Talent search

Nov. 4, 2015
It’s rare to find a shop owner who doesn’t list attracting, retaining or developing the talent their business needs as a top challenge. We asked shops around the country what they’re doing to meet this challenge.

Nancy Yeager doesn’t hesitate when asked what has proven to be the biggest difficulty she and her two siblings have faced since taking over ownership and operation of Cupertino Body Shop from their father in 2006.

“It was very challenging initially to find the right kind of people,” Yeager said, noting that prior to that time the shop had essentially employed the same four people— including her dad and brother—for decades. “That was the biggest wake-up call when we took over and all of a sudden started getting really busy.”

It’s rare to find a shop owner who doesn’t list attracting, retaining or developing the talent their business needs as a top challenge. We asked shops around the country what they’re doing to meet this challenge.

Offer good working conditions

A number of smaller shops said they feel they can compete for talent with large MSOs that may offer additional employee benefits by offering something those larger operations may not: less of a harried, production-based environment.

Bob Park of Superior Performance in Portland, Ore., said he’s not interested in turning his 8-employee business into a high-volume, high-pressure body shop. That’s a selling point when recruiting, he said.

“We’re having fun and we like to make sure our employees are happy and want to come to work,” he said. “That’s my strongest draw to get quality help, to attract them from other shops that are highly stressed, working Saturdays. We don’t do that. We don’t pay on commission but we pay them very well, so they can do high quality work yet still get the same pay.”

Bob Park

Ease them into the shop

Many shop owners said requiring entry-level employees for almost any position in the shop to spend several weeks as a porter or detailer helps the new employee get a feel for the business and helps the shop get a sense of the employee’s chances for success.

“You get a good feel about whether they have a good attitude, do they show up on time, that kind of stuff,” Kevin Burnett, vice president of operations for Gerber Collision & Glass said.

That can prevent both the shop and the employee from making a larger investment in training, etc., before they know if it’s a good fit for both, Burnett and others said.

Build in-house tools

Scale does offer more options for in-house “talent development,” but even smaller collision repair operations may be able to use some of the ideas implemented at large MSOs on a more limited scale.

Max Sorensen of Minnesota-based ABRA Auto Body & Glass said his company has a 300-module “learning management system” that covers subjects ranging from how to greet a customer coming into the shop to preparing final billing of an insurer. Employees can use the system to learn new skills, he said, or use the system as a “refresher” when they have questions.

Smaller collision repair operations may not be able to duplicate such a sophisticated system, but they can begin to build written SOPs (standard operating procedures) for the shop or office that can be used to train new employees and help them produce consistent outcomes.

Darrell Amberson of LaMettry’s Collision, an MSO in the Minneapolis, Minn., area, said that while large MSOs like ABRA can have staff devoted to employee training and development, his company isn’t large enough for that.

“So we’re looking at developing a training department using some resident experts to help train some of other people,” Amberson said.

That in-house training will become part of a formalized career path the company is developing to offer to entry-level employees.

Darrell Amberson

Understand the value of training

John Bosin of I-CAR said his organization has published the results of its studies into the improved business performance that training offers (http://tinyurl.com/icarValue). But he said such training also has a human resources impact.

“There is much better retention of employees because they are getting trained, because there is an understanding that they are doing the right kind of work,” Bosin said. “The employees are proud to be there.”

Gary Wano of G.W. and Son Auto Body in Oklahoma City, Okla., agreed, saying his company has found the training and distinction that comes with earning automaker certifications has helped his business attract, develop and retain quality technicians.

“We’ve found over the years that a body or refinishing tech can make it to a plateau relatively quickly,” he said. “With the inception of the certified programs, there’s another level that’s obtainable to these technicians. It also helps us attract some of the best-of-the-best technicians. We are known within our market area as the only ones who have stepped up, to make the investment in our facility as well as our people. That says something.”

Gary Wano

Look to hire veterans

A growing number of collision repair organizations are turning to the military to find new employees. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers significant benefits that can help train, equip and even relocate veterans—some 250,000 leave the military each year—to fill jobs in the industry.

“We really want to help you meet your needs with a veteran,” Allison Hickey, who leads the Veterans Benefits Administration, said at NACE this past summer. “You have an opportunity to do something really big for those who have served. And it’s not going to hurt you. Veterans have proven they are going to show up to the job on time. They’re going to come with a commitment and a loyalty and a sense of teamwork. They aren’t the type of guys and gals who look at you and say, ‘Sorry, I’m clocked-out.’ They’re going to serve the mission to serve your customer.”

