Wanted: Talented techs

Dealerships' parts and service departments have a talent problem.

They can have the most advanced technology in the industry, but it won't mean anything if there aren't enough technicians who know how to use it.

"The problem today is people," said Harry Hollenberg, partner of Carlisle & Co., during a fixed operations panel presentation at the Automotive News Retail Forum here Thursday. "We can have the greatest integrated technology, but if we are unable to recruit and retain satisfied technicians, it's not going to do us any good."

Carlisle & Co. is a management consulting firm specializing in automotive aftersales.

Hollenberg was joined at the event by Frederiek Toney, president of Global Ford Customer Service, and Mark Smith, president of Principle Auto, a dealership group with eight stores in Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Topics included the talent shortage in the fixed ops industry, integrity in the business and the main gripes that technicians have with their jobs.

Ford's Toney said the talent crisis will need to be tackled by generating interest in the industry among children while they are in their formative years.

"We have to educate our kids and ensure that they want to be engineers and technicians," Toney said.

Carlisle surveyed more than 22,000 technicians in September to get their take on the business. In short, many of them are unhappy.

Hollenberg said service technicians' biggest concern is their compensation structure, followed by work/family balance and feeling valued. He said many technicians feel unimportant.

Implementing four-day workweeks with 10- or 11-hour days would help build morale, but few dealerships have done so. Technicians, especially millennial techs, want flexible hours.

Meanwhile, Hollenberg said only 15 percent of technicians would recommend their careers to others, while 65 percent are "strongly against" recommending it.

Carlisle research has found that dealerships, on average, want to add three technicians to their staffs. That extra help would boost fixed operations revenue 17 percent.

"We need a new way to bring folks into the pipeline. We need to make this a more desirable career for folks who are in high school or in middle school," Hollenberg said. "We've got to think about the pay structure. We've got to think about the home/work balance and career opportunities. They need to know where they go. We can't just drop them into express service and let them figure it out."

Smith said setting store sales records is a reason for dealerships to celebrate, but service techs need praise when they excel.

"When our sales departments have record months, we celebrate. At a minimum, we high-five the sales managers, we hug our sales consultants," Smith said.

"When your service department has a record month, do you go back and hug the technicians? Do you high-five the service advisers? Do they know what your best month in history is, and do you have goals and plans and action items to beat that sales number one day?"