Chris Collins hosts a panel on fixing the technician shortage by training people internally instead of hiring experienced workers. Build apprenticeships with senior techs, move quick-lube workers into broader roles to cut the 60% early turnover rate, and show clear career paths from day one. Pay matters less than advancement and a manager who actually coaches.
I think, you know, one of the keys to retention in technicians in this, in this whole world and something that Lyfty has been working on for a long time. We do it better in some markets than other is fully growing your own techs. You know, we say it, we talk about it, but if, unless that service manager and even that general manager nowadays has a buy in to that, we're going to be fighting the same problem. We're always going to be looking for that master tech and whatever bad habits, whatever expensive, you know, sign ons that comes with that and also the willingness for that person to jump to the next sign on. Bonus. If we've grown that tech up from, you know, wet behind the ears out of vocational school, we put the training on them. They've grown up in our culture, you know, retention is much better that way. And that brings in some of the older techs, you know, rather than just putting them out to pasture, can we use them as a mentor? Can they maybe stop doing some of the heavy line, do mostly diagnostic and then have two apprentices underneath them that they get paid a portion of that work? You know, there's, there's all sorts of things that we're implementing that will, you know, lengthen a technician's career and allow us to grow better techs from the ground up. So that's a big part of it.
Do you find that stores that are really good at growing their own are also usually really good at recruiting? Or are those two mutually independent spots?
Do you find sometimes when he interrupts that you don't know if he's telling a joke or.
I made sure to listen till the end. Now I think that is a phenomenal point.
Are they better at recruiting? Absolutely, because they've got it down to a finite set. They're looking for an entry level tech that they know will fit in that system and also have potential. So somebody that's got drive and ambition, right, which is attractive.
Right. At all levels.
And are they better at retention? Absolutely. You don't have nine one ones from a, from a shop like that. I mean, unless something just horrible happens, they don't have nine one ones. They're always looking for that next, you know, group. And some people, you know, the, the entry level candidates can feel that culture and want it so bad they'll come on and be a porter for a while just to get their foot in the door and then they start doing some lube work and everything else and then they're in the door. So they've got two tiers below a C level tech that they're actually bringing people in to get into the system.
Yeah, I think that that's the thing with support staff. You should always be interviewing, thinking about what their next step is.
Absolutely. And then referrals. Referrals is a huge deal. Making sure you have that relationship with your techs and your staff, that they know somebody where they used to work. Well, let's talk to them, you know, because then I'm. Now I can get away all around all the gatekeepers because now I have a contact. Right. With that candidate and that's a big thing.
So when you talk about growing your own, I think there's a couple things that as an industry that is missed. The first one is, and the stats that I've seen from manufacturers is that technicians going into a quick lube environment, so a standalone quick lube environment, within the first two years, it's over 60% leave.
Absolutely.
But we also get married to this quick lube environment like it's a business model, while our profitability also goes the other way. And so understanding that having a better system in the shop for a quick lube, so a customer can experience an oil change in a reasonable amount of time, but you can still have those technicians mixed in and around the other ones and being mentored and having them in the shop, that, that dramatically cuts that, that turnover. And then I think the other one that's missed is whenever, you know, McKinsey or these big consulting companies are hired to research why technicians leave our industry, the number one reason usually is they don't see a chance of advancement. They don't see a clear career path. They see this guy who's a shop foreman that's never going to leave. Right?
Yeah.
And so they don't ever. They. And nobody's talking to them about, hey, what are your plans? Or, you know, where, where do you want to go? And then the second one is their boss. They don't like, believe their boss has never engaged them in a personal, you know, relationship. And so they don't feel like the boss cares about them. And so there's that, that gap. But those are always the first two. Money is like 4 or 5 on.
Those lists, which would shock a lot of people. But you're right. You're absolutely right. And I think, you know, that whole career path at the start, you know, at the day of hire is so important, but then if that's all you do with that career path, then it's, it's useless if you don't have say a 30 day meet and greet consultation with that employee as they're going through the career path. It's not a tool anymore. It just was a piece of paper you got for them to sit down. But every 30 days, if you're saying, hey Mike, great job, you've got these kicked out, you've got some online training done, here's what we're gonna look at in the next 30 days and here's what that pay will look like. And I think our managers that do that consistently have a much better retention rate. They actually have a quicker growth pattern for their, for their technicians as well. And you can weed somebody out, you know, in that first 90 days pretty quick if, if you're actually on top of it and looking what, what their performance is and how they're following that career path. And sometimes, you know, you gotta punt. I mean, sometimes they're just probably never gonna be able to, to handle that pace. And we either find a different spot for them in the dealership or whatever else we have to do. But there has to be expectations both ways, I think too, for it to work.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving 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 to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
