The automotive technician shortage
Depending on who you talk to 50%-75% of the people that enter the automotive technician trade, leave within two years. Technicians with many years invested are also packing up and starting over elsewhere. Why is this?
We have to buy a lot of tools. We get burned, cut, and dirty. In the winter, road slush will fall off vehicles into your mouth, eyes, and ears. In the summer, the shop is sweltering. It is a mentality and physically hard job. But no different than any other trade.
Every minute of my day is timed. Every task that I do is on the time clock. I have even had employers time my bathroom breaks. I have a permanent time clock hung over my head. The purpose of this is to keep track of my billed hours. My employers want to make sure I bill one hour for each hour they are paying me for. But this is not good enough. The expectation is that I bill at 200%. The "goal" is I bill 16 hours a day. Every hour that I'm at work, I have to produce 2 hours of labor. Using labor times that are designed to reduce the manufacturers warranty costs. Finding keys, finding the car in the parking lot and test driving, filling out work order notes, talking to service advisors, getting parts, none of this is factored into my billed hours.
Every single employer that I have had has told me I work too slow. I'm usually around 80% doing mostly diagnostics, interior, and a bit of internal engine repair on basically all European makes/models. I almost never have comebacks and have a very high diagnostic success rate. Yet, many times, from many different employers, I have to sit in their office and defend my 80%. Billed hours is the most important thing, apparently.
"What can we do to help you achieve 16 hours" this is a hollow offer. When you actually bring solutions to the table. Eeer, that's too expensive. Or, oh, we can't do that. Just work smarter and harder and no changes will be made.
Maximizing billed hours leaves no time for training and education. I'm required to bill as many hours as possible. If I run into a problem that I don't understand. I cannot just spend an hour reading service information to educate myself. That happens on my own time, unpaid. Same thing with apprentices, my own billed hours are made to be more important than training future technicians. Not being given the time to pass down knowledge to someone who actually wants to learn and will be the next generation, is very disheartening. OE manufacturers literally scour the globe picking up the best and brightest to design the most complex personal transportation known to Man. Technicians are expected to learn how they work on their own time unpaid, in an environment that discourages learning, and at 200% efficiency.
The shortage and bleeding are going to continue until something changes. I understand that these billed hours keep the lights on. But, we are putting the cart in front of the horse. Technicians and apprentices are put into the shop and expected to produce and not given the time to learn about these complex systems that didn't exist a few years ago. Pizza party's are not going to fix this.
I do not have the answers to for this. But, we could take a experienced technician who has the desire, and put him/her into an educator role. No ridiculous billing expectations, just help and educate those who need it. Budget better, or let go of some greed, and give technicians the proper amount of time to learn about what we are trying to repair and not have to financially suffer or get yelled at.
Quote
Originally Posted by ThePenIsMightier
