Advice to Auto Repair Shop Owners Hiring in 2024

When you start a business, it usually sparks from an idea—and that idea often comes from a pain point. For Joelle Pollak and me, after over 10 years working with shop owners in our leadership roles at NAPA Auto Care and 360 Payments respectively, we kept hearing the same issues: “I can’t find good techs,” or “I’m short-staffed and can’t grow.”

That constant feedback pushed us to dive deeper into the problem and find a solution. That’s how Promotive was born in early 2023.

In our first few months of business, we sifted through thousands of resumes, conducted hundreds of interviews, and built an awesome team—including key players like Kat Ayers and Kelly Cavanaugh. Our team—mostly women—had placed dozens of candidates in that short time. Currently, we’ve placed hundreds of candidates. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot and have some solid insights for shop owners who are facing the same hiring and retention challenges in today’s marketplace.

The ball is in the employee’s court, and it’s time to come to terms with that.

Let’s face it—all the data shows there are more jobs than there are technicians. Need proof? Check out these statistics.

While this isn’t ideal for shop owners, especially those looking to grow, here are some simple recommendations from Promotive to help you attract your next rockstar:

Be open to increasing compensation.

Want the good techs? The A-players? The ones from the dealerships? Don’t want to lose your techs to Tesla, the local gas and electric company, or a competitor? Money talks. The reality is that most of the shops Promotive has worked with have had to increase their compensation packages to get the person they want. Statistically, the best techs need about 15% more than they’re currently earning to make a move.

Re-evaluate offered benefits.

UGH. Some of what we’ve seen is jaw-dropping, and independent shops will lose to dealerships all day if changes aren’t made. Standard PTO should be 15 days, with 10 sick days and 8-10 holidays—in Year 1, not after 5 years. Competitive health benefits and a 401k are absolute must-haves and should start immediately or within 30 days at most.

Invest in training.

Training is often mentioned for less experienced technicians, and to gain their trust over corporate dealerships, you need to put your commitment to career growth in writing. There are online courses, but even better is guaranteeing you’ll send them to trainings like Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo and ASTA Expo (which is actually happening right now!)

Always be recruiting.

Shop owners often have a trusted CPA, business coach, lawyer, and maybe even a marketing team, but they undervalue having a dedicated recruiting arm. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Shops need an “always be recruiting” mindset, but unfortunately, the urgent often outweighs this priority. Whether it’s a big job, a VIP customer, or an upcoming tradeshow, recruiting gets pushed to the backburner. Shops don’t use their CPA or marketing team just once, so it’s crucial to have a trusted resource keeping a pulse on passive candidates and responding quickly (same day!) to applicants. Unfortunately, we don’t see this happening when shop owners or other team members are handling it themselves.

Simplify the interview process.

The interview process some shop owners use can be a bit… over-the-top. Trust us, we’ve read every recruiting book out there. As former leaders and business owners, we’ve asked candidates to submit essays, do full-day job shadowing, and even have dinner with their spouse. Throw in 5-6 phone/in-person/Zoom meetings with multiple people, and you’ve got a process that top techs (usually the ones not actively looking) don’t want or need to go through. Time kills all deals. At Promotive, we keep the process moving with multiple interviews, but we expedite it as much as possible.

Prioritize culture.

Most of the shops working with Promotive agree that culture is important, and we absolutely love that! But culture isn’t just pizza and beer on Fridays or a BBQ in the parking lot. Culture is having a defined mission, vision, and values. It’s showing a true career path, being transparent with company goals, and treating employees the way you’d want your own kids to be treated at their job. The days of foosball tables and kegs are over—employees want professional growth, safety, and to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Promotive isn’t helping bring more technicians into the industry just yet, but we are addressing the shortage by making sure the techs (and other roles) we place are staying in the industry. Our goal is to take the tedious parts of recruiting off your plate and match you with the best candidates so you can focus on what drives growth for your family and the families you employ.

We hope you found these tips helpful. If you’d like to learn how Promotive can be an extension to your team, drop us an email at info@gopromotive.com.