Trade Secrets

Motor, Nov 2004 by Cerullo, Bob

Being short-handed is a shop owner's nightmare. But making a hasty, inadequately researched hiring decision to fill an unexpected vacancy can make things even worse.

I would like to believe that my technicians stay with me as long as they do because I try to treat them the same way I would like to be treated. Money certainly is a major factor in any employee-employer relationship, but I've found that it's not as important as the atmosphere in the shop. If the shop is a nice place to work, if the pay is competitive and the benents good, if the hours are reasonable and the technicians are treated with respect and provided the wherewithal to do their work efficiently, then the relationship can go on indefinitely.

We've had people work in our shop for over 30 years until they either retired or died. I am happy to say that I have had any number of technicians who went on to other jobs and eventually opened their own shops tell me that they cherish the memory of working in our shop because of the way they were treated.

The process of finding new technicians is anything but routine. Once, I was looking for a shop manager to replace a fellow who was abruptly forced to leave because of a family crisis. I started my search by asking other shop owners and my parts suppliers if they knew of any likely candidates. That turned out to be a dead end, so I ran some newspaper ads.

The first reply was from a fellow I'll call "Sam Slick." Sam had all the right answers to my questions when he first called about the job. He said he had managed a shop in Florida but left because he wanted to be closer to his grown son, who was living in Brooklyn. He said he was a certified master mechanic and could show me all sorts of documentation. He also told me he owned a complete set of tools.

Sam sounded very good on the phone, so I set up a meeting. During the interview I asked if he were familiar with OBD II diagnostics and he assured me he was. He said he had his own scanner with all the newest cartridges. I threw a few questions at him about trouble codes and he gave me all the right answers. I asked if he could provide references from his previous employers, to which he replied, "No problem." Sam was looking like a winner right out of the box.

Frankly, I was desperate for a replacement for the manager who had left me high and dry. I was tempted to hire Sam and have him report for work the next day, but something-I don't know what-made me tell him I'd call him after I had talked to other applicants. Sam was very gracious about that and said he'd wait for my call.

When I asked Sam about his certifications, he said his brother would be arriving here from Florida with Sam's tools and the certificates. Sam wrote down the name of the last shop at which he worked, along with the name of the town in Florida and a name and home number of the owner of the shop. He also gave me the name of a shop he said he worked in for several years before that.

When I called the number Sam had given me for the last shop where he was employed, the person who answered the phone provided a glowing reference. He said Sam had worked for him for eight years and was a great manager. He said Sam would even come in on Sunday, when they were closed, just to make sure the shop was in good shape. He told me Sam had a standing invitation to come back to work for him if he ever decided to move back to Florida.

I had never heard such a great recommendation. It was so good, in fact, I became suspicious. I asked the "boss" what town in Florida the shop was in and how to spell it. When he stumbled over the spelling, that set off warning bells in my brain.

After I hung up, I dialed information to get the number of the shop. It turned out to be different from the one Sam had given me. I immediately called and asked for the fellow to whom I had just spoken, who told me he owned the shop. A woman who answered the phone said the fellow I was asking for had not worked there in a year, and was not the owner. It turned out this woman's father was the owner.

Eventually, I got to speak to the owner of the shop, who explained that Sam had in fact worked for him for a few months, but was by no means a manager. In fact, I was told, Sam was not particularly good at anything but bouncing tires and changing mufflers. When I asked this owner about Sam's skills with a scanner, he burst out laughing. To my final question, "Would you ever rehire him?" he said simply, "No."

I had a similar experience with Sam's other reference. This time I was paying attention to see if the person who answered the phone gave the name of die shop. He did not. Sam had obviously set up a few of his friends to masquerade as shop owners and provide glowing references. This shop owner told me I'd be making a big mistake if I hired Sam for anything. He concurred with the first shop owner's assessment of Sam's abilities. During the course of our conversation, he also stated that he believed Sam had a drinking problem.

If I had not taken the time to do some investigating, I probably would have hired Sam, then discovered, in a short time, that he was a phony.