Hire and Retain the Best Talent for Your Auto Repair Shop

But Isn't There a Technician Shortage?

We know that there has been some discussion across the industry regarding a technician shortage -- whatever it is, shops feel like it's harder than it's been in the past to find the best talent possible to help them make their great shop even better.

What's interesting though, is that when we look at the numbers, there seems to be a bit of a different story.

For example, according to the 2024 Auto Care Association Fact Sheet, automotive technician employment increased by 3.5% in 2022 alone. Meaning, that there are now 915,000 men and women working at general repair shops, vehicle dealerships, and gasoline service stations.

The reality is, there are even more technicians! And the beauty is, there's no sign of slowing down within the aftermarket auto repair industry, just as we saw in our latest Auto Repair Industry Index.

1. Maximize Employee Compensation

Shops should structure their team and payroll operations to, of course, maximize labor profit margins. But it's also critical that shop owners ensure employees are paid adequately for their work.

Now, shops have the ability to pay different roles in different ways. When we dug into Tekmetric-specific data, we saw shops around the country utilizing different pay structures:

‍

But more importantly, what we really noticed was how Tekmetric makes it possible for shops to find and retain the best talent. In fact, we found that on average, Tekmetric shops can pay their technicians almost $5 higher than the national average from 2022.

The best way to show your team how much you value their hard work is to compensate them well for the work they do. And of course, owners need to ensure the lights can stay on while running a business. That's why a cloud-based shop management system is so critical in maximizing the value of the work you already do.

1. Create an Open-Door Policy 

You don’t want to create a situation where your team members feel like it’s required for them to keep you in the loop and ask for your permission before doing anything on their own; they still need to maintain a level of independence, so that they can complete their work, and you can tackle high-level business operations.

But an open-door policy is a great way to balance your team’s need for independence with your need for input. 

When your auto repair team members know they can ask you or other members of the management team for help when they need it, they are more likely to speak up when they run into challenges.

By doing so, problems will be less likely to spiral out of control because you and your employees can work together to find solutions. 

2. Hold Regular Team Meetings 

By holding regular meetings, you can bring your technicians, service advisors, and the rest of your auto shop team together to share ideas and make improvements. 

When your auto shop team members start discussing various processes and happenings at your shop, they’ll be able to brainstorm creative, effective solutions—solutions that they might not have come up with on their own. 

Before Sunil Patel launched Tekmetric, he was a med-student-turned-shop-owner. At his shop, Motorwërks, Sunil would bring his together for daily rounds, much like doctors do with their team of nurses and surgeons:

“In the morning, when I used to go through residency, we would have breakfast in a room of 25 students, and we would discuss cases… It was like a puzzle. One person would discuss a patient, and everybody has to figure out the problem that patient had. 

I did the same thing at Motorwërks. I would have breakfast provided, and we would sit in a room and discuss a car that would have a noise or leak and figure out what was wrong.”

What Sunil found was that the practice of daily meetings instilled confidence and camaraderie in his team.

By holding daily or weekly meetings with your entire auto shop team, you can quickly identify and solve problems while strengthening your team. 

Use Tekmetric to Hire and Retain the Best Talent 

With Tekmetric, your service advisors and technicians can work alongside each other as one unit.

Scaling your business and bringing in even more revenue for your shop doesn't have to rely on finding new customers.

Rather, shops can utilize the features of cloud-based shop management systems to help them maximize profit margins on the work they already do.

With a modern platform like Tekmetic, shops can not only get the most value out of the work they do, but hire the best talent to provide the best service possible.