When Shawn Vaughan took the reins at Mike Calvert Toyota in Houston, one of his first orders of business was to implement a hiring model he had developed previously that works contrary to the usual practice of luring technicians from competing dealerships with higher pay.
"In order to recruit technicians, the industry subscribes to a mercenary concept," Vaughan said. "We steal each other's technicians and pay up to move them from one dealer to another."
Vaughan, who is now CEO of Vaughan Automotive in Boerne, Texas, developed a recruiting method he says is more akin to farming.