how'
For Kris Shannon, successful recruiting depends less on how you look for employees than on the type of employee you look for.
"One thing I've prided myself on is not so much hiring the prima donna, the one who says he's the best at this and can do all this," says Shannon, owner of Shannon Auto Body in Gaithersburg, Md. "It's a quality of a person that I look for more than a set of skills. I'd rather hire a quality person who may not have the greatest skills, because skills can be taught. You can't teach a person how to have certain qualities: trustworthiness, honesty, an overall general commitment to the well being of the business. The person who will put in the extra effort, step up and help the rest of their teammates if they need a hand. Those are the people you want. And if they haven't learned it by the time they are adults, you're not going to be able to teach them. It will be like beating your head against the wall."
Finding those types of people may rely on another tried-and-true recruiting method: Asking your current employees. Most of your technicians probably know employees at other shops. Ask them for help in recruiting those who will be a good fit at your business. You may even offer a bonus to any employee who refers a person you end up hiring for an opening.
Such employee referrals have worked well for Shannon.
"We found one of our employees because his friend works here and enjoys it and likes the atmosphere, the way we do things," Shannon says. "His friend was really young, really green. He had two years of experience but hadn't really done everything a full-fledged body man could do. But we started him out slow, and he progressed in the level of difficulty of jobs we gave him. The people around him have been excellent in supporting and helping him to learn how to do the more difficult jobs. It's worked out great. He's been here almost a year now, and he's putting in rails and everything. He had the right attitude, the right mentality. If we need him to do something, he'll stay late, do whatever we need to get done, just because the company needs his help and he understands that."
For Shannon, recruiting efforts that can help him find one or two people with attitudes like that are far more valuable than those generating dozens of applicants.
"That's just not something you can teach someone," he says.
