Addressing the skills shortage in the collision repair industry

If you work in the collision repair industry, you’re bound to know about the current skills shortage. Around Australia, there’s just not enough repairers to meet demand. Recruiting and retaining skilled workers with the appropriate collision repair qualifications is a challenge faced by many workshop owners and managers.  The State of the Nation Special Report: The Skills Shortage found it’s taking an average of 9.1 months to find a panel beater, 8.9 months to find a spray painter, 7.3 months for crash repair assemblers, and 9.4 months for estimators. It also found collision shops were the most likely part of the aftermarket to struggle to retain apprentices, with 71 per cent of respondents saying they’d lost an apprentice before the completion of the apprenticeship.

Not having enough workers on your team, or having staff with inadequate training and skills, greatly impacts your operations, efficiency and business stability. This you know! Collision repair workshops who want to grow and upskill their teams need a solution.

What the skills shortage in collision repair means

With so much demand, and such shortage in skilled repairers, even minor repairs can take months to complete. These delays are highly stressful on workshop owners and staff, who have to deal with customers frustrated at having to wait so long for their vehicle to get back on the road. This can affect the workplace culture of a workshop, which impacts on everyone who works there. The problem is exacerbated as the automotive trade becomes more technical – car systems are evolving, vehicles are becoming more sophisticated, and ADAS repairs are becoming more commonplace, requiring specialist collision repair training.

A big part of the problem is the gap between the number of people entering the industry, versus the number leaving. It’s difficult to attract young talent, and expensive to train them. The recent Australasian Paint and Panel Collision Repair Industry Census found a whopping 68 per cent of collision shops were understaffed.

The survey, commissioned by the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) and research partner Fifth Quadrant, revealed that one in every two workshops has lost a technician in the last year. Currently the automotive service and repair industry is short 40,000 workers, consisting of roughly 27,000 qualified technicians and 13,500 apprentices. This equates to every workshop in the country being short one technician. Naturally this affects the overall operational efficiency of a workshop, and puts added stress on every team member, from management down.

Strategies to reduce turnover and enhance recruitment

Repairify has come up with some insights and strategies that may help you navigate the skills shortage in your collision repair workshop.

• Build a strong employer brand. This is about creating a place where people want to work. A positive, inclusive work culture means happy staff. Having the reputation of a strong and supportive work environment means current team members are less likely to leave, and you’ll have no problem attracting and hiring skilled professionals in the competitive auto repair recruitment market. In the collision repair industry, burnout can lead to a high turnover rate, so offering a work-life balance and flexibility in work schedules can boost employee satisfaction and retention.
• Offer competitive compensation and benefits. Competitive compensation packages are crucial for attracting and retaining skilled workers, and can set your business apart from the competition. This will help in attracting and retaining top talent. You could also consider implementing a performance-based pay structure to incentivise excellence and reward skill development and adaptability.
• Career development opportunities. The auto repair industry is in demand, with existing workshops trying to maintain or expand their operation, and new workshops starting up. This places a huge pressure on workshop owners desperate to retain trained staff and attract new apprentices. Try to provide employees with constructive feedback on their performance, and set clear pathways for career advancement within the company. Workers who see a clear future at your organisation are more likely to stay.

How Repairify Can Support Your Workforce

One of the many advantages of working with Repairify is the training that comes with it. Our tools, training and remote diagnostic tools can assist in supporting and upskilling your workers, giving you the capacity to diagnose complex repairs without the need for specialised or qualified staff. Our comprehensive training program will upskill your current team, and prepare new team members as they join your workshop.

Details on the training and support Repairify provides to partnered workshops and their staff.

With Repairify, the capacity of your workshop is instantly elevated. Once they have completed our training, anyone will be able to use our diagnostic scan tool, the All-in-One – a powerful combination of tools that provides aftermarket diagnostic, programming and calibration services. This means that your less-experienced workers can handle the diagnostics, allowing your more qualified technicians to focus on the complex repairs, improving capacity, efficiency and workflow as well as repair accuracy.

The All-in-One also has the ability to plug into Repairify’s Remote Services offering, which supports your workers to complete more repairs in your workshop without the need to wait for specialist technicians. Our own technicians become an extension of your team, further enhancing the efficiency of your workshop and maximising the time of each team member.

Getting Repairify into your workshop

The skills shortage in the collision repair industry is having a massive impact on the ability of workshops to operate effectively and efficiently. It affects the morale of staff, workshop owners are stressed, and customers are frustrated. Implementing proactive strategies to address the challenges of auto repair recruitment and workforce management are critical for the ongoing success of not only individual repair businesses, but for the industry as a whole.

Fortunately, Repairify can offer a range of effective solutions. We can transform the way your workshop does business. By upskilling your team to use our powerful diagnostic, programming and ADAS calibration tools, you can maximise their skills and efficiency, and increase the amount of repair work able to be completed in your workshop.

Like to know more? Get in touch today.