The auto retail industry has been struggling with a desperate shortage of qualified technicians, and it’s a situation only made worse by the pandemic.
Dealers and dealer groups say they have been trying every trick in the book to recruit and incentivize skilled techs, but the shortages continue and threaten to get worse in the coming years as vehicle technology gets more complex and as more older techs retire.
To that end, the leaders of the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) have been regularly traveling to the Philippines for the past couple of years to not only meet but to test potential skilled techs who are interested in working in Canada.
Canadian auto dealer’s senior editor Todd Phillips interviewed Kevin Hurdis, GM, Superior Hyundai and Todd Bourgon, Exec. Director, TADA about the association’s Foreign Worker Program that is bringing skilled technicians from overseas to Ontario dealerships.
Now that the technicians have been here a couple months, they’ve already found a rhythm, and they fit in.
— Kevin Hurdis, GM, Superior Hyundai
Hurdis has successfully onboarded two technicians from the Philippines that are making a positive contribution to his dealership and are being embraced by his team and his community of Thunder Bay.
Here are some excerpts from that interview worth sharing:
Todd Bourgon: We’re helping our members fill a void that we just fill here in our own home country. It’s been well worthwhile from the association side, and the feedback that we’ve been getting from individuals like Kevin, certainly encourages us to keep going and do what we’ve been doing… We’re obviously aware that there’s lots of other companies that approach our dealers to bring foreign workers in. What we do is bring our own technical group that tests the candidates physically on site. We have our own vehicles there that we test, whether it’s for brakes or ODB scanning. We bring our own technician that is Red Seal certified in five different disciplines, teaches college and has been on the apprenticeship board in Ontario. That helps us determine whether or not the skills match the resumes and whether or not that they would be successful coming into our marketplace. So I think that’s the biggest differentiator… I think since we’ve started, we’ve been [to the Philippines] eight times and, but you know, to put in perspective, we’ve tested close to 900 candidates. I think what’s important for our members to hear too is that out of those say 900, we’ve failed over 500 of those candidates and I think we’re closer to 600. It’s because we’re physically there and we can physically watch them work and understand their thought process with scanners or can they take apart brakes, or is what they say on their resume actually what they can speak to?
Kevin Hurdis: I think Thunder Bay right now is no different than some of the other major cities, where we have just a shortage of technicians. We’re constantly advertising, constantly coming up with new ways to try and entice somebody to come on board. We’ve tried everything… There’s just a shortage of employees, good quality employees. So we went into this thinking, ’why not?’ And we couldn’t be happier that we did it. And when the need arises — we’ll certainly be doing it again. At first I was really kind of nervous going into it, but I’d have to tell you, between Todd and Rachel from JobGoSolutions, they helped us out, and it was pretty seamless… It was a pretty simple process. It really didn’t take a whole lot of time there. I thought we were gonna be caught up with red tape. But Rachel and Todd have things so well laid out, and I guess they’ve done it a few times now that there were no hiccups whatsoever. And now that the technicians have been here a couple months, they’ve already found a rhythm, and they fit in. They are great guys, and obviously know what they’re doing. You can tell they’re just grateful for the opportunity— just as grateful as we are to have them.
