The market for ambitious technicians able to work on a variety of powertrains is only set to become more competitive, which means dealer groups and franchised networks must get working on their employer brand, advises AM's regular columnist Professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry.
For a lot of young people their work journey is very different to those of my peers. Young professionals seem to be wanting to move every two to three years looking for the next opportunity. If they are good at their job companies are prepared to tie them in with either golden handcuffs or some form of share option.
I was discussing this with Jo Hollingdale, the careers and student membership manager at the IMI, and she confirmed that this attitude also applied to many of technical apprentices that she encountered as part of the annual skills competitions.
My generation strived to carve out a career in a stable organisation that gave some scope for development. By comparison the research shows that today’s young people are employment migrants. Young professional people seem to be spending around two to three years in an organisation and then moving on if the opportunity for development and promotion isn’t available.
I found this really interesting because the sector has been struggling to recruit young people into the technical side of the industry, but I had just heard that Vertu Toyota in Leicester had had 150 applicants for one standard technical apprenticeship.
How do you square the situation where we have a challenge in recruiting, yet this particular opportunity was so oversubscribed?
Over the next few years, we are going to need what I have previously described as omnicompetent technicians who have experience of working on vehicles with a variety of power trains from legacy ICE vehicles, through hybrids of all different types and onto pure BEV and possibly even hydrogen.
If you are a manufacturer that only offers one power train this would be less attractive to the ambitious technician.
As Tesla demonstrated last year with an online recall of three million cars in the US with none of them coming back to the retailer, the opportunity for traditional technicians with pure BEV OEMs may be limited.
My analysis may be wrong, but I believe that certain companies will be more attractive to the ambitious technician than others. If they are looking to progress across and through the industry the more transferable skills you have will allow you to stand out but also move between a wider range of opportunities both in the UK and globally.
Over the next few years these people will be highly soughtt after. Already many technicians are having to be paid higher rates than have previously been encountered. Being an attractive employer that can offer the widest development opportunities across the widest range of power trains and connective technologies will give a competitive advantage over other more limited providers.
Too often we regard sales people as being highly motivated but, as Jo Hollingdale said as we finished talking, ‘don’t forget technicians are ambitious and driven too.’
Author: Professor Jim Saker
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