Page 18 - Australasian Paint & Panel March-April 2022

18
Staff Retention
PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2022
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
“I think the most important thing, from a staff perspective, is that you have to understand that they’re not just peo- ple that come to work, do the job and go home – they’re people that have needs and their own issues to deal with. So you try and understand people, and get them to understand you as well.
“I think that the longer people stay here, the better off everybody is.”
Some of Phipps’ staff incentives in- clude regular prize raffles, ‘ice-cream days’, engraved watches and crystal clocks for long-term staff, and an annual Christmas Awards Dinner, with trophies awarded to staff. This includes making sure partners are involved.
Staff training is another retention ini- tiative. Apart from improving the busi- ness, people feel good about improving their personal knowledge and skills.
Some shops don’t think they have time to train, but the reality is they don’t have time to not.
“We’re lucky, because we’re not look- ing for staff, and there aren’t too many people in this business who can say the same at the moment,” he says. “So I’m really happy about that.”
SMART REPAIR AUSTRALIA
Michael Cross, from Smart Repair Aus- tralia based in Smeaton Grange, NSW also cites poaching as a huge problem that is having negative knock-on effects.
“The grass is not always greener, and we’ve had people leave us and then later beg us for their jobs back, going, ‘We wish we would’ve stayed, we wish we would’ve listened, this was the best job we’ve ever had’. But they burn their bridges, unfortunately,” he says. “Some
companies get desperate, and they just spin any line they can to try and get staff, but then that staffer stays for three months, and they don’t care what hap- pens to them after that.
“We’re trying to retain our good staff forever. But it’s hard to compete against companies that are promising the world, and who don’t deliver.”
Cross agrees that the industry is suf- fering from a shortage of quality trades- men at present, and cites a lack of immi- gration to Australia as a contributing factor. “No quality tradesmen have emi- grated to Australia, so there’s very few all around,” he says.
Cross trains new apprentices to ad- dress this problem.
“Our goal is to have 20 apprentices in the next couple of years – we have six or so with us at the moment,” he says. “We
We want people to feel
good when they come to work, and we want
them to be proud of their workspace. That’s been a big winner for us”
just want to keep bringing apprentices through and try and do what we can for the industry as a whole.
“It’s really important for all of us to put some apprentices in place, and start bringing in new blood.”
Rather than have a messy shop where “everyone’s covered in fog dust and paint, and someone’s sitting in the corner with a smoke, bagging out apprentices and asking them to get the left-handed screwdriver”, Cross believes in keeping a clean shop with a welcoming vibe.
“A quality workshop is now a clean, tidy, and beautiful workshop,” he says. “If you have shops that are clean and personable, it’s more favourable in terms of attracting staff.
“We want people to feel good when they come to work, and we want them to be proud of their workspace. That’s been a big winner for us.”
In terms of keeping his core staff loy- al, Cross says it comes down to things like offering a lot of flexibility and oper- ating with good old-fashioned kindness,
RIGHT: Smart Repair Australia believes investing in training creates loyal staff BELOW: Awards night for the Wayne Phipps Smash Repairs crew.