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STRONGER BONDS

IN TIMES OF LABOR CHALLENGES, FOCUS ON YOUR FOUNDATION

BY CALEB BROOKS

Currently, U.S. companies are facing a massive worker shortage, making it di icult to fully sta operations. The collision repair industry is not an exception to this trend.

Some estimates place the industry turnover rate at nearly 30 percent. With an estimated mechanic shortage of 20,000 to 30,000. In the face of these daunting numbers, what can your shop do to increase retention?

According to Harvard Business Review, creating a clear career progression and providing wage increases are two ways that you can boost retention. But how can these principles be effectively implemented in the collision repair industry?

John Keller, director of business operations at 1Collison, thinks di erently about his operation.

“We aren’t a MSO,” Keller says. “We always want to allow shops to keep their individuality.”

Keller describes 1Collision as a corporate entity that provides guidance and support to a network of shops. Part of this support is advising shops on how to handle pay raise requests and creating career progression.

COUPLING PAY AND PROGRESSION

According to Keller, one of two things will happen for a manager to initiate a pay raise conversation. First, a technician will ask for a raise. Second, a manager will notice that one of their techs is knocking it out of the park, and the manager will approach the technician.

“Either way, the rst question that the manager asks should be, ‘How much do you want to make?’” Keller says.

Once they answer this question, you need to look at their pay plan. Are they paid on commission or at rates? Either way, the employee is paid based on what they produce.

“ e question then shifts to, ‘How can we make the employee more e cient?’” Keller says. is could include o ering more training, purchasing new tools, or getting better technology.

Shops shouldn’t only be concerned about increasing their employees’ pay, they should also care about advancing the careers of their technicians.

“Across 1Collision, we see that coupling pay increases with career progression leads to higher employee satisfaction than just one or the other,” Keller says. Under this model, employees are happy learning more and getting better in their profession, especially when it means a pay raise through increased productivity.

HONE IN ON THE WHY

While responding to pay raise requests and creating career progressions is excellent, a large piece of the picture is missing. None of this matters if you cannot get people to work for you.

“You really need to hone in on the why,” Keller says. “Why would someone want to work for a shop in the 1Collision network?”

He says technicians sometimes talk about working in the past for big consolidators. ey felt like the companies treated them like a number, and the challenge for him is to build stronger personal connections.

Keller says 1Collision strongly believes in letting shops remain family owned and operated. When this happens, the workplace begins to feel like a family.

“By keeping our shops family owned and by focusing on employee’s e ciency thereby increasing their pay,” Keller says. “We enable shops to create a culture that anyone would want to work for.”

Closer Look

What does a flat rate pay increase look like on the shop floor? For a description of this process, Kelly Cooper, 1Collision’s director of field operations, o ers his insight.

“When you hire someone for a flat rate, you determine that rate based on their experience,” says Cooper. “If a tech asks for a raise, is it just that they need another dollar an hour, or can we do something that is win-win?”

In Cooper’s opinion, there is always a way that a technician gets a raise and the shop makes more money.

“Say the estimator says a fender bender repair will take three hours,” says Cooper. “But your technician is a superstar and gets it done in an hour and a half. They still get paid for the booked hours.”

To Cooper, this is how you give your employees pay raises, by making them more e icient. Increasing worker e iciency not only allows you to repair more cars, it also gives your employees a pay raise by increasing the amount of booked hours they work per week.

“This is a plan of action that not only makes your employees more money, it makes the shop more money as well,” Cooper says. “But, you have to be cautious not to sacrifice a quality repair.”