If your shop is fully staffed with technicians, consider yourself one of the lucky ones.
However, good technicians are hard to come by and it takes time to find a technician that’s a good fit for your shop. As a shop owner or manager, you should always be prepared for unexpected departures to avoid reactive hiring.
Reactive hiring, or hiring only when you need to fill a position, can have detrimental effects on your shop, including:
- Rushed hiring decisions
- Increased turnover due to poor fit
- Higher recruiting costs
- Negative impact on shop morale
To avoid these issues, we’ve put together some best practices your shop can follow to keep technician recruiting going, even when you’re lucky enough to be fully staffed!
13 Ways to Maximize Your Technician Recruiting
Create a Talent Pipeline
Without the scramble to fill an open role, now is a great time to build a database of potential candidates. This way, you’ll have a pool of technicians to reach out to when a new technician position opens.
We have seen shops like Craig’s Car Care add a “Technician Waitlist” to their open positions listing when they don’t have an open role. This is great because if technicians come across their page and are interested in working for their shop, they can still express their interest, even if the shop isn’t hiring. Then, when a position opens up, the hiring team at Craig’s can reach out to the candidates on this list and let them know.
Engage With Local Schools & Training Programs
Building relationships with auto/diesel or skilled trades instructors at high schools and postsecondary institutions is a great way to get your shop in front of up-and-coming technicians. School websites usually provide staff directories to find instructor’s contact information. Be sure to not overlook smaller, rural schools. While they might not have a dedicated auto program, chances are they still have students interested in the industry.
When you reach out to instructors, be prepared with some ideas on how your shop can support their program, and don’t forget to celebrate your partnership on social media. Your customers and potential candidates will love to see your community involvement!
Build a Strong Employer Brand
Ask yourself, “What is my shop’s image as an employer?” When technicians see your shop on social media, job boards, and your website, you want them to view it as a great place to work. Start creating content showing off your staff, work environment, shop culture, pay, benefits, and more.
Since most technicians are already employed, they need to be pretty certain a shop is a good fit before applying. This is why technicians love WrenchWay Top Shop pages. They can learn all about the best shops to work for in their area, see photos and videos, and figure out if it’s a good place for them to apply.
Encourage Employee Referrals
Employee referrals are the best way to find qualified candidates. Referral hires are 40% more likely to be retained after one year than non-referral hires. Regardless if your shop is actively hiring or not, having an employee referral program in place is a great way to get more referrals. Starting an employee referral program does not need to be over-complicated. You simply need to decide on an incentive, the parameters, and then make sure to communicate the program to your employees periodically.
Invest in Training
Technicians want a workplace where they can grow their skill set. By offering ongoing training, you not only facilitate this growth for your technicians but also your shop. The industry’s technology is constantly changing, necessitating the need to keep your people up-to-date so you can meet future consumer demands.
Don’t adopt the mentality, “If I train them, they might leave.” This is not a productive perspective. A technician could leave for any reason, but failing to help them grow and advance guarantees they will seek opportunities elsewhere—at shops that prioritize their development and career needs.
Evaluate Your Current Recruiting Process
Take this time to check your hiring process. Consider walking through the steps yourself as if you were a technician applying. Take note of things that are “clunky” or would discourage you in any way from completing the application process. Here are a few things to evaluate:
- Can a potential candidate easily find job openings on your website?
- Do you have a career page that gives technicians all the information they want to know about before applying (i.e., pay, benefits, work environment, hiring process, etc.)?
- Does the initial online application process take longer than 5 minutes to complete?
- Is your application process mobile-friendly?
Offer Competitive Pay & Benefits
Pay is a big topic in the automotive and diesel industry. According to the 2023 Voice of the Technicians Survey, 35% of technicians said they have considered leaving the industry due to pay-related stress.
Shops must make sure their technician pay is competitive for the area. It’s also important to offer other benefits that make the job worthwhile. Along with the traditional healthcare benefits, technicians are also looking for shops that offer things like flexible scheduling, tool allowances, and paid time off.
Provide Clear Career Paths
According to a recent auto and diesel technician survey, 81% of technicians agreed that shops having a well-documented career path is very important when evaluating potential employers.
Technicians want to grow in their careers and need to see a clear path to get there. Implement clear career paths for technicians by outlining the necessary skills, certifications, and experience for each level of progression. Regularly update these career paths to reflect industry changes and communicate them effectively through employee reviews or one-on-one meetings. Career pathing not only attracts skilled technicians, but also retains them by showing your shop’s investment in their long-term success.
Show Off Your Current Technicians
Employee appreciation is not just a nice-to-have, it is a vital component of a successful recruitment and retention strategy. A recent survey found that 71% of employees would be less likely to leave their workplace if they were recognized more frequently. Part of recognition is public acknowledgment. Sharing photos, videos, posts, or articles about what technicians enjoy about the shop culture, as well as celebrating their work anniversaries, can be incredibly effective for recruitment.
Gather Technician Feedback
There’s no better way to figure out what can be improved in the shop than to ask your technicians. Gathering anonymous feedback is the most effective way to get honest opinions from your employees, and there are free tools like SurveyMonkey that make gathering information easy.
Ask your technicians questions like:
- What is your favorite part about working at our shop?
- Where do you see opportunities for improvement?
- How likely are you to recommend working at our shop to a friend?
Employee feedback will provide you with a foundation to make necessary improvements to your shop to not only attract more candidates but also retain the technicians you have.
Optimize Job Postings
Having effective job postings is key to attracting top technician talent. A great time to clean up your job postings is when you’re not in a hurry to hire someone.
Here are some tips to perfect your technician job postings:
- Sound like a human—no one wants to read a job posting that sounds like it was written by AI.
- The first paragraph is the most important. Don’t start off your job ad with a generic description of your shop.
- Be clear and give details about responsibilities, requirements, benefits, and work environment.
- Don’t exaggerate. This will just lead to a bad employee-employer fit.
- Don’t forget to include contact information in case they have questions before they apply.
Update Your Careers Page or Top Shop Page
Even if you aren’t actively hiring, your careers or Top Shop page should always be live and up-to-date. Use this page to showcase your company, culture, pay, and other benefits. It is a best practice to always have a job opening listed, even if it’s just to create a waitlist for positions. This way, technicians can sign up to be notified when there’s an opening, ensuring you always have a pool of interested candidates.
Cultivate a Great Work Environment
Creating a positive work environment is crucial, and it’s equally important to showcase it. Use social media to highlight your company culture, team events, and day-to-day activities. This not only attracts potential candidates but also reinforces a sense of pride and community among your current shop staff.
In Short, Ongoing Technician Recruitment Matters
Maintaining a continuous recruiting strategy, even when your shop is fully staffed, is crucial to avoid the pitfalls of reactive hiring. While your shop might be running efficiently now, it’s important to prepare for when the inevitable need to replace or hire a new technician arises.
Don’t wait—get started now! Implement best practices such as creating a talent pipeline or bench, engaging with local schools, building a strong employer brand, and encouraging employee referrals, and more to keep your recruitment efforts top-notch.
Need assistance with your ongoing recruiting efforts? WrenchWay offers monthly memberships to auto or diesel shops and dealerships helping them continually recruit, stand out in a competitive market, connect with schools, and implement effective recruiting strategies.
