Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine - February 2022

Page 11

NEWS

THE COVID STAFFING HANGOVER

We start 2022 with a continued and annoyingly repetitive focus on how the pandemic is affecting day to day operations Obviously, there is less noise about shutdowns, but this has been replaced with a recurring and pervasive worry about staff shortages and parts supply challenges. We are working with all state government departments and with the Federal health officers to project out what the year may look like and, pending any more unexpected variations, our economy is set to return to some level of normality in the coming months. The supply side challenges will ease as we come out of the holiday period and late February/early March will see transport lines return to better and more reliable delivery timeframes. Despite these reassuring signs, it is time to accept that we may never be (exactly) the same again. We lived through this uncertainty and fear and for many people, this has had an ongoing or lasting effect on job choice and long-term career options. This will not be welcomed news by anybody because we were at crisis staffing levels before the pandemic and to hear that the COVID headache is going to affect and restrict access to qualified staff is not good. We know we can’t afford to lose competent and

valued staff – no matter what area of business operation, we are already concerned about how we will fill existing and potential vacancies. If we look to similar overseas markets, we can see that the risk of staff losses is now increasing significantly. In America it now has an official title, ‘The Great Resignation,’ because staff are rethinking what matters to them and in many cases, clearly what matters right now is a rethink of their career choices. The largest cohort of resignations is in mid-career employees between 30 and 45. The resignations in 2021 peaked in mid-year but continue to be abnormally high and have continued into early 2022. Even without a career change – there is rethinking about how we work: some staff have enjoyed the flexibility of remote work and are looking to continue, while others have been reminded of how much they enjoy the company of their colleagues and want that experience again. Some employees, especially in our industry, kept working despite the anxiety and the workload and frankly, they just want a break from the constant COVID anxiety. The lesson here is that the risk of staff losses

Lesley Yates, AAAA Director of Government Relations and Advocacy info@aaaa.com.au has increased, and we just can’t afford that right now – so now is the time to focus on how we can mitigate that risk. Research tells us that now is the time to do a health and safety check in – demonstrating concern and interest in employees’ mental health, physical well-being and identifying any workplace hazards has never been more important than it is right now. We do care about employee welfare, of course we do. But how that is demonstrated on a day-to-day basis could be a key factor in employee retention.

NEW YEAR, NEW DATA

To celebrate the start of 2022, updated data is available within two key AAAA member tools Updated data is available now for aftermarket workshops, retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers in the localised (LGA level) and national (state level) car parc tools. To understand why this is important, let’s look at what they might let you do.

1. You can identify an ageing car parc Over the past five years, the Lake Macquarie car parc has grown from around 220,000 vehicles to more than 250,000. This is largely down to there being 20,000 more ‘older’ vehicles than previously. This is interesting, because they are likely to be out of warranty and on their second (or third)

owner, meaning there’s very little to draw them back to a dealership.

2. You can identify which makes are driving this Toyota, Mazda, and Hyundai each now have about 4,000 more older models than in 2016. On the flipside, there are about 3,000 less older Holdens, and about 2,000 less older Fords, highlighting the extent to which these brands are fading from the market.

3. You can go deeper into those brands The biggest opportunity within these brands is servicing small passenger cars and utes, with the older vehicles including 9,000 Corollas, 5,500 Mazda 3s, 4,300 Camrys, and 3,000 i30s, as well as 6,400 Hilux and 4,600 LandCruisers. While Holden and Ford are declining at an overall level, we shouldn’t ignore the 9,500 Commodores and 4,700 Falcons within the local catchment. In an increasingly complex operating environment, choosing the wrong training and equipment can be risky, so these tools have been built to help you understand the needs of the market, and ultimately make better business decisions.

This column was prepared for AAAA Magazine by ACA Research, the AAAA’s partners in the AAAA Aftermarket Dashboard which is delivered to AAAA members each quarter. For more information, visit www.acaresearch.com.au or contact Ben Selwyn on bselwyn@acaresearch.com.au Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine February 2022

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Articles inside

Shopfront

4min
pages 100-102

4WD

7min
pages 98-99

Consumer Law

3min
page 96

HR Matters

3min
page 97

Hand Tools & Diagnositics: Keeping on top of technical nuances

21min
pages 88-93

Trade Talk: Rapid Tune Chief Executive Officer Mark Rippon - Leading from the Front

8min
pages 94-95

Lubricants, Fluids & Chemicals: All the latest on fluids, lubricants and chemicals

24min
pages 78-87

Products

1hr
pages 34-75

Member Feature: ADRAD - Thriving in the winds of change

6min
pages 76-77

Product R&D: Transformed by Milwaukee

3min
pages 30-33

Cover Story: Tridon leading the way in high performance wiper blades

4min
pages 26-27

Technofile: IVS 360 team supports customer with BMW Regeneration Failure Fault

3min
pages 28-29

GUD to acquire APG

18min
pages 19-23

New Year, New Data

4min
page 11

New distribution center for GPC Asia Pacific

7min
pages 16-18

AAAA Report

4min
page 8

Automechanika Dubai 2021 comes to successful end

4min
page 15

Australia’s Next Top Model: The Toyota Hilux

8min
pages 24-25

BAPCOR issues CEO and MD succession update

4min
pages 12-14

Show your apprentices your appreciation

4min
page 10
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