Alright y’all. Here we are, three full years into running Promotive, a 100% independent automotive repair shop recruiting agency… or for lack of a better term, head-hunters. We have placed nearly 1,000 candidates and have worked with several hundred shops and ran discovery calls (initial appointments) with over 1,000. We only work with shops we believe in and who quite frankly, aren’t assholes. We aren’t cheap and we know it, but we are doing something that we believe the industry needs and there’s a reason no company has become the “player,” yet. And I’m going to be brutally honest here… business owner to business owner. Plus, I’m from Jersey, so I kind of say it how it is with a sprinkle of California love.

Let me start with some data to give me and Promotive some sort of credibility though.

The data behind this advice

This is my second start-up. My first one? 360 Payments. I’ve hired hundreds of employees over 16 years and successfully exited (to Private Equity where I stayed on for 5 years and ran sales for 10 companies, many of whom you probably use or at least have heard of). My super-powers? Team-building and culture.

90% of Promotive employees all have either automotive experience or recruiting experience. Our COO, Kat Ayers, was Vehlo’s first EVP, so she knows a thing or two about systems, processes, etc. Ever take a selfie with Sam Freeman? She’s our Partner’s Manager who worked most recently for AutoServe1 and has a wealth of knowledge. The list goes on, but I’ll spare you.

We have gone through about 70,000 resumes from applicants alone and have interviewed 15,000 candidates since we started, mainly technicians. Today, we make about 2,000 calls per week to candidates and conduct about 150–200 human interviews per week, again mainly to technicians.

So, here’s my feedback to you and why so many shops are struggling to hire (and retain) technicians. Let’s start with the simple stuff that is fixable immediately:

Indeed isn’t the problem — your speed is

Let me guess. You think Indeed sucks and there’s “no good candidates.” You’re not wrong, but you’re also not right. I too, am not an Indeed fan. I think their system is designed to be complicated, the formulas or algorithms never make sense, and I’m mind-blown that they are the biggest player in the job-board space. Trust me, I have t-shirts and stickers I want to make, but I don’t want to piss them off, yet.

There’s some simple secrets though: Speed, Texting and Sourcing.

Speed

We preach “speed to lead” all day, every day — and the data backs it up. In an analysis of three months of applicant data, 57% of our applicants from Indeed and our Facebook and Instagram ads came in between Friday afternoon and Sunday night. By the time most shops get back to them on Monday — or more realistically Tuesday or Wednesday, because we know how Mondays go — those candidates already have other interviews lined up or have had a change of heart. I personally spent a Saturday morning calling techs who had applied Friday night and had one tell me he’d applied to 14 places. We were the first to call. That’s the advantage.

But we know you can’t live in your inbox on weekends. That’s exactly why we built Paige. Paige is Promotive’s AI recruiter — she reaches out to candidates the moment they apply, 24/7, so you’re always first in line without adding anything to your plate. Speed wins. Now we’ve just made it automatic.

VIDEO: Check out Paige interviewing Carm from Remarkable Results Radio

Quit emailing. Start texting.

Quit emailing techs or sending generic, “we received your resume” type of responses. They don’t look at emails. Treat them like you would a customer who inquires to get their car checked — call, text, call, text, call, text. You get the point. And while I am at it, get rid of the “if they want to work for me, they will call or reply back” mindset. It’s a technicians’ world and if you want them, chase them.

Another side piece of advice: don’t judge their resume too hard from grammatical errors to job-hopping. I am guilty of this too, but I have definitely learned they don’t job-hop because of things in their control 100% of the time (no, I am not saying every tech is perfect by any means at all) and I personally know many shop owners who recently have struggled financially and had to do lay-offs of really, really, good people.

Sourcing is a daily habit, not a campaign

It costs money and takes time, but Indeed has sourcing licenses for you to proactively contact candidates, which you can set filters for. You have to be on top of this and make it a daily habit. The second someone hits Indeed that matches your filtered criteria, you should know about it and contact them. The second someone updates their resume or becomes active, same thing. You have to pay to play, but more importantly, it’s time and discipline to make this part of your shop’s DAILY routine.

You need an ATS, even a janky one

Applicant Tracking System. You need SOMETHING that is like a CRM (ie Kukui or Steer), but for your candidates… the good AND bad ones. The candidates who apply today to your A-Tech listing might be a B or C Tech, but in a few years, will be an A. INTERVIEW THEM ALL if they sniff automotive and take diligent notes. Then, stay in touch with them and be professional about it.

Do you know how many candidates we talk to who say they will never work for XYZ Shop because they got ghosted by YOU? While we all know many techs have “egos,” they are also human beings and impressions are being made every step of the process with them. I have heard many shop owners leaving ads up to collect data/applicants, which is great, but if you don’t truly have a job for them, you need to tell them that instead of ignoring their application.

The truth about flat rate

Techs aren’t afraid of flat rate; they’re afraid to take a leap of faith on a shop that they don’t know is going to deliver to them. They need to know the jobs are there for them to turn the hours and if you want to get the best, you have to prove you are the best. Show them your numbers and how you handle seasonal situations; not only do they want reliable income, these guys want to work and don’t want to be bored. We had a candidate getting a guaranteed hourly amount and the shop wasn’t bringing in enough work and he went back to his past role because he was legitimately bored.

Do me a favor and try to empathize with them and imagine putting yourself in their shoes and stop thinking they don’t believe in themselves or are lazy. Again, do I think they are perfect? Absolutely not, but give them the benefit of the doubt.

