Volvo Cars tailors a solution to tech shortage

Automakers and their retailers are getting creative in the race for service technicians.

In February, Mercedes-Benz USA partnered with Job Corps to grow its technician ranks. In March, Ford Motor Co. announced a $1 million scholarship fund for future technicians in four U.S. cities.

And Volvo Cars, in an effort to recruit more female technicians, has redesigned its shop uniforms to better suit women.

Female technicians typically have to wear ill-fitting uniforms designed and sized for men. So Volvo aimed to create a uniform that would fit women without making them stand out among their peers.

"While the existing uniforms are meant to be gender neutral, the feedback we received from our female technicians was that the cut and fabric was made with a man's traditional build in mind," said Volvo Car USA and Canada marketing head Leigh Moynihan. Several "female technicians flagged the need for a specific uniform to better support them in their

day-to-day needs, as our existing uniforms were not working for them from a fit and mobility perspective."

Volvo partnered with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to give female student designers at the Fashion Institute of Technology the opportunity to learn about the automotive technician role and create outfits designed for women.

The initiative generated 11 designs; Moynihan said Volvo has incorporated "most of the proposed ideas."

The female-friendly uniform maximizes comfort around the waist, bust and collar. It features a thumb hole on the long-sleeved shirt option to prevent the sleeves from bunching and provide warmth.

Volvo technicians will test the final sample design over a few weeks. The female-friendly uniform, manufactured by Red Kap, will roll out to U.S. and Canadian dealerships early next year.

According to CCC Intelligent Solutions, the auto technician work force will decline by 4 percent from 2020 through the decade's end.

Last year, demand for entrant technicians exceeded 35,000, but there were just 4,500 graduates from postsecondary collision programs, CCC's 2023 Crash Course report noted.

The technician shortage threatens the dealership profit center and can lower customer satisfaction if cars aren't repaired promptly.

Volvo Cars is expanding the technician staffing pie by looking beyond the male-dominated industry. Women account for less than 5 percent of the automotive technician work force, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"We're committed to hiring and inspiring women — from behind the wheel to designing and building the car of the future — and that involves achieving a 30 percent female work force by 2030," Moynihan said of Volvo's U.S. and Canada technician ranks.

And part of making service technician jobs female-friendly is making women more comfortable as they do the work, through the uniform reinvention.

"Volvo is leaning in from a recruiting and training perspective," Moynihan said, "and sometimes it's the little things that count — like a uniform that is designed for the job and the person wearing it."