Simon King of Autotech Recruit discusses the challenges the industry is facing when recruiting, how these issues could be overcome through applying latest methods and technology to draw talent
The automotive industry skills shortage has been exacerbated by a scarcity of young talent entering the sector, an ageing workforce, and an increasingly green agenda driving up the number of other fuelled vehicles onto UK roads.
To realize and retain latest talent today, automotive employers must exhaust the channels available to them and be open to latest recruitment strategies in a bid to achieve a wider audience.
For the automotive industry, retention has been an issue for a while and attracting the fitting talent is an ongoing issue. We’re beginning to see salaries rise, particularly for vehicle technicians, and, whilst this does put additional pressure on employers, it’s incredibly positive and long overdue.
Because the saying goes, money talks, but people, especially those with wanted skills, recognise their price and the industry needs to maintain up with latest technology, while exploring all potential avenues, to make sure they attract and keep hold of the fitting people.
A candidate driven market
Last 12 months was a candidate’s market and 2024 is more likely to follow suit. Individuals are looking for a greater level of flexibility and employment on their very own terms. In the event that they don’t get it of their current job, they’re very more likely to look elsewhere, and retention rates have turn into an actual problem for many organisations.
In keeping with the Future World of Work Report 2023, the structure of the UK workforce is changing profoundly. Flexibility is the important thing driver of this modification, and 65% of companies surveyed revealed they understood the necessity to play the ‘flexibility game’ to draw the fitting people because it opens them as much as a much wider pool of talent.
But flexibility isn’t a one size matches all solution, and naturally, for the automotive industry, working from home really isn’t an option. It might be selecting the hours they work and after they work to strike a greater work life balance.
Now we have contractors working for us preferring seasonal work in order that they can spend time indulging their hobbies or working on their other side businesses.
People want greater alternative today. It’s why there are actually over 4.2 million self-employed staff within the UK.
The freelance revolution
Sparked by the financial crisis and the unemployment that followed, freelancing became considered one of the largest trends of the 2010’s. On the time, it was a necessity for a lot of but, when the pandemic hit, it became a alternative.
People had a taste of hybrid working and so they wanted more of it. For employers, 64% say that using contractors helps them to deal with the abilities gap, while enabling them to show the faucet on and off as needed in terms of specialist support.
This sentiment matches the automotive industry exactly, and it’s one now we have been beating the drum about for over a decade. Using temporary vehicle technicians and MOT testers to cover resource gaps, whether brought on by sick leave, holiday or a scarcity of obtainable talent, is an answer automotive bosses are tapping into repeatedly.
These contractors are in command of their very own destiny, they know that training and being expert in the newest automotive technology will help them remain agile and employable.
It’s widely known that the automotive industry is fishing for talent in a rapidly depleting pool. While there are initiatives in place to upskill existing staff and harness a brand new generation, we also need to have a look at those that left the sector and lure them back in.
So many latest contractors who join our ranks left everlasting automotive employment to work on wind farms or re-trained as lorry drivers, ‘we wanted to present the automotive industry one last likelihood,’ is a well-recognized cry.
We’d like to achieve out to the individuals who did leave and sell the industry to them and the opportunities which now exist, including the potential to contract. Your individuals are your best advocates and it’s likely that they’ll no ex-automotive employees so use them to pass the message on.
It’s an exciting time throughout the sector and, for many who are prepared to coach and produce themselves up so far to service and repair vehicles today, the opportunities are limitless.
Your industry needs you back…
After all, except for tempting people back from other sectors, there’s one other cohort of those that the industry could possibly be tapping into.
Technicians who, faced with the evolution of vehicles, opted to retire early reasonably than upskill, are actually beginning to return to working and adaptability is essential.
Rising inflation, and the price of living crisis is fuelling a reversal of the Great Resignation, people of retirement age who’re using flexibility to return to the workforce in ways in which work higher for them. We’d like to achieve out to those people and produce them back into the automotive industry.
While contracting is undeniably on the rise, for a lot of, job security generally is a real deal breaker. With mortgages to pay and mouths to feed, particularly through the cost of living crisis, taking the plunge to turn into a contractor could be daunting and produce a bunch of concerns.
It’s why now we have recently enhanced our offering to introduce ATech and ATester. A novel mix of freelancing, while having the reassurance of full-time employment with guaranteed work.
After we began the business back in 2010, it was a contractor revolution. Freelancing throughout the automotive industry was relatively unheard of, today while our network continues to grow, demand is outstripping supply and the contracts have gotten more long run.
Any fears of not having enough work are unfounded. But to appeal to more people and reach out to those that left the sector in a bid to entice them back, we’re offering full-time everlasting employment, with all the advantages that entails, and the variability of labor that comes with being a freelancer.
From the more experienced to the recently trained, to creating opportunities for contractors and everlasting staff, there are such a lot of routes to attracting talent which must be explored and employers needs to be exhausting each of them. But thoughts also should be given over to the road of communication used when reaching these audiences.
Harnessing technology
For years, now we have talked in regards to the rapid digitalisation of the automotive industry but using automation to recruit is a comparatively latest phenomenon. If used effectively though, recruitment technology can significantly cut down on repetitive, time-consuming work, affording the employer time to construct a greater rapport with potential candidates.
Through intelligent systems, employers can widen the online and reach a greater audience through a large number of channels, online job boards, databases and social media platforms, giving employers great alternative, while enabling them to filter through and drill into the fitting talent.
While recording and monitoring the progress of potential candidates, through the facility of tech employers may complete the initial screening process, schedule interviews, and handle background checks – all in real time.
There are interminable routes available today to attracting and gaining talent, employers just must broaden their reach and tap into the technology available to them, you never know, these incremental changes made across the entire industry might just begin to fill the abilities gap void.
Simon King is managing director of Autotech Recruit
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