She suggested that shops visit the VA’s “eBenefits” website (https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits/jobs) for more details, to post job openings or to review profiles of veterans seeking work.

Look outside the industry

Dave McCollum and his two sons have attracted and retained many of the 55 employees at their three McCollum Auto Body locations in the Portland, Ore., area by seeking out young people with little or no experience in the industry. They then work to promote those employees, giving them opportunities to move up.

“We hire them to entry-level positions but we don’t hire them because we think they would be a good person to wash cars or check in parts or answer the phone,” Dave McCollum Jr. said. “We look for somebody who has potential to grow with us. That can be good and bad. With entry-level positions, it can be nice to have some stability, but if someone is good, they don’t stay there long. It’s better to have a revolving door at the entry-level level than a revolving door among the higher-paid, key positions.”

“This organization as a whole does a really good job of giving young people an opportunity,” said Erin Gallant, who does business development for McCollum Auto Body. “There’s a gal here who is 25 and had been here for two-and-a-half years but came here with no industry experience. She’s been promoted four times, and is now the lead repair planner for one of our insurance accounts.”

“She’ll manage one of our stores one day,” added Joey McCollum.

“And that’s just one example,” Gallant said. “The guy in his early 20s who took her previous position as a customer service rep (CSR) came in as a parts person. When you put the time and effort into these younger people, you see a lot of loyalty from them where others don’t see a lot of loyalty among that generation.”

Joey McCollum said not requiring industry experience broadens their recruitment pool tremendously.

“The gentleman who is a CSR now was working for Home Depot,” he said. “We’ve had receptionists who were with Nordstrom. And the advancement speaks to the other employees; it shows them that we care, that we’re investing in the people we have, not just getting somebody in here to be a detailer for six months until they’re out the door. They’re here to grow with us, to build a career in this industry, whatever they want it to be.”

“It helps with training, too,” Dave McCollum Jr. said. “Because we’re not replacing a receptionist who didn’t work out. We’re replacing a receptionist who is being promoted. So she’s here to provide the training to her replacement. We’re not starting from scratch trying to train someone. The person who is actually leaving the job for a promotion and who has done a really good job is doing the training.”

He said hiring those from outside the industry offers other benefits as well.
“I’ve learned a lot from the young people who have far less experience than we do,” he said. “They come in with no bad habits or experience of how it’s always been. So they bring a lot to the table as far as thinking outside the box.”

Offering a career within a growing family-owned business is something the McCollums believe sets them apart from some of their competitors.

“If you come to work for us, you’re working for the McCollums for another 30 years because that’s our long-range plan,” Dave Jr. said. “I think that’s appealing to a lot of people.”

Dave McCollum Jr. (left) and Joey McCollum (right) 

Work with the schools

Bob Miller said he’s dealt with the technician shortage primarily by offering good benefits to retain many of the employees who started with him 10 years ago at Treasure Valley Collision, which now has two locations in Boise, Idaho. But as he’s watched

the average age of technicians creeping up, he also launched an apprenticeship program at each of his shops for students from the College of Western Idaho, where Miller also volunteers.

“I really think that we as body shop owners need to work with the instruction that’s going on at the colleges,” he said, given the key role such programs play in creating future technicians for the industry. “We’re working hard so [students] can understand more of what happens in a body shop. We’re trying to help the schools prepare them for when they come in here.”

New role for jobbers?

Joe Miller, the manager of Courtesy Auto Body in Portland, Ore., said the technician shortage is evident by the lack of technicians stopping by the shop looking for work. He said part of the problem is that younger people can find other ways to earn more money without the increasing amount of knowledge, skill and expertise required to repair ever-more-complex vehicles.

“It used to be you would get at least one or two a month who would come in,” Miller said. “No more. Luckily, we have a really good crew, and we’re not a gigantic machine like some of the bigger shops. I don’t need 20 techs. There’s just five of us.”

Cross-training of employees is one way he see shops overcome some of the difficulty in finding enough qualified help.

“I’m still a hands-on guy, so if somebody is sick, I can pick up the slack,” Miller said. “The painter can do some body work. The body man can do some painting.”

But he also said he’s told the shop’s jobber that he thinks they may need to take on a larger role in finding and developing the talent the industry needs.

“I said if they want people to use their products, more of the training and recruiting might be up to them,” Miller said. “They could be the labor pool for shops.”

At Cupertino Body Shop, Yeager and her siblings say they have been able to get past their initial hurdle a decade ago of finding the help they needed, and now have a team of six production employees.

“A couple people in the past we let hang around here way longer than we should have,” Yeager said. “But right now we have the best crew we’ve ever had. These guys are great. They’re just fantastic.”

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