It’s Your Business

• Subject: Hiring qualified technicians and service advisers
• Essential Reading: Shop Owner
• Author: Terry Greenhut, Transmission Digest Business Editor

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It wasn’t very long ago that finding employees, especially technically skilled ones, was somewhere between difficult and impossible. If you ran an ad hardly anyone called other than possibly some misfits who were truly unemployable because of any one or a combination of the following:

• Their tools or car had just been stolen (according to them)
• Their propensity for alcohol or drug abuse had led to the loss of their driver’s licenses or to being convicted of crimes or other infractions
• They were hiding out from either immigration, the local police or their ex-wives for the alimony and child support they owed
• They had unresolved anger issues, didn’t like to take orders or couldn’t work well with others
• Couldn’t show up on time – or at all
• Couldn’t read, write or comprehend
• Were greedy people who thought their talents were worth a whole lot more than it made sense to pay them for the amount of work they were willing to produce
• Last, they might just have been lousy mechanics.

Whatever the reasons, that’s what we were getting – until now.

I would never have believed how many quality technicians and service advisers are available right now if I hadn’t seen it for myself. I’ve been consulting and coaching for a general automotive shop a couple of days a week for the past few months. Because of our marketing efforts the 25-year-old business with a loyal customer following and a great reputation is in the midst of a growth spurt that’s taking place despite the present economy. We now find ourselves in the enviable position of having too much work for the number of technicians and service advisers on the payroll.

A year or two ago the prospect of having to find new employees might have been enough to cause large strapping men to cower behind their desks. Often they put up with people they should have fired years earlier on account of either their bad attitudes, insubordination, greed, lack of a work ethic or even stealing because they just couldn’t find replacements or were afraid that the next guy would be even worse. In other words, they put up with crap that no small-business owner should ever have to because they were operating from fear and a weak position.

Well, good news, owners. It’s time to get into a strong position in which you are dealing the cards and calling the shots. There is, for the first time since I can remember, a glut of technicians and service advisers looking for work. How do I know? Because I’ve been interviewing and hiring some of them in the biggest city in the world, a city and surrounding area of 12 million people with hardly a good mechanic or service writer having ever been out of work – until now.

With scores of dealers either going out of business or being shut down by manufacturers and franchised or independent shops closing because they won’t modernize or make the marketing, sales and technical initiatives necessary to maintain a successful business, there are lots of prospective employees out there.

The biggest challenge won’t be to find available people; it will be to choose from among all the applicants so you can get the best. “Hallelujah!” you might say, but don’t be too quick to think that all your problems have been solved. You still have to go through the entire hiring and training process and maybe do it several times within each position until you find just the right people. You’ll still have to negotiate pay and benefits, yet that experience might be much more fun with you in control rather than the prospect.

I’ve had an awful lot of good luck finding people from a source I previously wouldn’t have believed would be so fruitful. It’s “Craig’s List.” As opposed to the newspapers and many other lead sources, it’s instantaneous. Every time I place an ad my cell phone starts to ring within a half hour. Sure, some of the callers are duds, but most are legitimate people out of work through no fault of their own. They read my simple ad offering positions as A, B and C technicians along with service advisers and managers, and they call.

Then the weeding-out process begins. It starts with what time they call. The ad always states, “Call between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.” Since the ad isn’t all that cluttered, that statement is hard to miss; yet people do, or they don’t care, or can’t follow directions, or think that they will beat out the competition by calling earlier. Calling at the wrong time is an immediate disqualification. The way I figure, if they can’t start out this relationship by correctly following one simple instruction, how good can the rest of it be? If they get past the first hurdle we go on to the interview. I ask questions and try to get them to talk about themselves. Just as when you interview a customer to make a sale and know that if you ask enough of the right questions the customer will eventually tell you what it will take to close the sale, if you can keep the prospective employee talking he or she eventually will say something that will make you want to go to the next step with them or not.

When interviewing I am careful not to ask the kinds of questions that can cause a problem with any regulatory agency. What I really care and ask about is experience, education, certifications, extent of their tool collection, troubleshooting and electronic capabilities, whether they are a citizen or hold a Green Card and are legal to work in this country, whether they have a valid driver’s license, if they have transportation to get to work, their work history, their goals, what they expect from this job, whether they are willing to be paid on the basis of productivity and start on a trial basis, what they bring to the table (how would hiring them benefit the business), why they left their last job, can they give references, is there anything in their lives that would keep them from following our normal work schedule, and are they willing to work the number of days and hours we are open.

Another question that is very significant in these times is how much they need to take home every week. There are a few reasons to ask it that way. The first is that many of the people in our business, although great when it comes to working on cars and figuring out problems, aren’t all that good with the math. When you start talking gross pay and deductions their eyes glaze over. Then all they want to know is, “How much do I get to take home?”

Another reason to ask them is because you don’t know what they have in mind. It’s always better to let them state a number. It tells you what ball park they’re in. You might think a certain applicant, on the basis of his résumé, is worth $1,000 a week. When you ask him what he needs to make he tells you $650. Good thing you didn’t speak first and offer him the $1,000. On the other hand, if someone has $1,000 in mind and is offered only $650 a few things might happen: First, he might be insulted by the number and flat turn it down; second, he might try to negotiate for more; and third, and probably worst of all, he might take the offer, stay a few weeks, then realize he can’t live on the money and either try to hit you up for more or quit. Since you don’t want to go through the hiring process any more often than you have to it’s always better to clear the air up front.

One thing I’m hearing that I’ve never heard before is: “Could you just give me a tryout? I’ll show you how good I am.” This is a complete turnaround. Used to be it was, “Tell me how much you’ll pay me and I’ll see if I want to work for you.” Now it’s, “Just give me a chance to prove myself.”

I’m finding that in New York City, one of the most-expensive places on the planet to live, people are asking for less than they were as little as a year ago. To me that indicates that they’ve tested the waters and didn’t like what they found out. It also might mean that they have been out of work for a considerable time and are getting a little desperate.

I remember a time when I would have a big problem with an employee and my secretary would say: “Why do you put up with that? Why don’t you just fire him?” I would go to the office door, look up the street and then down. When she would ask what I was looking for I would say, “The line of people waiting to take his job.” Of course, there was no line, so my answer was that I couldn’t fire him until there was. Well, guess what – there’s a line now. If you have employees who won’t play by your rules or don’t see the value in working for you, there may be no better time to make a change than right now while so much talent is available. Consider it.

Terry Greenhut, Transmission Digest Business Editor. Visit www.TerryGreenhut.com.