There’s a shortage of technicians most dealerships are experiencing, and the drought has no end in sight. Unwittingly, well-trained technicians now have the upper hand in the employer/employee relationship. And with these expert technicians becoming such a hot commodity, what are you doing to get fully staffed in the shop and stay that way?

If you’ve been in the fixed operations game long enough, you’ve seen technicians come and go. Some of them are good, some of them not so good, and others were absolutely rock stars in your service department. And while you’re probably not too heartbroken to see the mediocre techs take a bay in someone else’s shop, it leaves a hole in yours. The worst kind of pain is always in seeing a high-producing, expert technician move on.

How do you keep your technicians around?

Being a mechanic or technician isn’t a glamorous profession. It requires hard work that taxes your body. You’ll get cuts and bruises, broken fingers and at least one major head injury. It’s not an old man’s profession and rarely do techs retire on the bench.

But other objections cause techs to move on more often than the physical demands. Poor working conditions, lackadaisical management, insufficient recognition, and a pay ceiling are more commonly the issues.

Keeping the good techs you have means keeping them satisfied, especially when they know they are in high demand elsewhere. And trust me, they know there’s a demand. More specifically, there are three questions you must answer. Coincidentally, they are the same three questions you’ll need to answer to get any great technician onboarded at your dealership.

What makes your dealership different?

If you’re the same as everyone else, why would they move on from their current position? You need to be different, and a GOOD different.

Do you have an above-average influx of work? Can you guarantee a certain number of flat-rate hours without batting an eye? Or can you ensure their work environment is better than anywhere else?

You may catch one of the good techs that doesn’t know they’re better than most without answering these questions. However, you’ll need to be able to honestly answer the questions about why your dealership is different – why it’s better to work for you.

Why should they work for you?

On that note, why SHOULD they work for you? You can tell them what makes you different from the others, but the reason to work for you isn’t about information. It’s about heart.

Anyone can work in an assembly line atmosphere with earmuffs on and the outside world blocked out. But a service department is about interaction if it’s done right – interaction with other staff members and interaction with the customers. That’s why it’s a SERVICE industry.

Why should a potential new hire work for you? Each one likely has several irons in the fire, and you’re competing with other quality shops to snag this awesome tech.

Show them the team atmosphere. Show them the co-operation and the attitude difference in your store. Show them all the positivity your store possesses.

And that means you need to be the department that can capture those technicians. You need to embody those qualities before you can demonstrate it to your applicants. That’s a whole other story, though, and developing an atmosphere where people want to work is much bigger than this article.

Are you giving them ways to progress?

Like previously mentioned, the role of technician isn’t an old man’s game. You need to be constantly developing people to occupy every role throughout your department. Unfortunately, that means you can’t sit back, dust off your hands, and say, There. All done.

Like any professional role, technicians need goals to strive towards. It could be ASE Master Technician status. It could be certification through your own manufacturer’s training programs. It could be making the jump from the bench to the service desk, or to shop foreman, or assistant manager.

As their service manager or fixed ops director, you should be able to have open conversations with each technician about where they want to be professionally in their future. Do they want extra responsibility or more knowledge-based learning? Do they feel they are better suited for another role in your service department? Should they be specializing for you?

When onboarding new tech hires, these are important points to note as well. Tell them what you’ll do to help them develop.

If you’re asking these hard questions of yourself and your technicians, you’re on the right track. It might take a few years (yes, years) to fully staff your tech vacancies with quality people, but answering these questions will help the tech-pocalypse pass a little quicker in your store.