How to Find and Keep Good Technicians for your Auto Repair Shop

Last week we talked about how to create effective technicians for your shop, and most people seem to agree with what we spoke about. However, there is probably one important factor that we forgot to mention and that is how much a tech should be paid in order for both parties to have a healthy and long business relationship. Most people that we came across offer only a small compensation plan with no benefits because they might not have the money to pay more. (We will get into this issue in a future post) However, how do you expect to keep the good techs for years to come? In order to cultivate a good relationship with your techs so they can grow with you and stay loyal to you for years to come there are a few things that you must offer.

Offer Above Compensation Plans

1. Offer above average compensation plans

If you offer below average compensation plans, how do you think you will be able to compete with everyone else? How is a tech going to develop some type of loyalty to you and your shop if you offer the same as everyone else? Techs today want to live comfortable with the salary that they make, and not struggle. So in order for them to achieve that, you must offer an above average compensation plan and be able to increase their salary every year or so depending on their output and productivity. Of course, not every tech deserves to get paid like this, but by offering this you will be able to cultivate good techs that will stay with you for years to come.

Offer consistent income

2. Offer consistent income

Make sure that you can guarantee the tech the same income even if your car count starts dwindling. If they end up leaving to another shop then you will probably have to invest in new techs, more training, more tools and more time and all because you wanted to save a little bit of money. Remember, think long term, and not short term.

Offer a Great Work Environment

3. Offer a great work environment

You need to have a work culture that everyone can be proud to work in and where everyone respects each other and works together. It is sometimes hard for everyone to get along but as long as they all respect each other and respect you as their leader and manager then it will be a harmonious place to work in. You also need to share your vision of where you see your business going to. I have a client that has always shared his vision of opening up several shops in the same city and hard as it may be, all his employees are behind him in that vision because they all want to be part of something larger than they are. As he started up more repair shops, his older and more responsible techs became the leaders of those new shops and this fueled the motivation of the other techs in the shops.

Offer above industry benefits

4. Offer above industry benefits

Everyone wants to provide their family with security in case anything may happen to them or their families. Therefore you must offer good benefits so they will be able to work happy without the stress of having their family get sick and not being able to do anything about it.

Provide a healthy work-life balance

5. Provide a healthy work-life balance.

Just like anyone else in the world, most techs want to spend more time with their family and kids, so maybe you should be able to give them two weeks of paid vacation each year. This way they can spend time with the families and also be able to come back to work refreshed and ready to be productive.

By offering all these benefits, you can start to cultivate better techs and employees. I know it’s hard to do this when you are starting out, but create a balance sheet and see how much you can afford to pay them. They will be your backbone of your company and without good techs, a shop can never grow.

What other methods do you practice to find and keep good techs? 

4 comments

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    • Kirk Arnold on August 29, 2013 at 6:45 pm
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    You should always look for a long term solution. You need people to buy into what you are trying to do, which means you need to share that vision with them. Communication with your team is important. If that means coming in a half hour early once a month to review sales and production numbers with some coffee and donuts, then do it! Your techs & SAs want to feel that they belong, not that they just punch a clock.

    There are a lot of different ways to incentivise your people on a short term or long term basis. Short term incentives work well and build good habits. As winter approaches have every tech run the lights and ck belts on each LOF and make a contest out of who replaces the most xxx. You have provided a valuable service to your customers and started building good work habits with our staff and perhaps without realizing it, you are building a team spirit.

    I have found that if there is one benefit that you should work diligently to provide, it is health insurance. Hard to do? Expensive? Yes, but likely more important than a YE raise, and with a little research may be more affordable than you realize. It takes a load off a tech with a family and definitely promotes employee loyality.

      • Marcello Orozco on August 30, 2013 at 2:08 am
      • Reply

      Absolutely good stuff! I’m going to print this and distribute it to my open minded customers only.

    • Mitch Diamond on August 30, 2013 at 4:10 am
    • Reply

    Shame… Probably less than 10% of the business owner think this way. That’s why our business loses the quality help it needs.

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