[JoeHenry]

Here is a widely published article on sign-on:

http://www.actautostaffing.com/em    on the left column to “Proper Use of Sign-on Bonus”

And here is an article on Retention:

http://www.actautostaffing.com/em  on the left column to “Retention Bonus”

Sorry I could not give you the direct links to the articles – Joe Henry

 

[JoeHenry]

Sorry to be Debbie Downer here : (

At ACTautostaffing.com we receive dozens of these all the time. I always inspire these young people to: start, or continue to watch Motor Trend  channel, subscribe to and read “Tire Review”, “Body Shop News”, “Tomorrows Tech”, “Dragzine”, etc.

Why? Because all of our Garage Liability Insurance companies won’t let us touch them.

The best action we can all take to try to keep them interested. Then keep in touch until they are ripe enough to be cover in our shop insurance.

But we must inspire them to “dream the dream” by the illusion of the above media I mentioned. And if other industries don’t sweep them up (be ready for the Infrastructure jobs to suck them in like quick sand) we may get 1 out of 100 that were interested  : ((((

[JoeHenry]

Ness, we are getting off subject here about bringing new blood into our field, so feel free to call me direct (just like my other 3,000+ clients with independent shops) at 727-733-5600 7-days a week until 8:30pm eastern.

But quick answers to your questions – I was on flat-rate starting age 13 at my dad’s shop, put myself through college by turning wrenches (in my day there were no such thing as student loans), at 23 got recruited by a subsidiary of Don McGill Automotive in Houston where I built race boats/cars/trucks for mostly oil field rough-necks. Since then have owned 2 shops and still an equity (but silent partner) in one in the Tampa Bay area that does mechanical/collision/hot-rod fabrication.

You say potatoes, I say spuds…. but in this case, I think we are not talking about the same thing? If your Techs are “billing” $60k a year, I am sure my techs and most of the shops on this forum are billing: average 50 hours flat-rate a week, X $100 shop rate = $5k a week X 52 weeks = $260,000 a year. Even if you drop the shop rate to $75 an hour is $195,000. And we are not talking parts profit yet

Once again, this thread was not on these subjects so feel free to call me – Joe Henry ACT Auto/Truck/Collison Staffing

[JoeHenry]

Ness, here is part of one of my published articles that addresses some of the points and questions you ask:

Accelerating down the end of a cul-de-sac on Techs

While everyone is justifiably focused on the crescendo of long overdue Tech recruitment and training programs, there is not, as of yet, a feverish discussion TO SAVE the precious Techs we have, NOR how to keep apprentice Techs from “washing out” either in training or on their new job.

I contend that this should be widely understood as the root cause of the jittery Tech shortage and they are ultimately far more important. A continued decline in the Technician pool holds the potential to ignite panic. These developments would strike at the very heart of every shop’s economic foundation that has supported the country since the end of World War II when GIs came home and bought a car.

The wave of Tech shortages threatens to push the nation’s shops economies into a recession that not even the Fed could bail out.

Recent articles in publications (like above TechForce Report) have provided a fresh twist on our decades-old “Tech shortage policy”. But despite the facts stated in these articles, they were not accompanied by any REAL solution that would actually do anything to stop the skid of good Techs getting recruited out of our industry, OR how to keep newly anointed Techs from ripping off and throwing their safety glasses across the shop when discovering that they got paid 35 hours (flat rate) after spending 40+ hours at the shop.

Believe me, I hear this from seasoned AND beginner Techs constantly who have vaporized from our industry.

Continuing to pay Techs on the antiquated Flat-Rate system is like driving a high-performance car faster down a cul-de-sac.

Owners: raise your door rate up 20% to support more gross! Then take your A & B Techs, give them a guaranteed weekly PLUS production bonus so they make the same as engineers, $75k to $150k a year, without killing themselves or smoking every ticket they can get their latex gloves on. C Techs- $50k with production bonuses. D and Apprentice – guaranteed $35k to $40k with career paths to make perpetually more.

If we all lack the courage to administer such medicine, the headache will get more severe all the way down the cul-da-sac to the scene of the crash!

 

[JoeHenry]

I have written many published articles on this subject. Plus for years have worked to recruit pro-bono for our local community college that has excellent auto/diesel/collision/marine programs with degrees.

Here is why young people will diminish in numbers in our vocation: They all know how to use the Internet, they all know they will have 10’s of thousands of debt when they finish, PLUS tool expense, and when they look up “Auto Technician Salary”, here is what they see……..

“Automotive Technician average earnings in this role come out to $17.28 per hour in the United States. Overall cash earnings for Automotive Technicians stretch from $23K on the lower end to $62K near the top.”

