DALLAS – As the workforce in the collision repair industry ages and retires, many shops have struggled to recruit new employees and technicians. According to Nancy Ng, manger of insurance services and business development manager for central Canada at PPG, many shops may be overlooking a significant pool of potential employees.
"As of 2008, about 70 percent of the new labor force entrants in the U.S. were expected to be women and minorities," Ng said. "But if you look around the industry or your own place of business, we really don't see a reflection of that. If we are recruiting from just 30 percent of the new labor pool, that is just too small a pool of talent to pull from."
Ng led a roundtable discussion on recruiting women into the collision repair industry at this week's Women's Industry Network (WIN) conference, inviting attendees to brainstorm ideas about bringing more women into the collision, claims and vendor segments.
Ng says that there has been an anecdotal increase in the number of women working in the industry, primarily in administrative and support positions (office managers, accounting, etc.). Quite a few women have also entered the industry by way of family businesses, where wives and daughters have become increasingly involved in the collision shop at all levels. "But there is definitely a slow increase on the technical side," she said. "There is more open mindedness at the owner level, but what we want to explore is, how do we escalate this?"
This isn't simply a matter of boosting the number of women in the industry for the sake of equity, however; the industry (along with a number of other trades) faces a potential labor shortage in the future as fewer young people choose collision repair as a career.
Ng presented two collision shop case studies from Canada that exemplified new recruitment techniques. First she profiled Councours Collision Centers in western Canada, where owner Ken Friesen has made an effort to provide his employees opportunities for career advancement through mentoring and training.
The second shop Ng profiled, Industrial Park Collision in Ontario, is run by Joy Skinner. Skinner took over the family body shop business when her husband was injured and no longer able to work. In addition to recruiting women to work in her facility, Skinner has also reached out to junior high school students, allowing them to tour her facility in an effort to encourage young people to enter the trade.
"Her philosophy is that you can't talk to these kids in high school and expect to get people interested in the industry," Ng said. "Parents and guidance counselors have already formed their opinions about the industry by that point. She targets younger students."
Better targeting of potential new employees (regardless of gender) is one method Ng thinks could benefit the industry in terms of recruitment. She also believes that the body shop environment is an important aspect of bringing more women into the industry.
"This is really about how to market your own collision facilities to a pool of potential employees by creating an environment that people want to work in," she said.
Attracting and retaining younger workers can be a challenge for shops. "You have to think about retention and identify the reasons people leave," Ng said. "One reason is a lack of opportunity. There is no clear career path at many shops. Progressive owners have recognized that, and they provide opportunities for their employees.
"There are also generational difference," Ng continued. "How do you communicate with someone in their twenties? It's a lot different than talking to someone in their fifties. This isn't about letting the tail wag the dog, but it does require a more mutually respectful business relationship. If you want to target younger employees, or females, or someone of a different ethnic heritage, there may be things you have to take into consideration that are a lot different than what you've been thinking about for the last ten or twenty years."
