Coming away from the recent Service Dealer Conference and Awards, I couldn’t help but think about the topics that were discussed. One topic, in particular, grabbed my attention and everyone else’s as well. That was the topic of hiring and retaining staff, especially technicians/mechanics in the service dept. of the business.

As we all know it is extremely difficult to hire the right person and retain good staff. Why is this the case? Many suggestions were given at the Service Dealer Conference and brought up a lively and healthy debate on how to solve this ongoing problem.

For example, recruiting technicians can come from many sources such as:

• Head hunting from other dealers (also known as poaching!)
• The local press
• Word of mouth
• Employees within the business who show an interest or have potential/ability

The last point above is particularly important. It is always worth keeping an eye out for employees within your firm that show a good work ethic. The person that sweeps the floor and tidies up in the workshop could, one day, be your best technician.

Employers, when interviewing potential candidates, often look at the person’s skills and ability when deciding whom to take on. However, this may not be the most important attribute when deciding whom to chose. A person’s attitude is probably more important than what’s written on their C.V. If he/she shows a willingness to work and loves working with machines, then you probably have a very good candidate sitting in front of you. Knowledge, skills and experience can be developed later.

When it comes to keeping good staff, the owner or business manager faces a number of problems. It is important to look after your best staff. This can be done in a number of ways:

• Pay them the appropriate rate (or else they will go elsewhere)
• Give them ongoing training (also known as CPD)
• Give them a job title, something they can be proud of

One big hurdle the farm and garden machinery industry has to overcome is the competition it faces with the car dealerships. Car mechanics are generally paid a higher rate than their agricultural counterparts. A technician, after serving time working in a tractor or mower workshop, will find the lure of a higher salary from a car dealer, who is looking for a mechanic, very tempting indeed.

How can we stop this? Should the agricultural technician be paid the same rate as the car dealer technician? If that were the case then that would significantly push up the cost of tractor and mower repairs and services. Would the customer be willing to pay for this extra cost? Probably not, yet they pay the high cost of motor repairs and service in the same way as a farmer will pay a higher rate for repairing his Land Rover or jeep but would object profoundly if this rate were applied to his tractor repairs. Bob Clements wisely said at this year’s Service Dealer Conference and Awards “Never apologise for being priced too high. Apologise for poor quality.”

The market is scarce of quality technicians. This industry needs to make it more attractive to entice young people to want to make a career in the farm and garden machinery sector. It’s up to the industry to throw out the carrot to them.