And we continue to wonder why young people are avoiding our industry like ebloa

[JoeHenry]

Hi Dan, Joe Henry here from ACT Auto Staffing. I had a chance to review your account after reading your comment and discovered that your account has many many Tech and service advisor resumes that were right in your neighborhood you did not even bother to view! As a courtesy I have opened up your account at no cost so you can see them! Just go to #13 “Custom Resume Searches/Applicants” and view 32 tech resumes on your side of Phoenix.

After that, please go to #8 “Resume Search”, put the 1st 3 numbers of your zip code (850), and select “Car and Light Truck Tech” and you will view  many many current tech resumes within 15 miles of your shop.

Contact me if you don’t still have your user and pass – Joe Henry 727-733-5600 7-days a week until 5:30pm pacific

[JoeHenry]

Great subject, however allow me to give you a different prospective.

Our company consults and recruits for over 3000 non-dealer shops. We have provided insight of what Techs want and don’t want. Which when our clients follows our recommendations, get plenty of dealer techs responding.

Here are some examples of our recommendations on this subject:

Most dealer techs don’t know that Independent shops usually can afford and pay MORE per flat-rate hour to the tech than a dealer

Dealer techs most of the time get shafted on warranty work (especially domestic brands), we advise our non-dealer shops to hit hard on that every job pays fairly

Most dealer techs feel like a small fish in a big pond, we advise our non-dealer shops to communicate that the techs efforts in a non-dealer shop are much more recognized than in a dealership

There are many more attractions you can use. – Joe Henry of ACT Auto Staffing

[JoeHenry]

Here is a recent article I wrote on “Techs these days make BIG Bucks, why are we having such a hard time finding them?” This was for our over 3,000 dealer clients but a lot also applies to our over 3,000 independent shops too. <b>But there are plenty of solutions! If you are interested, I put together a workshop on this subject for our clients.  Just request it, Joe Henry of ACT Auto Staffing</b>-

Here is the article:

I receive this inquiry all the time: “These Techs can make big bucks, why are we having a hard time finding them? And why aren’t we getting young people?”

In the movie “Fatal Attraction” Glenn Close’s character (after she finds herself pregnant) sees that Michael Douglas’s character is trying to ditch her. She tracks him down and confronts him with the famous line “I am not going to be ignored Dan!’ Yet he makes every effort to get away.

The auto technician industry is pulling the same gig. We are trying to ignore the problems Technicians face daily.

Here is a typical day that most Technicians face. Would you want this job or recommend your kid be a Technician? ………

*I as a Technician I am required to show up at 8am. And unless I have a carry-over, I don’t pull in my first job in my bay until 8:30 or so. I have now spent a half hour to 45 minutes with no compensation.

*My first job is a newly sold vehicle warranty ticket and the Complaint is “Customer states driver’s seat won’t go forward or backward”, I verify, I remove the seat and seat track and find a penny has dropped into the track locking up the seat rail

*Do I “smoke” the warranty ticket or pry the penny out and reinstall and get paid nothing?

*Regardless, I still have to fill out the Cause and Correction, move the car to the done lot, turn in the keys and see either my Team Leader or Dispatch for keys for my next job.

*The next ticket has some Customer Pay and an inspection sheet. I find the car and pull into my bay, go into the parts department (because my dealership is not one of the very very few that does have a service bay parts ordering and delivery to my bay parts system) where now 5 other of my fellow Techs are in front of me. (BTW, I am not paid for procuring parts no matter how long it takes)

*I rack this car up, start the C.P., do the inspection sheet, see dirty fluids but know we can’t sell the services because about a year ago a hot blond consumer advocate from the local TV station bashed our dealership because some customer turned us in for recommending fluid service on what the factory considers “fluids for life”

*I turn the inspection sheet into my ASA/Service Advisor with other CP work, (I used to have a strong ASA/Advisor but she left and now I have one weaker than circus lemonade) and sure enough, my Advisor informs me “customer says they will do it next time”. Yeah, right …..

*My next ticket is a big warranty job. It is a tough procedure requiring a lot of skill and will take my whole day. The frustrating part is that this job used to pay well so despite the frustration scale being a 9 out of 10, we Techs just dug in. That has now changed. The factory discovered that a tool company saw the problem we Techs had, made a unique, expensive, special tool that we Techs bought with our hard-earned money. Later in the year the factory found out about our time saving tool and now has sliced the time by 20%!

