New Year, New Data

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 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. Lesley Yates, AAAA Director of Government Relations and Advocacy info@aaaa.com.au

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