Fix-It With Fred - Technician Jobs in Canton, OH

We have two 400k BTU natural gas furnaces in the shop. We have 12.5" thick glazed ceramic tile walls which offer incredible insulation. Our two bay doors are on the same end of the shop so the shop never gets cold in the winter. There is no wind "cutting through" the shop ever.

We have 2 full-time technicians and one service advisor.

Monday through Thursday 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM. We don't open extra days on holiday weeks. That means a 3 day weekend is a MINIMUM at Fix-it With Fred. We normally have 3 or 4 four day weekends per year.

We have a large cabinet that is full of vehicle-specific special tools. We also have a Snap-on ball joint press, torque wrenches, taps, dies, thread chasers, compression tester, leak down tester, brake special tools, and many more. We like to make sure that our technicians are equipped for success. We have multiple pieces of diagnostic equipment supplied by the shop. We have a Snap-On Zeus, Snap-on Solus Edge, Snap-on Vantage Pro, Maxidas Maxisys, Maxidas DS708, Snap-on Wifi Widescreen Thermal Imaging Camera that auto-uploads to the cloud, and a few different borescopes.

The technicians have a locker room and bathroom. The entrance is in the shop. It is heated and air-conditioned by our office HVAC system. In the cold winter, the shop bathroom is around 80 degrees. In the hot summer, our shop bathroom is around 63 degrees. Fred also supplies Gatorade all summer long to keep the technicians hydrated. This bathroom has two separate stalls, a urinal, and two clean sinks with hand soap. There is a separate sink in the shop for the technicians to wash with hand cleaner. There are several lockers, a fridge/freezer, a microwave, a recliner, and two shower stalls. This area is maintained by the business and is built to be what our technicians want. There is a kitchen area in the office for the advisors. This area has cabinets, a kitchen sink, a fridge/freezer, a microwave, and a counter space for making lunch. This means that there are two fridges for our team. We also have a mini-fridge in the waiting room for our customers. We like to keep everyone happy and comfortable.

We have 6 forward two-post lifts in a row. We also have a Hunter RX-10 scissor lift with air jacks for alignments and a bigger 2-post truck lift to lift pickups safely. We have a Hunter Hawkeye for alignments.

We averaged about 120 cars per month with an ARO of $767.35 and 2.57 average hours per RO for 2024 with between 2 and 3 technicians.

We electronically order parts from all of our aftermarket suppliers and some of our dealership suppliers. We use POs to track parts ordering in Shop-Ware. When we order a part, a message is sent to the technician's tablet to let them know that the part is on order. When the part arrives, there is a message sent that lets the technician know that the part has arrived. The part is put on that technician's shelf in the dispatch area of the office or brought to the technician in their bay depending on when they need that part.

Our technicians don't need to do side work. We allow our technicians to work on the vehicles in their households after hours. Every employee at FIWF has keys and an alarm code. Our technicians choose to have their oil changed through our shop so they can inspect each other's vehicles to keep each other safe.

Our four-day workweek. We don't work on Fridays. Ever. We get more work done is fewer days. We have at least 50 more days off than people who work Monday through Friday.

We offer training through many different suppliers. We know that training is necessary to succeed.

We train everyone to succeed in their career at Fix-it With Fred. ALL of our team members are satisfied with the progress that they're making in their careers according to our last two quarterly reviews. There is no limit on how far you can advance. Keeping all of our goals aligned is an important part of our culture.

Every full-time team member has a bi-weekly 1-on-1 meeting with Fred. It's a time to talk about how they are doing at home and at work. Training and performance are covered during these meetings. They are scheduled at the same time every other week so everyone knows what to expect. We also perform quarterly reviews 4 times per year. We review what was covered in the past 12 1-on-1 meetings, performance for the past quarter, and our comeback report. The quarterly review is one of the times where a team member can move up in job class (Service advisor to the service manager, apprentice technician to journeyman technician, etc) Pay rate changes are commonly done during quarterly reviews but can happen at any time.

We offer safety training related to each team member's job duties. We offer any safety equipment that is needed. We want to keep each team member safe.

We have developed an environment that encourages growth and evolution. That is how more experienced technicians can pass their knowledge and experience down to less experienced technicians. Since we use a team bonus pay plan, it pays everyone more to share their knowledge with their work family. It's common for multiple techs to collaborate on a diagnosis and repair. One of our daily goals is to become 1% better. We accomplish that with training and sharing of knowledge.

We sponsor many community programs. We have sponsored the Firefighter Phil program for Watson Elementary in Perry Local Schools for the past 3 years. We've hosted many blood drives at our shop. All of our food drives have been paired with Perry Helping Perry, a local charity. Fred has been hosted Cub Scout den meetings for all of 2021 since the scouts didn't have any place to meet. Our shop has hosted many other Cub Scouting events over the years. We are always looking to help the community that has supported our success.

