Chris Collins talks about why young people aren't interested in auto mechanics. The guest says the problem is branding: dealership jobs are now technical and managerial, not just wrench-turning. Some shops are hiring back former employees, who make up 25 to 30% of new hires, and offering compressed workweeks to attract younger workers.
Kids growing up just aren't, you know, fixing cars on the weekend. They're not aspiring to be mechanics. And I think nationally that's something like they're not aspiring to be plumbers or welders or anything that's like physical like that, like the labor type jobs. What do you think we could do as an industry to get more kids to want to come into our industry as mechanics?
That's a big challenge and I don't think there's a silver bullet to fix it. I do think there are some branding issues that could be fixed with some of these jobs. And especially when I think about the automotive repair industry is, you know, we've been using the term mechanics. You know, some would say technicians or some of these other terms, but, but increasingly these jobs are really like, you know, project manager jobs or engineering jobs or craftspeople jobs. And you do see, I think a number of individuals thinking about like, I don't want to work at a computer my entire life. Like part of the great thing about jobs like a plumber or a mechanic is like at the end of the day you can turn around and say, I did that, like I had an impact. And there's research that shows that that's motivating as opposed to a lot of other jobs where at the end of the day you think, did I actually do anything? Like, did these eight hours make a difference? And so I think part of it is, is a branding challenge. I think part of it is also, especially as these dealership groups become larger, is that this is actually the start of a career in this great industry that's a little bit recession proof much of the time as well. And so you, you can come in as an entry level worker in the parts department or an entry level mechanic and you know, you and I could probably go back and forth and name 20 different career paths. All that end up in satisfying or near or over six figure work that you can reach from that level. And so it's not like, so if you come in as a mechanic and you become the best mechanic in this system, you're going to make a very healthy living, you know, but if you decide like that's actually not what I want to do, I want to, you know, do something more white collar. Yeah, we can, we can transition. Like in fact, you can go do sales for a couple years and then come back to being a mechanic or you can move into parts. And so part of the advantage large, large organizations have is that they can cross train employees and over the course of your Career, you can move on to these different challenges. And so part of it is not just like, you know, I'm a, you know, if you're a plumber, you're probably going to be a plumber, you know, for most of your career. You know, in the case of dealerships, I don't think that's the case. There's like a lot of different elements. And for people who find business interesting, whether in all the different elements of it, you know, you can have this really rich career in these organizations. So I think there's, there's a career piece too. I would also say just a couple more things if, if we have time for it.
I would say, you know, when it comes to remote work, I think that misses the conversation that should be happening right now. We should be having conversations about flexible work schedules. And I don't know if the automotive industry, if dealerships have been as creative with schedules as they could be. I think there's a lot of different ways that individuals want flexible schedules now. And because dealerships are not necessary, I mean, they often operate like manufacturing lines, but they can get creative. I mean, do you need to have 8 hour or 12 hour shifts, or can you give people 4 day work weeks, 3 day work weeks? You know, these longer schedules. Part of why people are drawn to careers like firefighting is because you can cram, you know, your schedules into two or three days. And so if you talk to your employees and say if you could drop your dream schedule while you still are working 40 or 50 or however many hours a week, what would that look like? And they may drop something and you're like, no, we cannot do that, but they may drop something that if you're, if you're open minded, you may be able to do. And the final thing I'd say, which probably isn't a surprise, is look for new recruiting pools, places that you don't normally look. And over the past year and a half, one recruiting pool that's gotten a lot of attention is the recruiting pool that is your former employees. So, so boomerang employees. At some organizations, up to 25 to 30% of new hires are people who once worked for the company. And remember earlier we talked about, you know, the toughest part about hiring employees is you've never seen them perform before. That's not true of your former employees. This goes back to resignations. And when one of your best mechanics, when one of your best salespeople, one of your best parts people quits, roll out the red carpet for that person and say, you're always welcome back here. I talked to one organization in a different industry that said when we have a top performer quit, we give that person, we don't accept their resignation. We say we're just going to give you a one year leave of absence and we're going to check in with you every couple months just to make sure you're as happy as you think you'll be in that next role. And if you're not, just come on back. It's no problem to us at all if you need to explore that, because the research is, from our standpoint, the grass is often not as green as it looks when people switch jobs. And so there's a perfect opportunity to say one of our best recruiting pools is also our former employees. And so let's keep in touch with them. And in that period of 0 to 1 years, that's maybe the perfect time. And then going forward in the future as well.
That's genius. I love that. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com that's offers.com Chris collinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