I’ll tell you this too… I have yet to talk to a candidate who will ONLY work on flat-rate, but plenty who quite simply won’t. Be flexible and put it on you to prove to them in the future that flat-rate is the way to go (if you are a flat-rate shop). PS: If I was a tech, I would prefer flat-rate as I have only worked 100% commission my entire life, but the gamble was always on me. Unfortunately, techs on flat rate rely on YOU to bring in the jobs, period, so until you can guarantee them the world’s best marketing, service advising team, and state of the art equipment… look in the mirror and ask yourself if you would work flat-rate at your shop with the team and tools you have. Sorry, not sorry.

Your reputation is already out there

Think of all of your terminated employees and how you handled their termination, what was said about them afterwards (to other employees), and what they are saying about you out there. You have to always assume people talk — and one of my favorite lines with my best friend and partner from 360, Steve, is TNB (and I’ll let you figure out what the B stands for). Gossip isn’t just for the Real Housewives, it’s for the technicians in your community, I promise. And again, think about your interview process and how you handled the candidate every step of the way, who didn’t get the job. These guys and gals talk and while they don’t have Facebook bash sessions, they have buddies who are out there talking about your shop and YOU.

We have spoken to countless techs who will never work for XYZ shop or XYZ owner because of what they have heard about you or interviewed in the past. Good news for shops using Promotive though — we combat that and are at the least able to restore some positivity on your brand. And sure, I get it, not everyone will work with you or like you, but you do need to care about this stuff.

Your benefits gap is bigger than you think

Ever hear the line, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em?” or “Don’t hate the player, hate the game?” Well, most independent shops quite simply are way too far behind when it comes to health benefits, PTO (and holidays), retirement plans, etc. Stop comparing what you offer in relation to your direct competition (ie other independent shops) and start competing with what the “big” companies offer. Think about the local gas and electricity companies, hell even Tesla (gasp!) these days, or what the Union offers.

PTO

One week PTO after one year is bush league shit. Offer 3 weeks of PTO on a 1.25 days per month accrual model in their first year with company rules like not being able to take off more than 5 days in a row or no more than 33% of the department can be off at once, which for example means only 1 tech at a time can be off if you have 3 techs. And circling back to flat rate, pay them for these days based on their average turned hours as if they were there.

There are so many statistics I can show you on PTO and how important it is for physical and mental health, but I will spare you for now. Trust me when I say this is a no brainer to implement immediately for your entire staff, let alone to attract new talent.

PS: Most states, even good ’ol California, allow you to lump sick days in with PTO and having 3 weeks inclusive of sick and PTO is a lot more appealing than 1–2 weeks plus 3–5 sick days, not to mention you will deal with less impromptu call outs of people using sick days instead of PTO.

Health benefits

I know, I know… these aren’t cheap and prices just keep on going up, but you need to have them and encourage adoption. It’s tax deductible for you and tax deductible for the employee’s portion of the premium. Put getting sick aside and think about how many of your people get injured whether on the job or not and live with lingering pain that can get resolved by using benefits OR think about the tech who is trying to have a baby with his wife and needs IVF treatment. Most shops can’t compete with these “Google” type benefits and if you want someone to leave their job who is truly good at what they do, this is the stuff they want and need.

Retirement plans

While this isn’t “as important” as the other benefits, it should be. I’m continually mind-blown at how many employees don’t have a plan to retire and it’s so simple (and borderline free) to implement. Plus, if you do a match with a vesting schedule, you get some of the proverbial “golden handcuffs” on your people, especially if you remind them of how much they have in their 401k that you contributed on their behalf, that they would lose upon leaving your organization. Ask your CPA about the tax DEDUCTIONS, not just write-offs that are available to implement a 401k. Trust me, it’s good.

Your website is for future employees, not customers

I learned this awhile ago, but your reviews matter to get people to call you for a quote, but not many consumers care about a shop’s website (sorry to all of my website friends). You know who does care about your website though? Your future employees. Your website should be geared to attract talent; put your staff on your site, show your team outings, showcase some of their work, you name it. Social media should be showing you are a family vibe and celebrating birthdays, work anniversaries, cool things in their community and that you are a cool vibe that they want to be a part of. This stuff is also what makes a bigger difference to your customers too; people want to support good people and future team members want to be a part of a good team.

Pro tip: Every year, I make an end of year video for our team that is a highlight reel of what we did throughout the year. Include that on your job postings and watch the applies fly in.

VIDEO: Promotive End of Year Video

If you don’t have a website or web presence today, EEK… call my friends at Auto Shop Solutions and Kukui to get started and find a marketing partner with Shop Marketing Pros, Tekmetric or Turnkey Marketing before you even call us.

Stop being your own recruiter

At the end of the day, money absolutely talks and I didn’t feel the need to state the obvious. Don’t be cheap and pay more than what your competitors pay, while knowing it’s not all about pay. I get it that you may have other employees not making as much as you would pay for a new person and that it could hurt your business financially, but what hurts more is losing that person (or dealing with negotiations later) and delaying that next rockstar hire. I’m sure your coach or other mentors can give you ideas on how to raise prices, insert some tariff or something these days, or cut costs to figure out how to pay for the increase in compensation. Trust me, it’s worth it and if you want to compete with the big boys (and girls), then you need to be one.

That said, one of your best investments will be to have a full-time recruiter who obsesses over not just finding you the people you need on your team now, but are building that true bench, and are looking out for you. Just because you can do recruiting yourself doesn’t mean you should. Whether you use Promotive or hire someone internally to do this, it is worth off-loading as a business owner so you can focus on developing the people you have, bringing in more car count, working on your leadership skills, implementing new processes, or showing up for your kids’ soccer games.

Promotive will make your shop more appealing and will beat the other shops out on who the candidates apply to. Do me a favor and hold our beers while we find you that next unicorn.

Ready to stop being your own recruiter? → Book a 20-minute call — we’ll tell you straight whether Promotive’s a fit for your shop.