Fred is an active member of many educational advisory boards. He is one of two independent shop owners that are active in Stark State College's automotive program. He also donates cars & core parts to Canton City Schools ACTE Automotive Education program. We host an extern from the ACTE program every year and Fred is a guest speaker there once per year pre-COVID. Jackson High School, Glenoak High School, and RG Drage are some of the schools where he serves as an advisor for. He's working towards joining the advisory board for Canton South High School's automotive program.

Our shop is commonly called a "Forever home" by our technicians. It's an environment filled with people that love and care about you. When you are surrounded by people that want to help you succeed, it's easier to progress in your career. We keep our goals aligned so everyone succeeds.

Yes. Fred speaks to every applicant before scheduling an in-person interview.

Our interview process is different from most. They are set up to be a conversation versus a conventional interview. The team interview is the best part of our interview process. It's when the applicant interviews with the technicians as a group, then interview with the service advisors as a group. We then review the results of those interviews during our Wednesday weekly team meeting.

We perform a personality test that we call the "Bird Test" on every applicant. It's commonly called the DISC test. We use the bird test to learn what motivates people. Https://www.discprofile.com explains more about how the DISC test helps us. We have made it into a Google Form. It takes less than 10 minutes to fill it out. For service advisors and any other "office" team members, we use the Wonderlic personality test. It's more in-depth than the bird test. It takes 30-40 minutes to complete.

This depends on the applicant and the position that they're applying for. For technicians, we have a written test for the higher experienced technicians. For advisors, we have sales scenarios and role-plays that we perform. Often, we offer job shadowing as part of our interview process. We do whatever we need to do to help both parties ensure that the applicant is a great fit for our team.

After an in-person interview, you should expect to hear from Fred within a few days. It depends on if you interviewed with one person or a whole department. If you interview with a department, then those team members have to meet to discuss their thoughts about the interview. Feel free to contact Fred directly if you are curious about the status of your application.

Our hiring process normally takes 1-2 weeks in total. We don't want to rush making a decision just to find out that the applicant isn't the right fit. It's terrible when a company interviews someone one time and offers them a job. Then the applicant uproots their life to join a new team just to find out that they're not happy with the new job. Then they have to go back on the search again. The business also has to heal from onboarding someone that didn't fit. It all depends on the applicant's schedule and how long it takes for all parties to agree that they're a good fit. Feel free to call the shop and ask our team members why it's worth going through our thorough interview process.

Our interview process is designed to be a conversation, not a list of questions. We've found that you get to know the people that you work with as well as your family. We want to get to know the applicant before adding them to our team to protect both parties, our team and the applicant. We've built something special at Fix-it With Fred. That's why we protect it with our interview process. If you join our team, you can help us protect it too.

We use a compensation method that is different from other shops and promotes a fluid team environment. We all succeed together. FIWF uses a weekly profit-sharing bonus based on shop performance as a whole. The entire team hits bonus together. The bonus is based on the employee's hourly rate and the number of hours worked for the week. This motivates each team member to put their best foot forward and contribute to the common goal. This also encourages employees to complete tasks as a team instead of watching someone struggle. Team output is the goal for ALL of us. Our team tested this method for over 3 months and unanimously agreed that being rewarded for teamwork is the best motivator. When the business profits, you profit.

We use a compensation method that is different from other shops and promotes a fluid team environment. We all succeed together. FIWF uses a weekly profit-sharing bonus based on shop performance as a whole. The entire team hits bonus together. The bonus is based on the employee's hourly rate and the number of hours worked for the week. This motivates each team member to put their best foot forward and contribute to the common goal. This also encourages employees to complete tasks as a team instead of watching someone struggle. Team output is the goal for ALL of us. Our team tested this method for over 3 months and unanimously agreed that being rewarded for teamwork is the best motivator. When the business profits, you profit.

We use a compensation method that is different from other shops and promotes a fluid team environment. We all succeed together. FIWF uses a weekly profit-sharing bonus based on shop performance as a whole. The entire team hits bonus together. The bonus is based on the employee's hourly rate and the number of hours worked for the week. This motivates each team member to put their best foot forward and contribute to the common goal. This also encourages employees to complete tasks as a team instead of watching someone struggle. Team output is the goal for ALL of us. Our team tested this method for over 3 months and unanimously agreed that being rewarded for teamwork is the best motivator. When the business profits, you profit.

We use a compensation method that is different from other shops and promotes a fluid team environment. We all succeed together. FIWF uses a weekly profit-sharing bonus based on shop performance as a whole. The entire team hits bonus together. The bonus is based on the employee's hourly rate and the number of hours worked for the week. This motivates each team member to put their best foot forward and contribute to the common goal. This also encourages employees to complete tasks as a team instead of watching someone struggle. Team output is the goal for ALL of us. Our team tested this method for over 3 months and unanimously agreed that being rewarded for teamwork is the best motivator. When the business profits, you profit.