Help wanted Being short of workers is affecting Tredroc’s production. Jeffries says the dealership isn’t turning existing customers away. But it’s prioritizing those customers over others who need an emergency fix. “If you’re not one of my committed customers and you call me — and you’re just calling me because you’re committed to someone else and they can’t help you
(right now) — we’re telling that customer, ‘If I get time, I will do the job.’ “But I’m not going to put you in front of my other customers.’” Lack of manpower also is hampering efforts to drum up new customers, says Jeffries. “You’re not really going after new business — because you can’t.” He tries to refrain from blaming the tight labor market on politics, but he says
that during a recent dinner conversation with other tire dealers, they concluded that the employment situation isn’t likely to change until late-2022 — after the midterm Congressional election. He points out that with extended unemployment benefits, some people have taken in $600 to $900 a week. And that’s made it hard to convince the unemployed to take a physically demanding job and make $1,000 a week. He tells applicants to look at things through a long-term lens and think about the security that a job in the tire industry affords. But it’s sometimes a tough sell. “When the (unemployment stimulus money) music stops, you’re going to be scrambling for a chair,” he tells them.
‘IT’S BEEN VERY DIFFICULT’
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Mick Pickens, president of Royal Tire Inc., a 15-location commercial tire dealership that’s based in St. Cloud, Minn., says he’s never seen a labor market like this one before. “There are open positions in all industries. It’s very difficult to find people — probably more difficult than I’ve ever seen. “We’ve made the commitment to pay whatever we have to, but then have to make sure our pricing is aligned with our cost structure. So far, this has worked fairly well.” Royal Tire employs around 250 people. And while they are working hard, the dealership has tried to keep workloads similar to what they normally would be. Pickens has leaned on his managers to keep staff engaged. “My observation is that where we have good managers who care about their employees, morale has been less affected,” he says. However, time dedicated to finding new employees has been out of the ordinary, he reports. “We collectively spend more time than we ever have” on recruitment. “I can’t put a number on it. However, it’s now a topic that’s (brought up in) every meeting with our human resources staff.” Royal Tire is paying more money to existing and new employees. And that has worked. In fact, Pickens believes productivity at his dealership has gone up and the quality of new employees has improved. “We’ve found that by paying our direct labor people more money, we are attracting a higher caliber of employee and these employees are more productive. In the end, we find we are better off with higher-paid people in these positions.” ■ MTD October 2021
9/23/21 9:51 AM
