In a lot of ways, finding, recruiting and hiring employees is very similar to batting in major league baseball. Both require intense dedication and study to get better, there isn’t necessarily one “right” way to go about it, and even the best are going to fail more often than they succeed.
Ty Cobb, the legendary center fielder and player/manager for the Detroit Tigers, has the highest batting average of anybody in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Over the course of 24 seasons, he recorded a .366 batting average. Or, more plainly, the greatest contact hitter in the history of Major League Baseball made an out just over 63 percent of the time he came to the plate.
Christy Jones, certified business coach and owner at Clarity Business Coaching and collision industry veteran, says that no matter how good a hiring manager is, they’re never going to have a perfect batting average. A lot of the time, their average is going to look similar to Ty Cobb’s.
“No business is immune to hiring that wrong person. I could probably walk into any body shop today, and there will be at least one ‘wrong’ person,” Jones says. “We're in this economic society where there are too many jobs and not enough people, and we've been programmed to hire someone who walks in the door just because they're breathing.”
Hiring is challenging, and creating an environment where people want to work is even more so. However, Jones says making sure your shop has very a clear mission, vision and values is the best way to keep good talent, which in turn will attract more good talent.
The Problem
While the tech shortage is still a big problem facing the collision industry, Jones says that has become a far-too-common scapegoat for collision shops’ hiring woes.
“We've been programmed to believe there's a shortage, because there is, but there are body shops out there where people don't want to work,” she says. “They're not applying to those businesses. We're seeing this community of technicians and employees who are saying 'No, I'm going to be choosy about where I work.”
Some shops are handicapping themselves from the get-go – trying to bring in talented people with a good attitude when your shop’s culture doesn’t foster that internally is like trying to hit a 95-mile-per-hour fastball with a plastic Wiffle Ball bat.
“If you’re not a strong body shop with a good culture and healthy environment with good pay, you're not getting the good technicians,” Jones says. “That’s where you're seeing some of those bad hires.”
The Solution
As a collision repair shop owner, rooting yourself and your team in a strong foundation is key to good hiring. Jones says each shop is going to have a different approach, but having your shop’s fundamentals rooted in a strong mission, vision, and values is essential to a healthy culture.
“Culture doesn't just exist in the shop. What is that shop doing outside your own four walls? That's how you can entice future employees. Are you participating in community events? Are you sponsoring events?” Jones says. “That really speaks to the value for a potential employee, showing them that you're not just concerned about your shop, but that you're concerned about your community as well. To them, that shows that you’ll probably care about them more, too.”
A strong culture goes a long way. Jones says no amount of top-line equipment or flashy gear can save your shop from a toxic atmosphere. It doesn’t take much to create that toxic environment, either; one bad apple can spoil the bunch.
Jones says prioritizing keeping good employees and finding ways to get rid of bad ones is the best way to not only improve the morale of your current employees but to also attract new employeesl.
“Technicians talk, and they know where the toxic shops and employees are,” she says. “Once you've got that mentality of not having toxic people in your shop, you're going to have people knocking down your door to come work for you.”
The Aftermath
Creating a good culture isn’t easy, especially if you’re starting from scratch. Jones says a culture shift and becoming a place where employees want to work takes a lot of time and effort, and it requires some radical thinking on the part of the owner.
“When you think that you'd rather prioritize a positive atmosphere over making money at all costs, that's radical,” she says. “The rewards are going to be so much better. It may not happen as quickly as you want it, but it's going to be so much better.”
It may sound counterintuitive, but Jones says the best way to create a positive atmosphere and help build your roster of good talent is to start by cutting the problematic employees.
When she ran her own shop, Jones says having a “hire slow, fire fast” mentality helped her weed out bad employees who were causing problems. Very quickly, the other employees became more productive and had new, creative ideas to help improve the shop.
The lack of having to deal with a bad employee also gave her time to focus on finding good employees to refill her bench.
When going through the hiring process, Jones says it’s essential to look for soft skills and personality type in addition to the standard technical skills. Bringing in your employees to help with the interview process will also help with making sure that a candidate gels with your team.
Jones says it will take longer to fill vacancies with that process, but it will ultimately serve your shop better in the long run.
“I'd rather have a shop with fewer techs and a slightly slower service rate that does good work and has happy employees than to have a high production rate and a negative culture in my shop,” Jones says.
The Takeaway
A strong culture is the No. 1 asset your shop can have when hiring new people. Good people want to work for good companies, and Jones says your shop has to be a destination employees are clamoring to work for to be competitive.
“It starts at the top. Expectations have to be clear,” she says. “The ripple effect is huge. If you have a healthy technician who enjoys their job, they're going to go home and they're going to be healthy at home. If they're healthy at home, they're healthy out in the community. It's so much more powerful.”
