As in other highly specialized mechanical fields, there is a shortage of auto body technicians across the country. The existing workforce is aging and retiring, and not enough new body techs are entering the field. Apprenticeship programs can help fill these gaps, and a number of autobody repair companies have launched both recruitment and training programs to help bolster their workforce.
In July, ABRA Auto Body & Glass opened its new Career Development Academy in Eagan, Minn., to provide hands-on training to new autobody technicians. The academy will serve as the campus for the company’s paid, five-week ABRA SpringBoard Apprentice Technician program.
SpringBoard was developed after ABRA brought on Chief People Office David Kuhl, who had managed recruitment programs in a number of other industries (including high tech and healthcare). He initially thought he could take the same approach at ABRA, finding ways to recruit or poach technicians from other shops. “I was so wrong,” Kuhl says. “It was pretty apparent that no matter how optimized my recruitment engine was, it wasn’t a matter of buying or finding technicians -- it was a matter of building them.”
The company developed a program to train new applications without any experience in autobody repair, and turn them into C-technicians in the shortest amount of time possible. “We put a five-week program together that is a combination of classroom and hands-on training within the shop environment,” Kuhl says. “They have the same production requirements as a real shop, so they’re not learning in a bubble.”
The company created a marketing program to attract applicants for the program, reaching out to high schools, colleges, veterans, and other groups. “We put a program in place to educate parents and guidance counselors,” Kuhl says. “The program is paid hourly, you get $3,000 worth of tools when you graduate, you have the best sort of training the industry has, and you are guaranteed a job. You land on a team of mentors that are incented financially to continue helping you develop along the learning curve.”
When the initial class was announced, the company received 500 applications for the ten available slots. “Basically we set it up like ‘American Idol,’ where we had a panel of interviewers in each region to figure out who the best applicants would be, and then we selected our first class,” Kuhl says.
ABRA trains ten students at a time through the program. Upon graduation, the new technicians can be placed at an ABRA repair center. So far, the company has graduated 57 new technicians through the program, and they are in high demand at the company’s shops.
Current apprentices have included veterans, high school students, older applicants that wanted a career change, and some tech school students who were unable to complete their education for financial reasons. About 15 percent of participants are female.
The program has also provided a new career path for some senior technicians. The academy has been staffed with the company’s existing trainers and a few qualified technicians from ABRA shops near the academy. Once the apprentices are placed, the experienced technicians at those shops can move into mentorship roles. “We have a demographic challenge in this industry with technicians in their 40s and 50s who have a harder time keeping up with increasing demands and expectations of productivity as they get older,” Kuhl says. “They can serve as mentors now.”
To place the graduates, ABRA has to find a shop that has the right mix of talent and sufficient mentoring resources. “We want these folks to be working,” Kuhl says. “They arrive being able to fix bumpers on their own, they are welding certified, and there are some things they can do better than the people they are working with. We want to make sure the store is fully utilizing the apprentice.”
Graduates should optimally have a connect to the market as well. “If you have family in the area or a personal connection, it’s an important thing for us to see,” Kuhl says. “We want to make sure they land in a place where they are successful. The ROI for this program is dependent on low turnover and quick productivity, and we really want to demonstrate that these new technicians are going to stay with us.”
For the next phase of the program, ABRA is evaluating data on existing graduates to determine if there were commonalities among the most successful of the students. “We’re trying to figure out the profile for success to help evaluate future applicants,” Kuhl says. “We put them through a mechanical aptitude test and a personality test to see if that is at all predictive. A lot of this attitude. We want someone who is a perfectionist but that can work quickly and efficiently.”
Kuhl says the company is planning an extension of SpringBoard to train B-techs. The program will also be expanded so that apprentices can be trained in different areas of the country. “Our long-term vision is to have more of a hub-and-spoke approach, and leverage folks that are good mentors in our shops today,” he says.
Interested students can apply online at www.abracda.com
