Employee turnover can make or break an auto repair shop. You invest a lot of time, effort, and money into your employees and when they leave, your return on investment essentially disappears. Clients may even follow a good mechanic from shop to shop, meaning that you can see a drop in business when employee turnover is too high. Short of locking your employees into harsh contracts (which will only further diminish their satisfaction levels), how do you retain your staff from year-to-year? Here's how to reduce employee turnover in your auto shop and create an environment for keeping happy, loyal employees.
3 Things You Can Do to Reduce Employee Turnover Today
One: Create an Employee Engagement Strategy
Many employers overlook the need for creating an employee engagement strategy. Putting one in place will help you be more effective in engaging your employees and helping them to succeed, which in turn will help to drastically reduce turnover and increase retention. To get you started on coming up with your own strategy, here are a few easy employee engagement ideas you can adopt right now:
- Let your staff know that management is there to help them succeed, and will have their back day-to-day.
- Encourage them to uphold your company’s values when interacting with customers and when conducting behind-the-scenes work.
- Make sure that they have the tools they need to succeed.
Two: Invest in Continuing Education
If you want your employees to know that you value them and the skills that they bring to the table at your auto repair shop, consider creating a budget for continued education or additional licensing. Not only is continued education proven to increase individuals’ confidence and their overall mental and physical health, it also benefits your shop in the long run.
By investing in additional certification opportunities for your staff, you bring new skill sets into your shop. The new services that you'll be able to offer, such as specialization in luxury cars, can become marketing points that will help your business to thrive.
Three: Promote Work-Life Balance
Although you may wish it were otherwise, your team likely does not want to live to work. It is important that your staff feels like they have the ability to prioritize the crazy, messy, and unpredictable things that life may throw at them from time to time. Consider offering a flexible schedule to employees who may need to work non-traditional hours in order to care for a child or elderly family member. Encourage your team to make the most of their paid time off, because a healthy work-life balance will help prevent burnout and increase employee happiness in the workplace.
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