july2022 - 28

RECRUITING
& RETENTION
QUICK GUIDE
FINDING THEM
* Sign up for ASE Education Foundation's
Adopt-a-School program to connect
with local trade schools and community
colleges.
* Invest time and resources into helping
schools develop curricula based on
modern industry expectations and
standards.
* Hire students from nearby vo-tech
schools to work part-time and possibly
full-time upon graduation.
* Be open to hiring and training veterans
and others over 20 with no direct auto/
truck experience but work physically
demanding jobs.
* Make your shop inclusive to female techs.
KEEPING THEM
* Upon hiring, present techs with longterm
training and promotion plan.
* Connect hires with enthusiastic mentors.
* Routinely refer to TMC's apprenticeship
model, as well as RP 516A (technician
training), RP 519 (setting up a performance
review) and RP 526 (shop review practices).
* Set aside time for training and
continuous education.
* Recognize and reward performance.
* Encourage participation in
skills competitions.
* Offer a 10-hour, four-day workweek.
and they don't give it any thought after that. And
that's a recipe for disaster and usually why you
find a lot of these folks are leaving six months
after they get hired. "
This is backed up by a late 2021 survey by
Navistar's dealer service development and market
research teams, and the findings were paired
with qualitative and quantitative research. The
goal was to find what service departments need
to improve retention; what motivates technicians
and senior advisors; and what competitive
compensation, benefits, and career opportunities
look like, explained Ana Salcido, Navistar's technician
recruitment manager.
" The biggest finding? Compensation and benefits
get technicians in the door, but management
and culture are what retain and motivate talented
employees, " Salcido noted.
To further motivate and recognize employees,
the OEM introduced the Technician of Influence
award, given to four high-performing employees
per month " for going the extra mile and demonstrating
responsibility, trust, proficiency, and
productivity, " according to Salcido.
Master tech and apprentice
Braswell advised that maintenance management
set up a functioning apprenticeship
program to ensure those technicians that were
so difficult to find stay at your company. TMC's
S.5 Fleet Maintenance Management Study
Group and Educator Committee released the
Model Registered Apprenticeship Program for
Commercial Vehicle Technicians to offer a roadmap
on how to set up an apprenticeship program
and monitor apprenticeships.
While this calls for all apprentices to be
» Bendix headquarters in Avon, Ohio, includes
working " air boards " to help techs visualize the
systems and run troubleshooting exercises.
Photo: John Hitch | Fleet Maintenance
supervised by a fully qualified technician while
performing tasks, that supervising technician
does not need to watch every little move. However,
they do need to be available for questions and
ensure they have the instructions and resources to
perform the job " safely, correctly, and efficiently. "
To prevent these apprentices from becoming
part of the 20% who leave within two years, supervisors
should find appropriate mentors who have
the patience to teach others and step away from
their own work.
" It's not your best technician in the shop, " said
Paul Cigala, an ExxonMobil commercial vehicle
lubricants applications engineer. " Usually, it's the
technician who has been there for a while, knows
the ins and outs, and can work closely with that
new technician to help them. "
Cigala hosted a technician-related podcast
with Arrants called " The Long Haul with Paula
and George, " where he picked up several kernels
of truth from fleet experts.
" Really focus on making sure that the technicians
coming out of schools are prepared to get
into the industry and are onboarded correctly, "
Cigala instructed. " If he doesn't feel like part of
the family-maybe he's struggling and nobody's
helping him or watching over his shoulder-he'll be
gone in less than a year and on to something else. "
TMC also has recommended practices to aid
with technician training (RP 516A), setting up a
performance review (RP 519), and shop review
practices (RP 526).
Training daze
The complexity of commercial vehicles never stops
growing and could completely shift in the next
few decades from internal combustion to electric
powertrains. Technicians need to keep up,
so education must continue from the apprentice
level to master tech and beyond. From a business
side, this will help a shop take on more work and
improve uptime. For the employee, upskilling
helps build confidence, reduce monotony, and
better their chances at advancement.
But finding classroom time for a tech who could
be in the bay working has proven difficult for
many shops.
" I think our biggest struggle is getting shops to
spend the time and money to actually send their
technicians to a training class somewhere because
it's not cheap, " Diesel Laptops' Robertson said.
" And they're already short-staffed with trucks
broken down. Now we're trying to get them out
of the shop for a couple of days to go to this class,
so there's a continuous loop of just not enough
resources and time to deal with it. "
According to the 2022 ASE Training Managers
Council (ATMC) Training Benchmarks Survey,
60% of fleet technicians said they did not have
enough access to training. Truck technicians
specifically cited electrical/electronic and engine
performance as the most needed training content.
Robertson noted that diagnosing issues with
emissions systems and onboard computers
requires such training, and even experienced
techs don't always have the basic skills needed.
That's a reason Diesel Laptops offers virtual training
to the industry.
A pretest on the basics of electrical work, from
Ohm's Law to how to use a multimeter, illuminated
the overall problem to Robertson.
" On one, 80% of the students failed, " he exclaimed.
" These are not like brand-new students out of school.
These were all people that have been in the industry
for years, so we stopped giving the pretest because
hardly anyone would pass the thing. "
28 Fleet Maintenance | July 2022
july2022

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