PMM’s Freya Coleman attended the first IAAF service provider webinar in collaboration with the Automotive Recruitment Alliance, finding out what we can all be doing to face staffing issues in the Aftermarket.
The Webinar, consisting of Glen Shephard from GCA, Gavin White from Autotech Group, Andy Hill from KPI People and headed by Mark Field and Richard Wellend from the IAAF, started with laying out the current issues facing recruitment in the Aftermarket. This included a middle skills gap, early retirements and over-reliance on a migrant force that is dissipating due to Brexit and the pandemic. Andy Hill explained how middle management is also an area that has slowed down significantly, numerous industries fighting over an increasingly smaller talent pool.
Another issue is staff retainment, recruitment doesn’t end when a candidate is hired and we must do all we can to keep newer staff onboard. Glen Shepard explained how salaries are being affected by this – good employees are trying to be held on to so they will get paid more, the bar continuously being raised when hiring new staff.
Glen Shephard outlined six actions that recruiters can be doing to tackle these: integrating recruitment into marketing, candidates are becoming increasingly savvy so marketing is key. Be an enabler – tick candidates boxes, offer flexible working and a work life balance as candidates are interviewing you as much as we are them. Advertise the company’s culture, organisations are attractive when they have good culture and have a candidate engagement strategy; checking job boards and various social medias as candidates are often waiting to be found. Move quickly, don’t prolong the recruitment process – good people are being snapped up quickly and lastly, help your onboard candidates, check your returns on the investments of hiring. All helpful advice for workshops facing various staffing issues.
Gavin White added that we have developed a culture of racing to the bottom, undervaluing what we do for the consumer and this starts at misinformation around schools. The message being sent to young people in education is wrong – pupils are taught that they either go to university or they’re going to work jobs such as in the motor trade. Information needs to be out there about the range of jobs in the automotive sector and this can be done through active communication with school and colleges.
In sum, as expressed by Gavin White, the industry is huge and diverse. These aren’t issues that can be solved overnight but we need to take more of a togetherness as an industry, it is in everyone’s interest to recruit.
