Strategy and Tactics - Growing the Team

WORDS BY ANDREW EVENS

As owner of Industry Auto Body and Fabrication in Las Vegas, Nev., one of my biggest struggles over the years has been employee acquisition. It’s nothing new that many of us find hiring to be a huge struggle within this industry. It hasn’t gotten any easier. There is still a shortage of qualified, dedicated technicians.

Because I continue to have difficulty with this issue, I have worked to find strategies to deal with it. You might be thinking that we’ve been through all of this and there’s nothing new to discuss, but bear with me. Sometimes to tackle an issue, we have to think differently about it.

I think it’s very important that we break out of the old approaches and philosophies of hiring. For example, too long of a probation period can be problematic, while a short hands-on trial period can be very helpful.

Set Boundaries and Expectations

Even though we are all in need of help, I feel it’s important to be cautious of the following points and set clear boundaries and expectations not only for the potential new hire, but for ourselves as business owners.

Naturally, we are considering who we intend to hire, what their position will be and when we’ll be ready to hire someone. From my personal experience, the most overlooked point is: How will this decision impact our current situation and the shop’s culture and system?

People who respond to outreach about a job opening may either respond online, or walk through the front doors of the shop. The question is, do we hire an experienced technician, or someone who has less experience, but is willing to learn?

Option A: Hire the experienced tech. This person may be ready to work on their own more quickly. During training, the shop standards would be demonstrated. We may have to briefly check their work until a certain comfort level has been reached.

Option B: Hire the not-so-experienced tech. This individual would have to be taught everything. During training, we would keep a close eye on them and inspect their work for quite some time.

Clear Job Descriptions Are Essential Regardless of the candidate’s level of experience, we need to be very clear on their specific job descriptions or functions in our delicate shop ecosystem.

If we are clear as an employer, our employees will be able to better understand their roles and know what is expected of them. You must also be cautious when deciding to hire.

It’s crucial to make sure you’re ready to bring on a new employee. Are you prepared for the expense of Option A—the experienced tech—and will you be able to remain profitable after bringing this person onto your team? If you decide to go with Option B, do you have the time to invest in training someone who is less experienced?

How we go about hiring someone in our industry is important to consider. One of the common mistakes I have seen—and made myself in the past—is to hire someone to fill a void much too quickly. I disregarded my instincts and didn’t pay enough attention to important warning signs.

I feel we need a new format to break from the traditional corporate and business approaches of hiring personnel. We have to dig a little deeper or put a little more thought into it. We should customize the hiring process to our individual shops if needed. Doing things just because that’s the way they have been done for years is not going to work for us.

Rethinking the Way it’s Done

I really feel a 90-day probation period for our field is too long of a probation. Our industry is much faster paced and technology driven. You can pretty much tell if a new hire is going to work out within nine days, unlike the 90 day period in most other fields.

I have found a solution that works well for my shop, and it may work well for yours, too. I instituted a one-week paid trial period, in which I bring in the potential new hire for a Monday to Friday hands-on trial. This way, I get to see if this individual will fit in with the rest of the team. It also allows us some real time to check out a few other characteristics beyond the 12-volt knowledge and skills, such as work ethic, personality, punctuality and respect.

A week isn’t going to show you everything, but at least you will get the opportunity to take the time and not rush into offering someone a job based on a résumé or referral alone.

This gives you a great opportunity to sit down on Friday and mutually enter a discussion about how the week went. You’ll be able to get some of their input and feelings about your business, rather than have an awkward following week not knowing if it’s a good fit for the potential new hire or you, or worse, not wanting to fire them because you just hired them.

The new hire staying even though they don’t like the workplace is the flip side. Maybe they won’t quit, or even worse,

they just stay on until they can jump ship and disappear without notice.

Impacting the Work Environment When it comes to hiring—whether you’re opening a new shop, or looking to bring in team members—it can be very easy to get caught up in finally finding an option, to the point that we overlook some important factors.

We tend to focus on the individual’s experience level and how much we will have to pay. Yes, these things are important, but they are far from the only things we need to be concerned about.

Many of us focus on what someone knows how to do, or how much talent they can bring to the table. After we decide to bring on a team member, regardless of their level of experience, there is one question we should always ask: How will this person affect the work environment? The work environment is also considered the store culture.

What we know about personality or attitude is very limited even after a weeklong trial. Will personalities clash? Will there be conflict between other employees or between management? It can get very bad very quickly and spread like poison if you aren’t prepared. It can ruin the morale on the sales floor as well as in the install bay. We need to have a plan in place and be aware and alert.

There are apps and surveys now to help us with this issue. As technology evolves, so must we must as business owners.

Personality Tests as a Tool to Increase Understanding

A while back someone suggested that I use a personality test with both new and current employees. This has helped me a lot. We use a website called 16 Personalities (www.16personalities.com). The site is simple to navigate and only takes a few minutes to use. The personality test offers

Regardless of a candidate’s level of work experience, it is crucial to be very clear about job descriptions when you’re looking to hire.

the user insight about themselves, about others, and information about how things can be communicated and understood based on execution and delivery.

A personality test allows you to read a detailed story about that person and how they view things, so you can interact with them on their level. When you do your own personality test, it explains your strengths and weaknesses to give you the tools you need to have a better experience interacting effectively.

At Industry Auto Body and Fabrication, we have a small team, so the personality test helped us to understand each other better and to get along more easily. The test can be revisited as a tool to help continually improve store culture.

I also use the results of the test outside of work. It has helped increase my awareness of how I come across to people in conversation.

I have a tendency to be very direct, which can seem harsh to some personality types. The personality test has helped me to understand that my directness can be seen as insensitive or unappreciative, causing the listener to think they aren’t doing a good job, which in turn can make them not want to work as hard or effectively. As you can see, the personality test can go a long way in helping a team to understand each other, as well as helping individuals understand how they are communicating.

Offering Incentives to Employees

It’s important to understand the importance of your employees’ lives outside of work. We are a very mom-and-pop organization, and we recently started a family ourselves. We understand the challenges and issues that come up with having kids. We’re very open with our staff in this regard. It’s important to be able to deal with issues as they arise. We hope to get advance notice when an employee needs time off, but we’re also willing to work around people’s lives and make up for lost time. Flexibility is key.

Help your employees to be comfortable and happy. We like to provide lunch for the staff as a random treat from time to time. Some of our clients are in the food and beverage industry, so it’s not uncommon for us to get lunches, dinners or treats delivered from our generous customers.

We try to schedule get-togethers outside of work, too. This can include events such as bowling or go-karts. These can be difficult to schedule, but the events are well worth it to help boost morale.

Additionally, we offer bonuses and incentives for sales, as well as commissions on referrals, and we have birthday celebrations at work for team members.

The best part of it all is that we have weekends and holidays off, so we can enjoy that time and share it with our families.

I hope the advice in this article helps you with your hiring processes, and I wish you the best of luck.