Conclusion: We in the industry keep ignoring the problems, and we know how that turned out for Dan (Michael Douglas’s character). But there are plenty of solutions! If you are interested, I put together a workshop on this subject for our clients.  Just request it.<b></b><i></i><u></u>

 

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=B2EDB2E3C06445CE!4859&ithint=file%2cpptx&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AB9s1rg6ONBfjtk

[JoeHenry]

Here is a workshop ACT Auto Staffing developed per the request of many independent shop’s 20 groups requests concerning “Why Techs Love You or Leave You”. It was a specific eye-opener to shop owners on the subject

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B2EDB2E3C06445CE!4403&authkey=!AN1tU2_N2cBfOFg&ithint=file%2cppt  

Joe
Henry

ACT Auto/Truck/Tire/Collision Staffing

3008 Landmark Blvd

Palm Harbor, FL
34684

727-733-5600 7-days a week until 8:30pm eastern/5:30pm pacific

“You can live in a world of solutions or problems. It’s the same
world” – Deborah Shane

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” — Jim
Rohn, Author

[JoeHenry]

Tom, we are faced with a decline … no, a plummeting decline of Techs leaving us from: retirement AND going to other industries like oil/fracking/mining/defense companies (Don’t be fooled by lower oil and commodes prices, many blue collar veterans of these industries are retiring and their recruiters are pursing auto/truck/collision Techs to fill the void)

I wrote a whole article on this published in some trade magazines of what to do. Here it is is anyone is interested http://www.actautostaffing.com/findgoodtechs.asp  

[JoeHenry]

I wrote an article on this subject that was published in a couple of our trade magazines. Title: 1000s of auto/truck/tire/collision jobseekers tell us what ads and efforts win
the Gold, the Silver, and the Bronze medals, and which are just pot metal.

If you want to read it, just go to: http://www.actautostaffing.com/learngener5.asp

Also advise this one as well whch talks about how you have to proactively try to reach out to techs instead of waiting for them to contact you:    http://www.actautostaffing.com/recruiting.asp 

[JoeHenry]

Tom/everyone, consideration of labor rate should also hinge on one HUGE factor, you are going to have to pay techs much more. I wrote an article published in a couple of trade magazines but here is just a part of it concerning this subject –

1 – MOST IMPORTANT, save the Techs we have from leaving the industry
by paying Techs like the professionals they are. Even mid-skilled Techs perform
tasks that college educated Engineers perform. With that in mind, right out of
pay scale websites shows an average 5 year experienced Engineer makes $65k to
$75k a year. Upper skilled with 7 plus years experience makes $85k to $95k+.
Great ones should make $125k to $150k a year. Techs by 2016 should be in this
same range. Where will the gross come from to pay these wages? It starts with
ALL SHOPS raising rates. Start
that process soon! By the end of 2016 if you’re not paying your average Tech $50
an hour, you won’t have any. 

(the full article is at http://www.actautostaffing.com/findgoodtechs.asp  )

[JoeHenry]

Allen, let help you read the resumes we sent. I am sure it is you were just a little hasty and did not see all the detail. It happens. Here is a summary of what we sent you 11/23/2010. – Joe Henry

ONIX HERNANDEZ – Volkswagen and Audi authorize dealer certified master technician since 1998 performing repair on all vehicles systems.

PAUL BARTOLI – January 2010 ~ End Date: June 2010 Company Name: Sovereign Motor Cars Job Title: service technician/shop foreman (He is a Master Tech)

JUSTIN ADAM BOYCE- ASE Master Certified Technician/ Jaguar Master Certified A professional

EUGENIO GONZALEZ – Master Tech and worked for Esserman Acura/Volkswagen

HARRY CARRASQUILLO – 25 years as a Tech and worked- Date: November 2006 ~ End Date: May 2009 Company Name: Mercedes Benz of Pompano

THOMAS G SNYDER – Most Recent Title: Shop Technician G1 MASTER and has worked in two Mecedes car dealerships

Alan Ollie Gelfand Pres. wrote:

> I was disappointed with the 12 apps you sent. One was great but the guy applied 6 months ago and has not moved from up north yet.. I am not looking for a ex food prep guy . I want a master tech .

>

> If some one on the site has had luck with ACT please post. I would like to try his services again .

>

> Joe Henry wrote:

> > Ollie, I guess you forgot that all you had to do is call or write us, ACT Auto Staffing, for more Euro Tech resumes! I will have my staff pull you more resumes and put them into your account today or tomorrow. – Joe Henry ACT Auto Staffing

[JoeHenry]

Ollie, I guess you forgot that all you had to do is call or write us, ACT Auto Staffing, for more Euro Tech resumes! I will have my staff pull you more resumes and put them into your account today or tomorrow. – Joe Henry ACT Auto Staffing