Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019 - F28

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

FEEDING THE NEED

Fla. dealership group pulls out the stops to recruit 50 service technicians

MARK ELIAS

foj@autonews.com

IAMI - Warren Henry Auto
Group in Miami wants to add as
many as 50 service technicians
as part of its plan to double in
size. So last month, the company's top executives, including its CEO, attended a daylong
tech job fair it sponsored to recruit top candidates personally.
The group employs 83 technicians at its six
new-vehicle dealerships in Florida. To meet
its hiring goals amid a growing industrywide
tech shortage, the company is offering applicants amenities such as air-conditioned service bays and toolboxes and tools paid for by
the company.
"A job fair signifies a candidate's first look into a company," Warren Zinn, CEO of the family-owned group, told
Fixed Ops Journal at the
July 29 event on Florida
International University's
North Miami campus. "To
me, it's extremely important to be here and interact
with applicants and help
them understand the legacy
and culture of our group."
Zinn: Conveying
Although the company
company culture
said it was prepared to hire
experienced tech candidates on the spot, that
didn't happen. But among the 30 or so candidates who attended the fair, five were offered
jobs, says CFO Erik Day. The company did not
make applicants available for interviews by
Fixed Ops Journal.
"Everyone knows there is a critical shortage
of close to 40,000 techs currently," Day says.
"With the aging population, the technician
shortfall will climb to almost 80,000. These are
tech jobs that need to be maintained."
As part of the job fair, the group gave tech
candidates a tour of the company's new,
800,000-square-foot headquarters, about 1.5
miles from the event. The seven-floor building, scheduled to open this fall, will provide
new service and sales centers for the company's Jaguar and Infiniti dealerships in Miami,
and what the company calls the nation's largest electric vehicle charging facility, with 46
chargers to start.
The shop at the headquarters will accommodate on-site detailing and include 82
air-conditioned service bays - an important

PAGE 28

AUGUST 2019

Erik Day, CFO of Warren Henry
Auto Group, leads service technician
candidates on a tour of the company's
new headquarters in Miami.
MARK ELIAS

Tech perks

To hire 50 service technicians, Warren
Henry Auto Group in Miami is offering
job candidates these amenities:
 Air-conditioned service bays
 Company-paid toolboxes and tools
 Access to an employee gym
Source: Warren Henry Auto Group

consideration in South Florida. Technicians
also will have access to an employee gym at
the headquarters.

Word-of-mouth
Dayron Gonzalez, the group's service director, says the five job offers from the fair "may
seem like a low number, but it's not."
"We were able to get five really good candidates who can start turning wrenches tomorrow morning," Gonzalez says. "One of them is
from another luxury-brand dealer, and he's going to tell all his friends about this opportunity."
Gonzalez says a female tech candidate
"definitely made the cut." About 1 percent of
techs at new-vehicle dealerships are women,
according to National Automobile Dealers Association figures.
The toolboxes the company is offering tech
candidates are "fully equipped," Gonzalez says.
Most dealership techs are expected to supply
their own work tools; a well-equipped box can

cost tens of thousands of dollars or more. The
tools remain the property of the dealership.
Warren Henry also is paying $1,000 bonuses
to its technicians who refer a tech candidate
the company hires, Gonzalez says. Although
the group is considering tech candidates from
other industries, he adds, "we have to figure
out how many trainees we can support at
once because we need to pair them up with a
master technician.
"We are looking for the sweet spot between
those who are already well qualified and those
who will learn," he says. "With our Land Rover
brand, it takes a year to two years before we let
them work on their own."

Palm trees
The group's tech recruitment efforts, Gonzalez says, include appeals to candidates in the
Northeast and Midwest.
"You find those who say, 'I want to go to
Florida - I can see the beach, the palm trees
and water and work in air-conditioning,' " he
says. "From my experience, those kids from
the Midwest turn out to be great technicians."
Day says fixed operations will be an increasing source of profits as the company pursues
its growth plans and new-vehicle sales slump.
"When you see margins of 2 or 3 percent on
the retail side and 75 to 80 percent on the service side," he says, "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what is going to contribute
to our company's profitability." 

Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019

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