Simon King, chief executive at recruitment and training specialist Autotech Group, explains why dealerships must rethink workforce strategy, technician wellbeing and EV skills development to remain profitable and future-ready.
The automotive sector is facing growing pressure around technician shortages, rising complexity and changing workforce expectations. How important is it for dealers to stop viewing recruitment, retention and productivity as separate issues and instead approach them as part of one wider workforce strategy?
Dealerships can no longer afford to treat recruitment, retention and productivity as separate operational issues because they all directly impact one another. A workforce gap doesn’t just create a hiring problem. It affects workshop throughput, customer experience, technician wellbeing and ultimately profitability.
When workshops are understaffed, pressure increases on existing teams, morale suffers and productivity drops because people burn out. Businesses then risk losing more staff because they haven’t invested properly in supporting and developing them in the first place.
For me, having a clear workforce strategy that is visible at every level of the business is absolutely key. Technicians need to understand where the business is going, what opportunities exist for them and how they fit into the future of the organisation.
Businesses that continue reacting to short-term staffing pressures instead of planning long-term around people, skills and operational needs are creating operational imbalance. A more holistic workforce approach is now essential, particularly as aftersales becomes increasingly important to dealership profitability.
Technician wellbeing and retention are becoming bigger operational concerns for retailers. What are the main pressures workshops are facing today and what practical steps can businesses take to create an environment where technicians want to stay and develop their careers?
Technician wellbeing is now both a people issue and an operational issue. Many workshops are under sustained pressure because of increasing workloads, tight headcounts and wider economic pressures.
Too often, the first things businesses cut back on are people and training because they are seen as the easiest costs to reduce.
But when businesses stop investing in people, they often end up demanding more from technicians while giving less back in terms of development and support. Over time, that creates burnout, frustration and ultimately increased staff attrition.
Retention is no longer driven purely by salary. In our ‘What Vehicle Technicians Want’ survey last year, almost 79% of technicians said working hours were more important than pay. Flexibility, career progression and access to modern tools and technology also ranked highly when choosing an employer.
Businesses need to adapt workforce structures around modern expectations, whether that’s flexible shifts, specialist roles or clearer development opportunities. Creating an environment where technicians genuinely want to stay and build their careers is absolutely key.
Was there any sort of demographic aspect to your research, as in, perhaps the younger technician wants something different from a more experienced colleague?
There is definitely a different expectation from younger technicians but there has also been a wider shift since Covid. What we’ve seen with contractors joining us is that many are leaving full-time roles because they want greater flexibility and a better work-life balance.
During Covid, people experienced different ways of working and reassessed what mattered to them. For many, particularly older technicians whose children may have left home, flexibility and working fewer hours have become far more important.
There is also a divide around EV technical skills. Most technicians would take EV training if it was offered, but some of the older generation are less enthusiastic and feel they are being pushed towards working on EVs when they would rather not.
That resistance is often more about adapting to change than EVs specifically. On the other hand, a lot of our technicians say their previous employer simply didn’t want to change.
As vehicle technology evolves, particularly around EVs, ADAS and diagnostics, how quickly is the required skills profile of the modern technician changing and where do you think some dealerships are still underestimating the challenge?
The industry has known for years that technologies such as EVs, ADAS and advanced diagnostics were coming, but many businesses underestimated how quickly those skills would become operationally critical. This is no longer a future issue. It is already affecting workshops today.
Vehicle technology is becoming increasingly complex, and dealers that haven’t invested in people and training are now feeling the impact through widening capability gaps.
That comes back to having a proper workforce and training strategy. If businesses fail to plan ahead and invest early, they quickly fall behind the curve.
The challenge is that once the pressure arrives, workshops often can’t afford to release technicians for training because they are already short-staffed and overloaded. That creates a cycle where dealers struggle to keep pace with new technology while manufacturers continue pushing new products and standards into the network.
In some cases, retailers risk turning work away or damaging relationships with manufacturers because they lack the capability to properly PDI, service or repair the latest vehicles.
Do you think the risk is that dealerships will find themselves siloed, exclusively servicing ICE vehicles?
There are definitely businesses in the aftermarket already taking advantage of being EV specialists, particularly in areas where the local demographic supports that demand.
I don’t think franchised dealers will allow themselves to become purely ICE aftersales operations, but the longer they delay investing in EV capability, the more expensive it becomes to catch up.
That may mean relying on temporary skilled labour or contractors with EV expertise. At Autotech Recruit, for example, we train our contractors on EV systems at weekends because we see it as important to keep them future-fit and ready for the market.
Workshops are increasingly going to need specialist technicians across EV systems, diagnostics and ADAS calibration.
Younger technicians are also entering the industry wanting to work on technology-led vehicles rather than traditional mechanical repairs. Modern EVs are already becoming far more plug-and-play, with diagnostics directing technicians towards component replacement rather than relying purely on mechanical experience.
For me, businesses now need to rethink how workshops are structured. That means investing in specialist capability, EV bays, ADAS calibration areas and technicians dedicated to those skills, rather than expecting everyone to do everything.
That more specialist, future-ready workshop model is where the industry is heading.
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