A new ACIA report has highlighted the severity of the skills gap in the repair industry, showing more than half of advertised jobs remain unfilled. But the literature review also gives sharper focus to what may be causing the problems of retention and where solutions may lie.
The Australian Collision Industry Alliance conducted the research in collaboration with Griffith University Business School as a key part of its strategy to assess the gravity of the problem and develop solutions for the collision repair industry.
It found only 44 per cent of advertised jobs in the automotive industry were filled in the past year.
The report, a literature review, was commissioned by ACIA and conducted by the Centre for Work, Organisation and Well Being at Griffith University under Professor Paula Brough and her team, and is the first stage of a major research program aimed at capturing a clear picture of the current industry.
Professor Paula Brough described the combinations of the loss of experienced technicians, older workers retiring or moving on and an early drop-off rate for new apprentices as “alarming”.
The report authored by Professor Brough and Professor Ashlea Troth studied existing workplace literature to establish the key causes and costs of this high turnover and to categorise the driving forces undermining retention.
The study looks at a wide range of reports on turnover trends for the industry including the AAAA’s that found half of all workshops lost a technician in 2022 and a Labour Market Update from Skills Australia that found vacancies filled for Automotive and Engineering Trades Workers fell from 43 per cent in 2021, to 27 per cent in 2022.
The report says an 11 per cent growth in the number of shops and worldwide pressure for the skills would also exacerbate the issue into the future.
ACIA board member Sarah Moynihan who is also Head of People, Culture & Change at Fortress Collision Repair Services said the report concentrated the known experience of many industries on staffing issues and gave collision repair a new sharper focus on the problem areas and solutions
“We can all see what the problem is,” Moynihan told a presentation at NCR’s Symposium24.
“We need specific answers, and we need the evidence to explain the why. If we understand the barriers, we can identify the strategies to overcome them. As for example, having career pathways to implemented at large and small workshops.”
The report identified two groups of factors that directly impact employee turnover and retention in this industry, Work Environment Characteristics and Employee Characteristics.
Out of the diverse reasons for turnover, the report also identifies eight key areas where the problems can be addressed including, pay, bonuses, flexible work hours, training management style, career paths and a special attention to Gen Y workers.
The report recommends to increase retention, the dissatisfaction factors that current employees have with aspects of their workplace need to be identified and addressed.
It also found; “While a stand-alone ‘piece rate’ reward structure was identified as not helpful, it could be considered further for the Australian context as an additional incentive to base pay.”
But it also found non-cash benefits at workshops were widely underutilised, with other solutions including industry training opportunities, flexible hours, and the use of the workshop out of hours not offered by 1 in 3 workshops.
Moynihan said the work environment element alone had many complex facets including a culture of mentoring and training, work-life balance as well as diversity and how people feel at work.
“People want more from their workplace, so we wanted to advise the collision industry on the best way to do this,” she says.
Moynihan says each group subject to high turnover, whether they were experienced workers or uncompleted apprenticeships, need investigation and tailored solutions.
“A lot of young people want to excel very quickly so a four-year apprenticeship makes it very difficult particularly on lower wages, so how we can support them will be important.”
Professor Brough noted in the report the female workforce was an often-untapped resource but also noted it could be a business opportunity.
Brough cited the example of a repair workshop in Bristol, UK that is staffed by all female technicians and this sends a strong message to its clientele and prospective recruits that has proved successful.
“Having a diverse workforce is a reflection of a diverse customer base,” she said
But she says what these models look like in Australia needed further investigation.
“We could see there were examples across Australia (of improved and diverse culture) but how far that has been developed and to what extant was not clear. We asked, is this an example that should be championed?”
The report recommended that the current action being taken and what ‘success’ looks like is the focus of future action. It suggested establishing to what degree solutions are being utilised by the industry now, where the hotspots are for high staff turnover and what successful examples of counteracting these look like.
The ACIA has reported that the next stages in the long-term research program will conduct in-field data capture and analysis, benchmarking, policy review, recommendations, and best practice identification and information.
The ACIA and Griffith are currently working on scoping phase two of the research program, which will be a deep dive on the specific factors raised by the phase one literature review.
“Members of the ACIA want to know what works ultimately, rather than throwing hopeful darts at the problem,” Moynihan says. “With a multi-phase report program, we can narrow the focus to just those things that work, and those things that are really getting in the way of the sustainability of the industry’s workforce needs.”
“Good information is so vital to making cost effective decisions about programs and industry support. The ACIA is committed to making this information freely available to the industry and stakeholders, as it continues to develop its role in promoting the collision industry as a great place to have a long term and varied career.”