I hope this post finds you well, with a shop full of profitable work (and the hands to get it done). Lately, I've been hearing from shops across the country that it’s taking longer than usual to fill open positions and I wanted to let you know what I’m seeing personally. From coast to coast, I'm seeing a trend: hiring is taking longer, and applications are fewer. Now, before you start thinking it's just your shop or your area, let me assure you - this is a nationwide phenomenon. Here's what's going on: 1. Summer Slowdown: We see this every year. People are more focused on vacations than job hunting. 2. Election Year Effect: With the upcoming election, we're seeing increased ad censorship and a flood of political ads, which affects our industry's visibility. 3. Competition Is Increasing: So what else is new? This has been going on for a while. But here's the thing - challenges create opportunities for those willing to innovate. And that's exactly what we're doing. We've been developing a game-changing tool: the Technician Salary Survey. Here's how it works: We run Facebook ads in various cities, offering techs a summary of salaries in their area. The response has been phenomenal because techs LOVE this information. Now, we're taking it a step further. We're building an automated follow-up system that will pull this data from Facebook and nurture these leads until they're ready to have a conversation with you. It's like having a dedicated recruitment assistant working 24/7. While we're still ironing out some kinks, I believe this will revolutionize how we attract top talent in our industry. If you’d like to see what the salary survey looks like, reply to this post with your city name, and we'll create a personalized Technician Salary Survey for your area. You'll get a firsthand look at what techs in your region are earning and what they're looking for. Remember, in times like these, patience and innovation are key. We might be experiencing a temporary slowdown, but with the right tools and mindset, we can turn this challenge into an opportunity to build stronger, more resilient teams.

You could take all of the techs away from a well-run shop with strong leadership and distribute them among all of their competition in the area. Within 6 months that shop would be fully manned up with rock stars just like they are today. Leadership and building a strong shop culture are skills. Desire and ambition to build these skills are mindsets. Shops that don't have trouble attracting and keeping A-players are skilled.

Think Craigslist is dead for hiring? Think again! I just received another one of those emails that make my day! One of our clients just hired TWO techs - and guess what? One came straight from Craigslist! This is proof that Craigslist still works for finding good techs - if you work it right! I shot a video on our Craigslist strategy a while back and you can view it in the classroom using this link: https://www.skool.com/technicianfind/classroom/b8c5e063?md=d450e9b827a44656b0bf998ca4e70e76

Yesterday I sent out an email announcing that I'll be sharing the full Technician Find hiring process at AAPEX 2024 in Vegas this November. @Craig Zale from Craig's Auto Care in Allen, TX read the email and called me out for implying that it is easy to find and hire techs. With Craig's permission, here was my response: Hi Craig, Thanks for the kind words, and for always reading my emails:) Will you be at AAPEX this year? If so, I'd love to meet you in real life. Anyways, in this email I was trying to get across that the process is simple, but it's not necessarily easy to execute. I was just checking our numbers yesterday and we've worked with 136 shops across the US and Canada so far. We've gotten results for the vast majority of these shops using this hiring process and the shops that get the very best results had 4 things going for them: 1. The shop is well run and has a great reputation (out of our control). 2. Their ads are compelling. They grab a tech's attention and speak directly to their pain and desires to get them to apply (we nail this one). 3. Their ads are distributed across the internet targeting all qualified techs in the area, even those who may not be looking for a new shop (we nail this one too). 4. They have someone at the shop who can sell the dream of a better opportunity and they are relentless about following up until the tech signs on (out of our control). Of course, our Technician Find service handles #2 and #3. I started the Technician Find community to support shops that need help on #1 and #4. Here's to more independent shops nailing the basics so they can get and stay fully staffed! Take care, -Chris

The Automotive Management Network just conducted a poll of their members on what they think are the biggest hiring mistakes that shop owners make. Here are the top 5: 1. Going against their gut feelings 2. Listening too little during the interview 3. There was a 3-way tie for third (Guaranteeing too much compensation / Moving too fast / Too much emphasis on skills and not enough on personality) It's a fascinating poll and definitely worth taking a look at. You can view the full results here: https://www.automotivemanagementnetwork.com/polls/biggest-hiring-mistakes-shop-owners-make/