To many employers, older workers are dinosaurs who need to be retired to the tar pits and replaced with aggressive, hungry pterodactyls, er, workers. To some extent this has always been a practice in American business, but it is now viewed as being desirable, if not indeed preferable, to help keep wages and benefits under control.
Fortunately, in the world of shop repair, that may be a foreign thought. I was reminded of this when one of my fellow editors wrote an online story on the subject. In her article, Aftermarket Business Associate Editor Sue Angell found that there's not only a good case to be made for shop owners to keep their older technicians, but it may be absolutely necessary.
Of course, one of the major reasons for this is there's a shortage of qualified technicians. With many of the baby boomer technicians ready to retire and the younger generations opting for what they think may be more glamorous work, the industry is probably facing an even more severe technician shortage.
Angell quizzed two of the industry's top shop owners about their older technicians, both of which were very supportive of them.
Betty Jo Young, co-owner of Young's Automotive in Houston, Texas, dealt with being stereotyped as someone who is unwilling to change.
"Don't assume that your older technicians aren't interested in new training," Young says. "As a shop owner, it's your job to identify the employees who want or need training. If you have a technician who's open to change, you need to make training available to him or her –– and be willing to pay for it."
If shop owners aren't proactive in their training efforts, they create a breeding ground for technicians who will be limited in what they can do. A shop owner's attitude, in my opinion, should be: if these people were truly worth hiring in the first place, they are worth investing in throughout their careers.
With that said, you might have some deadwood that you need to chop. These individuals –– older and younger –– may have reached a certain comfort level and are not motivated to keep learning. As fast as automotive repair work is changing, you simply can't afford to have these people on board.
All things being equal, older employees have the most experience and best skills. If a tech hasn't busted his knuckles, so to speak, he's at a disadvantage. Years of experience leads to intuitiveness of which there is no equal. Knowing what the possible problems and diagnoses are from the get-go saves time and effort and puts more profit on the bottom line.
The other person who Angell interviewed was Steve Heggie, owner and president of Certified Transmission &Auto Service inCrestwood, Ky. To his credit, he has kept an older technician whose eyesight is so poor that regular work is beyond his realm. Rather than push this talented technician into the tar pit, Heggie reassigned him to a number of meaningful tasks, including mentoring younger techs. Moreover, this tech is capable of running the shop in Heggie's absence.
That story is not only inspirational, but a good example of sound business judgment.
And if you're as astute as Heggie and Young, you realize that age alone should never be the deciding factor to keeping someone.
