Bonuses that keep technicians long-term without drama are simple, measurable, and consistent. Here are 3 simple bonus structures that don’t cause fights and work: 👉a reliability bonus for showing up 👉a billed-hours consistency bonus for steady production 👉a team goal bonus for shop-wide wins. Each one has clear rules, quality guardrails, and no guessing games. That's the answer. Here's why most shops get this wrong—and how to get it right. WHY MOST BONUS PLANS CAUSE DRAMA Most bonus plans backfire because they reward the wrong thing. They feel like bribes when they're random, emotional, or changed mid-game. One month you're handing out cash because you're desperate. Next month you quietly stop because margins got tight. Your techs notices. Trust erodes. They blow up when they reward speed over quality, create cherry-picking, or spark internal competition. Suddenly your A-tech is hiding work until next pay period while your B-tech is hustling through brake jobs like he's getting paid by the minute (because he is). They create favoritism claims when there's no clear measurement. "How come Mike got a bonus and I didn't?" If you can't answer that question with numbers on a whiteboard, you've got a problem. Cecil Bullard from the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence puts it simply: if your bonus plan doesn't reward the behaviors and results you actually want, it will motivate the wrong things. Every time. The Principle: Base + Bonus (Performance-Enhanced Pay) Before we get into the structures, here's the foundation that makes all of this work. You need a performance-enhanced pay plan—base pay plus bonus—where the tech knows exactly what they earn for showing up, and exactly what they can earn by performing. Bullard recommends thinking of it as a 60/40 concept. About 60% is predictable base. About 40% is earned through measurable performance. The split doesn't have to be exact, but the principle matters: your tech should never have to guess how to win.

In order to get acquainted and and help fellow community members, please share: 1. The name and location of your shop. 2. Your biggest frustration with finding techs. 3. How you found your last tech.

Hello everyone! Thanks for the invite and happy to be here!