May 2021

MAY 2021 AFTERMARKET 11 Above: Gareth Davis spent a lot of time assessing candidates www.aftermarketonline.net but a lot of business owners will say ‘time is money’. I tell those owners, that is true, but burn a bit of time now, and later that will be time you saved, as the time you save on the next 10 repairs will pay for the cost of that original investment. They will say they never thought of that, to which I would reply ‘that’s how we know each-other, through you bringing the work to me’. All three successful candidates were employed and were actively seeking change. When you understand that, you will understand a lot about your target audience. One had spent 10 years at a franchised dealer, having never worked anywhere else, apprenticeship through to service tech and then qualified diagnostic tech. After that, there was no more progression at the dealer, and he needed change.” Mitigation It’s not that there isn’t a recruitment crisis in the independent sector, because there is. Accepting that fact, it can be mitigated if those looking to recruit actually bother to find out what the people they are looking for actually want? Gareth added: “When the employer understands what attracts their prospective candidates, and what they can offer and bring to the table, I genuinely believe they will have better recruitment success. We think sometimes too much about what we want and what we are getting from it. If we look at what people want from their job, and what they are getting from it, how can you entice them to push the button on the application and come in and talk to you about it.” Dynamics As we have seen, recruitment is often never straightforward. However, following the perfect storm of 2020, how should businesses proceed through 2021 and beyond? IMI CEO Steve Nash had this to say: “2020 dealt a blow on our sector from which it is going to take some time to recover. Lockdowns, social distancing, employee absence, the government- imposed MOT Exemption etc; these have all had an impact on how garages can manage their business. “At the start of 2021, the sector was in retrenchment and recovery mode with most employers not actively in the market for new people. Indeed, the concerns at the start of the year were more focused on how they support the staff they have, particularly as the furlough scheme continue. Looking ahead, when the furlough scheme ends, it is highly likely that there will be more jobs lost in the short-to-medium term. However, the underlying issue for the sector remains, and that is access to quality people. All COVID-19 has done is mask that challenge. It may, however, have lulled some employers into a misperception that there will be plenty of people to choose from – in other words it’s an employers’ market, which hasn’t been the case for some considerable time. “Indeed, it is these dynamics that have resulted in apprentice recruitment falling to the lowest levels we have seen since the financial crash. And we know that the effects of that were still being felt right up to the first lockdown last year.” Which way to turn then? Steve observed: “With regard to the short term, we know the numbers of redundancies and business closures that have already occurred in automotive, so there should be some good people looking for work. We also know that with the move to new technologies it should be possible to look outside of our typical recruitment pools to bring in new talent from other areas. Just one example is our partnership with Mission Automotive, the ex-forces charity which is retraining former military personnel to achieve IMI qualifications. Many of them have significant experience of working with high voltage systems and equipment, which makes them great candidates for training on EV’s and hybrids.” Longer-term thinking beyond the next hire may be the answer: “Rather than employers thinking that they are in a strong market, it is vital that they now start thinking longer term and developing the workforce for the future. The IMI’s ROI calculator has demonstrated that apprentices generate up to 200% ROI within their training period. However, many employers are currently foregoing Levy funds because they aren’t recruiting apprentices That, together with the extra funds currently available from the government, makes a strong financial case, but we will probably have to wait until lockdown restrictions are eased before businesses start looking forward once again.”