CHICAGO — There is no more sure-fire way to sabotage the success of your business than by making bad hiring decisions. What’s just as bad, is to hire good people but see them soon leave for other job opportunities.
Employees are the backbone of your business and making sure you get the best person possible for that job opening at your service repair or collision repair shop is crucial. And equally important is having systems in place that encourage high achievers to stay with your company.
That was the message from Bill Haas, owner of Haas Performance Consulting LLC, who taught the class, “Creating a Culture Where New Hires Succeed” at NACE Automechanika Chicago on Friday.
“Having a team of people committed to delivering quality work and exceptional customer service is challenging every business in America, said Haas, who has more than 40 years of experience in the automotive service and repair industry. “Creating expectations with job descriptions based on actual job activities, and implementing a two-way review process for employees and the employer can go a long way toward fixing your hiring and retention processes,”
Haas has a long and impressive resume in the auto aftermarket, having worked as a technician in a new car dealership and in several independent shops, as a shop manager, a parts counter professional, a shop owner, a technical trainer and an executive with the Automotive Service Association. During his class, he shared best hiring and retention practices and proven techniques that allow attendees to participate and share their successes.
Haas said that shop owners and managers need to develop a process for hiring and stick to that process regardless of how desperate they might be to fill a vacancy quickly. He said that repair shops need to be slow and deliberate to hire and quick to fire, rather than the reverse.
His presentation paved the way to achieve that by including samples of employment ads, job applications, interview questions and job descriptions.
Haas also discussed generational differences in the workforce, which all businesses need to understand and deal with to be successful.
“Creating processes for attracting and selecting your employees of the future is a key part of effective recruiting,” he said. “You need to be able to meet the expectations of Gen X and Gen Y employees so that they want to continue working for you.”
For example, Generation X is the demographic group following the baby boomers. Their birth years range from the mid 1960s to the late 1970s or early 1980s and make up approximately 22 percent of the workforce. Members of this generation work to live, as opposed to the baby boomers, who often lived to work. They are highly educated and work well independently, but don’t want work to be their life.
Millennials, or Generation Y, were born during the 1980s through the mid 1990s and are part of the “everybody gets a trophy generation.” They make up about half of the workforce, are very comfortable with technology, and often are looking for a work schedule that accommodates their life style. Many of them are expected to have 19 jobs and three careers in their lifetime.
“Today’s workforce has made a work-life balance a priority over money and benefits,” Haas said. “Successful talent managers realize these differences, embrace the change and create an environment for younger generations to succeed.”
Regardless of an employee’s generational makeup, employers need to create a work place culture and environment that encourages employee engagement and rewards their contributions, Haas said.
“And be sure that you take the time to find the right person, rather than settling for the best one that applied.”
