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How to attract top talent to your shop using video

I was pretty curious about what technicians do when they are looking for a new job. So … I asked. I know, what a crazy idea.

In the automotive industry everyone is looking for more talented and motivated automotive technicians and service writers. On almost every repair shop website you see NOW HIRING!! And there are countless job openings on LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and Craigslist in every town and city in the country for techs and advisors.

Patrick Egan, founder and CEO of SPARK Interactive

On LinkedIn there are over 60,000 job postings in the US. Almost every one of those open positions comes with “great pay,” “great benefits,” and “great work environment.” Many even list a signing bonus. The problem, however, is that there aren’t 60,000 technicians out there looking for a new job. And the ones who are looking can pick and choose what suits them best.

What to Do, What to Do?

So, how do you get them to choose you? If you compare the job postings, they pretty much look the same. 401K (check), Top Pay (check), lunch on Fridays (check), medical insurance (check), education (check), vacation/time off (check), bring your dog to work (check) … wait, no, scratch that last one.

So, what do you do? Well, just like selling any other product or service, reviews are king. A lot of shops are paying their team members a bonus to go out and spread the good word to their industry friends how great it is at their place. But, really, that’s not what you hired them for. And they can’t be everywhere all the time. Plus, most don’t really want to pitch job openings on their time off.

Go to the Source

So what’s next? Well, I was pretty curious about what technicians do when they are looking for a new job too. So … I asked. I know, what a crazy idea.

I started with the idea that you don’t necessarily want the guy or gal who are looking for a job. Maybe you want to entice the tech who hadn’t really thought about where to go next. So, all the cool marketing tactics that people are doing today are a good start — advertisements of all kinds: I’ve heard about YouTube ads more than once; radio ads, too (streaming service); those little stickers on oil filters got a mention or two; and flyers at local pubs and restaurants seemed like a good idea, too. But I would ask your team members where they hang out online and in real life so you get an idea of where to put your message.

Next, I asked that once a shop has their interest, what do they do? Well, sure, they told me they go check out the job posting, and then they go to the shop’s website and social media to see if they can get some idea of what the place is like. Do they know anyone there? And they want to see if it looks like a place they would even want to work at every day. They look at pictures to see if the shop’s clean. And they check out what the layout is and if people seemed like they like working there.

Many mentioned that if they saw a shop that had great reviews and pictures of a clean facility or professional staff, it got them interested. If the shop has a careers page that tells them about what it is like to work there, not just a form to fill out, it makes them feel like someone took the time address their needs. It wasn’t just another job posting page.

People like to know a lot about a business before they even think about calling or filling out an application online.

What If?

After each tech or advisor told me what they would look for, I asked them what if they could ask people who worked there now what they thought about the business. Most said that would be great, but it was somewhat unrealistic because they weren’t going to go visit a shop and talk to the staff working there.

So I showed them a shop’s career page that had a video of the team talking about what it was like to be employed there and what they liked best. The video showed the work environment so you could see that it was clean, well-lit and organized. I showed them how that same shop had a video of their customers saying why they loved coming there. I showed them a video of the shop owner telling his story about how he got started and how he treats his team and customers.

And every person I interviewed told me that they would work at that shop if they didn’t already love where they were today.

Where to Start

A storytelling video that showcases your values, your shop culture and the authentic stories of the people who work a there is one of the best ways to recruit the best talent.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you set out to produce a recruiting video. First and foremost, what is the image you want to show to potential new hires? You’ll want to present the most professional first impression you can. Include interviews with your team, but show the shop and customers, too. People want to get the full experience. A good story draws the viewer in like they are part of the action.


Patrick Egan is founder and CEO of SPARK Interactive,  which produces video services exclusively for the automotive industry, and has visited over 2,000 repair shops across North America. Egan can be reached at patrick@sparkinteractive.com.

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