The skills search goes on for many collision businesses

In a stark picture of the ongoing recruitment crisis the collision industry is facing, Capricorn’s State of the Nation Special Report: The Skills Shortage investigates the industry-wide issue and some of its impacts.

The collision repair industry has been one of the hardest hit by a skills shortage affecting almost all sectors of the automotive aftermarket industry according to Capricorn’s State of the Nation Special Report: The Skills Shortage.

The comprehensive survey completed by more than 1800 Capricorn Members found that, according to many key metrics, the collision industry was at least 15 percentage points worse off than other sectors when it came to filling vacancies and finding trained staff.

The survey found that when it came to resourcing talent, 61 per cent of paint and panel businesses were struggling to find skilled staff compared to a wider industry figure of 43 per cent, and only one in five collision businesses (22 per cent) were adequately staffed.

Collision was not alone in feeling this recruitment pain, but it was feeling it more acutely, and historical data shows that the situation has become worse. Skills and staffing issues now dominate the top responses across the industry finding good staff was the highest-placed challenge in running a business across the industry where it has leapt from 39 to 51 per cent over the last year.

But for the paint and panel sector, this specific business challenge is a further 15 per cent higher at 66 per cent, making it, along with commercial trucking, the worst affected sectors in the industry. Lack of qualified staff has also eclipsed changing technology, the price and shortage of parts as the biggest challenges facing a business.

Even more significantly, these recruitment issues are having flow-on effects for business owners, with other highly ranked issues including workload, stress, difficulty taking adequate breaks and holidays and the risk of burn-out.

When evaluating the impacts, four out of five respondents who indicated that they were understaffed said workloads had increased and it had increased pressure on staff. Almost as many said working hours had increased and they were struggling with a work-life balance.

As a result of this pressure, business outcomes were also affected, with more than 60 per cent of understaffed businesses reporting jobs are taking longer, and they are turning away jobs. The potentially hidden impact of this pressure and one that can be far more costly, is highlighted in the report as the consequences on the personal lives of business owners and staff, with the stress affecting mental health, family and relationships.

The industry’s struggle to find new people also poses the double risk of burning out the experienced people who currently work in the industry.

Jentec Auto Services owner Simon Bonney is a typical automotive business owner who spoke to Capricorn about the pressure the skills shortage has placed on him and his staff. “Trying to both run the business and do the repair work too comes with a lot of extra pressure and stress,” Bonney says.

“It’s forced me to do longer hours. I’ve done 14-to-16-hour days recently. If we could get the people we need, it would be less stress on myself and would give me a bit more time to spend at home with the family.”

Part of the purpose of the survey is to give Capricorn and its more than 26,000 members an insight into industry problems, but it also serves as a crucial way to evaluate conditions and what steps need to be taken both by the industry and governments to remedy the loss of productivity.

The positive note in the survey was that, despite the many challenges currently being faced, most members remained confident in the future of the industry and reported greater satisfaction and trust from customers. In fact, collision repair businesses remained the most confident for the future due to their staff and teams, 26 per cent, the highest across all automotive sectors.

Capricorn Group Chief Executive Officer, David Fraser, described the skilled staff gap as an increasingly stressful burden on small businesses.

“Finding good staff is the biggest challenge members face in running their businesses, and it’s causing operational, financial, mental and emotional stress,” Fraser says.

“Overall, the stress about a lack of available skilled labour is up 12 per cent on last year’s survey, a concerning trend which is having a real impact on a sector contributing over $58 billion to Australia’s economy.”

“Capricorn estimates that there are 13,600 vacant skilled positions across member workshops in Australia and New Zealand with these vacancies taking an average of up to eight months to fill.

Members have always taken on apprentices to help with a pipeline of skilled labour, and whilst the appetite to hire an apprentice is increasing, retaining them is a challenge.

“We strongly encourage our industry partners and government to use this latest research to drive the change we need to see. By helping this sector with red tape and cost reduction, the handbrake will come off this industry and the country will be better for it.”

The uptake in apprentices is one of the strong responses member businesses have taken in the face of skills shortages, with 83 per cent of paint and panel businesses indicating that they have employed one, the highest across all sectors and ten per cent above the national average.

The overriding reason given was to “train the next generation” (71 per cent of responses) along with helping with workload, so members are conscious of the skills pipeline for the future.

The shortcomings are that retention of apprentices is still an issue with more than half of members reporting losing an apprentice before they finished their qualifications. These retention rates are still higher than other industries even though the AAAA Automotive Technician Salary Benchmark Survey highlights automotive apprentice salaries are below those of plumbers, carpenters and electricians.

In some cases, like Bonney’s business in Western Australia it is the competition being felt with other industries experiencing skills shortages.

“We’ve had an experienced technician position advertised for roughly a year but it’s very hard to get skilled labour, especially in Western Australia where we’ve got to compete with mining,” Bonney said.

“We took on an apprentice because we couldn’t get skilled labour. We’ve had two apprentices which unfortunately we have lost.”

Bonney said he would possibly consider the use of skilled immigrant labour if the process was easier and more cost-effective.

“There are a lot of overseas technicians who are quite skilled in what they do. It is hard to justify the cost to bring them over and do all the visa stuff and get everything organised.”

The Capricorn State of the Nation Survey collated 1887 responses from Capricorn members in June and July this year with 86 per cent of respondents from independent workshops and nine per cent part of groups, chains or franchises.

More detail on the State of the Nation survey at cap.coop/son-skills

Feeling burnt out?

Help is available

The State of the Nation also includes extensive resources for helping to deal with burnout. Capricorn recommends understanding these five key steps if you have identified burn-out as an issue:

Identify the sources of your burnout.
Get support if you need it.
Re-evaluate your priorities.
Step away from the business.
Look at your lifestyle.

Capricorn’s philosophy as a cooperative is that we’re stronger when we work together, and this is certainly relevant to the issue of burnout and support. If you’re concerned about the way that this issue is impacting the people around you, you can:

Check on your friends in the industry if you know they’re struggling.
Open the burnout conversation with others and help them access support if they need it.
Talk to your staff. If you’re burnt out, they may well be, too. Ensure they have access to support.

More information at: sotn.capricorn.coop/burnout/

Other resources also available online in the report include: