127 - Fix Your Hiring Woes: How Smart Shops Attract and Keep the Right People

127 - Fix Your Hiring Woes: How Smart Shops Attract and Keep the Right People

June 18th, 2025 - 00:57:07

 

Show Summary:

In this insightful episode, Jimmy Lea of The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence is joined by Brian Burris of Promotive and Mike Grosse of Glen’s Auto to tackle one of the biggest challenges in the automotive aftermarket: hiring and retaining top technician talent. Mike shares his journey from shop helper to shop owner and the influence of mentorship and industry support. Brian walks through the detailed processes Promotive uses to match technicians with shop culture. Together, they explore strategies like working interviews, career path planning, and internal training to build sustainable, high-performing teams. Their conversation offers actionable advice for shop owners seeking to grow without compromising culture or quality.

 

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

 

Guest(s):

Brian Burris, Account Manager of Promotive 

Mike Grosse, President of Glenn's Auto Service 

 

Episode Highlights:

[00:04:53] Mike Grosse shares how he accidentally stayed in the automotive industry after taking a part-time job post-high school.

[00:07:35] Encouraged by a mentor, Mike climbed from sweeping floors to owning Glen’s Auto.

[00:13:02] Mike explains how his late mentor supported changes like marketing and tech upgrades despite an old-school mindset.

[00:16:04] Brian Burris explains how Promotive tailors recruiting by deeply understanding a shop’s culture through intake calls.

[00:17:59] Common red flags in candidates include mismatched experience and badmouthing previous employers.

[00:21:20] Mike emphasizes patience in hiring and the importance of job-specific and personal questions to uncover true fit.

[00:24:09] Brian stresses the value of speed in hiring and keeping communication open to maintain a talent bench.

[00:34:00] Working interviews and technician walkthroughs are powerful tools to assess cultural and technical compatibility.

[00:47:12] Building career paths and training plans help retain and grow technicians into long-term contributors.

[00:54:22] Mike and Brian share what they'd change in the industry: more young people entering the trade and reviving technician passion.

 

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?

Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAj_C4fGSBA

 

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or goodnight depending on where and when you are joining us today. It is a beautiful day outside. I'm so excited to be here with you, my friend. So thank you to everybody who's here and joining. Whether you are watching it live or watching the recording, we so appreciate you as we lock arms together to make sure that we are building a better business with each other, resulting in a better life and a better industry.

Jimmy Lea: That is the mantra here for the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence is to build a better business for you as a shop owner, a better business for you as a service advisor, a better business for you as part of the industry. And by building a better business, it results in a better life for you as a shop owner, a better life for your advisors, your managers, your parts people, your tech.

Jimmy Lea: Nations, it's a better life for them and their families and their spouses and their extended family. It results. It's a really big ripple effect that happens. And the net result of all of this is that we work together to build a better industry. So I'm very excited to be here with you today.

Jimmy Lea: My guest today as we get here together. Joining us first is Mr. Brian Burris. Brian joins us from Promotive. Brian, good to have you with me, brother. Good morning. How's Atlanta, Georgia? 

Brian Burris: It is beautiful as always, sir. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, speaking of 85 in Alaska, what is your temperature in Atlanta today? 83 in Bert. 83 in humid.

Jimmy Lea: What's your humidity factor? 

Brian Burris: Oh, it's 83 probably. We've had a lot of rain recently, so. Oh, 

Jimmy Lea: a lot of rain. Yeah. Nice. Well, and you're recently returning to Atlanta. Congratulations. 

Brian Burris: Thank you. 

Jimmy Lea: Always good to move back home, isn't it? 

Brian Burris: Yes, sir. Yeah, absolutely. 

Jimmy Lea: How long have you been with Promotive now, Brian?

Brian Burris: Just over a year actually. End of May was a year with them, so. 

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations. And you got your promotional t-shirt I see. 

Brian Burris: Yes. We get that after you have to 

Jimmy Lea: be there for a year and then you get your t-shirt, right? Correct.

Jimmy Lea: With the institute you have to close 10 deals before you get a backpack, so Oh, there you go. Now you know.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Welcome, Brian. Glad to have you here with us. I'm so excited to talk about what you're doing in the industry to help. Shop owners because there is a huge shortage in the industry. So those that are here currently are the ones that we want to elevate and bring them to the top. And speaking of phenomenal shops, phenomenal shop owners.

Jimmy Lea: Our guest today is Brian Gross and he is with Glen's Auto down in California. Mike, welcome. Good to have you here with us brother. 

Mike Grosse: Good morning, Jimmy. Good morning. 

Jimmy Lea: Brian. Mike. And you sound so good, Mike. I'm loving this microphone you got, I'm gonna thank you for all of that.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude, this is awesome. How's the shop there, Glen's Auto? 

Mike Grosse: It's, you know, we're pressing forward. It's been a little quiet as of late, but guys have work to do, so that's good. 

Jimmy Lea: That's good. That's good. And what's the makeup of your shop, Mike? What does that look like? 

Mike Grosse: It's a pretty small shop, little four bay shop.

Mike Grosse: Got one advisor, two techs, and and I'm kind of the floater, you know, I just wander around wherever I'm needed and that's really about it. Yep. 

Jimmy Lea: Yep. It's that all the hats that you get to wear. Good manner. Rural shop, four, four bays, two techs, one service advisor. Are you looking at expanding?

Jimmy Lea: Are you wanting three techs or four techs? What are you looking at? 

Mike Grosse: You know, I think if I could ever have any more help down here might be some support for my advisor and possibly somebody to help support the technicians. But as far as growing the shop, I'm quite comfortable with where it's at.

Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Two techs, each tech has two bays. That's a beautiful thing. So as you're waiting for parts on one, you can be working on another. You don't have to push in, pull out. There's a lot of shops where it's one for one. Oh, yeah. Makes it challenging. Makes it very challenging. Sure does. Hey, Mike I wanna go back a little bit in history to talk about your experience in the automotive aftermarket.

Jimmy Lea: How did you get started? What did that look like when you entered into the industry? 

Mike Grosse: I actually kind of got here on ac I stayed here on accident, I guess. This was, you know, coming to work here was just you know, I'd just gotten outta high school and was looking for some part-time work while I was going to college and I never left.

Mike Grosse: It just turned into a full-time job and you know, I. Never had much formal education. I had a great mentor who was a phenomenal technician and he just kind of took me under his wing and showed me the way. 

Jimmy Lea: So, wow. Mike, that's a similar entry point as to what I experienced. You got a job as you were there and attending college and you just stuck.

Mike Grosse: Yep. 

Jimmy Lea: I say that I entered the industry 'cause I lost a bet. I.

Mike Grosse: But did you really lose? 

Jimmy Lea: No. Well, I lost the bet, but I gained a beautiful industry that is phenomenal. There's so much love in the automotive aftermarket. There's so much integrity and so much charity. That's here in this industry and care and focus on people that Yes. In the end I'm a winner.

Jimmy Lea: Correct. And I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you very much for that perspective, Mike. So you started as were, did you start as a technician in the shop or did you start at the front counter? What did that look like? No 

Mike Grosse: I had no idea what I was doing. I slung tires around at a Firestone for a few years, and I thought I was the fastest tire changer in the west.

Mike Grosse: But 

Jimmy Lea: you probably were, came, 

Mike Grosse: I came over here just as a shop helper. I mean, I did everything from sweeping floors to changing oil to. Cleaning the stock room out picking up parts, dropping off customers. I just, I did whatever I was told. So, yeah. And then ended up just working more in the shop.

Mike Grosse: There was actually quite a few employees here when I first came to work here, and, the culture was pretty good and I, you know, I got a lot of guidance from all the technicians that were in here. There was every, everybody was really helpful in guiding me along and educating me and showing me the ropes.

Jimmy Lea: So, oh, that, that's awesome. So you advanced from being the gopher. Go for this. Go for that. Go for this. Go get this. Go get that. Sweep this, sweep that, clean this, clean that inventory. This inventory that you went from being the goer to the shop owner. I. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah. Yep. Lot of pressure applied to me from the previous owner.

Mike Grosse: You know, not pressure I shouldn't say it that way. A lot of encouragement you know, to go out and get those ASEs classes after work at night, getting involved with those, getting my smog license and. You know, at that point, you know, I was being taught how to troubleshoot vehicles, diagnose.

Mike Grosse: And then that led into working at the front counter learning how to write service and just figuring out how to put it all together. And the opportunity presented itself for me to buy into the place. And never really thought I was gonna be a auto repair shop owner, but I think I was more afraid of leaving here to go work for somebody else.

Mike Grosse: And so I took the plunge and here I am. You know, it's been a, been kind of a wild ride, seeing a lot of ups and downs and probably the first 10, 15 years more downs than ups, but, you know, with the help of a lot of people in this industry we've managed to turn things around. 

Jimmy Lea: So it's a good place to be.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it sure is. And you know what I hear right there, Mike, and this is a joke I. For your job security, you just went ahead and bought the shop? Yeah, pretty much.

Jimmy Lea: I don't know if I can do anything else, so I'm just gonna buy the shop and yeah, that, that's job security right there now but did, how quickly did you discover that the skillset you have inside the bays, the skillset you have behind the front desk, behind the counter is a different skillset to.

Jimmy Lea: Shop ownership, business ownership.

Mike Grosse: I have a lot of these and I just, yeah, a lot of hats. 

Jimmy Lea: You wear a lot of 

Mike Grosse: hats and anybody out there that owns a shop knows that oh yeah. And you know, you have to be able to juggle it all around. And it's, it comes with its set of challenges. That's for sure. 

Jimmy Lea: How long did you trudge this on your own? And who was there to help you along the way when you first started out as the owner? Was the previous owner there with you, block, step, side by side, or was it good luck? Here's the deep end. 

Mike Grosse: No, as a matter of fact the the unwritten contract that we had was that basically I would show up for work one day and I'd get a new hat that said Boss and and Bill, who was the previous owner he became my advisor, my bookkeeper I mean, he was everything.

Mike Grosse: He stayed here to make sure that I didn't fail. And he was kind of old school. It was it became challenging because his way of thinking again, was kind of old school. You know, everything was word of mouth. He didn't, although he was real techie he didn't understand the value of.

Mike Grosse: Having a website and you know, all the things that come along with that marketing. And and I think that's where I started running into my struggles because I didn't know how to fix my broken business. But he was very helpful in making sure all the bills were paid on time and that. He'd kick me in the fanny if there wasn't enough money in the account and he'd tell me to just work harder.

Mike Grosse: Yeah. So, and that was that lasted for a long time. He he left us about three years ago and I didn't retire him until about three months before he passed. I almost refused to do it. He was just such a huge part of this operation and miss him a lot. So, 

Jimmy Lea: oh yeah, for sure. And it's awesome that you get to continue the legacy and continue the journey, the story the company, the culture.

Jimmy Lea: You get to continue that legacy that was established once upon a time and now you are the torch bearer. Yep. And enjoying it. Well, good for you. Oh, that's awesome. So as you step in and you took over I could see that there's probably, a lot of opportunities. Wrong word occurrences, where you probably locked horns with Bill from old school.

Jimmy Lea: This is what works. This is what I've done for 35, 45, 50 years to where you're wanting to introduce technology, software, modern marketing. 

Mike Grosse: He wasn't, you know, he wasn't really, he wasn't really opposed to the changes when they started coming. He really embraced them. The thing with him is he just didn't know how to guide me into doing that.

Mike Grosse: You know, it was through our local auto association and other shop owners. They were the ones that actually took me under their wing and. Led me down a different path, but as I started bringing this information back to the shop bill was quite helpful in getting it implemented and in place.

Mike Grosse: And I, I didn't get, I didn't get any pushback from him there whatsoever. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So the auto association that you were involved in was the A-S-C-C-A? 

Mike Grosse: That's correct. 

Jimmy Lea: Were you working with like John and Rocky, or who was it that 

Mike Grosse: Rocky was in our chapter when I joined TSU. Tida Love tsu.

Mike Grosse: He was love Rocky. He was probably the biggest cheerleader. If anybody knows tsu he's a cheerleader and he's a champ. He really yeah, he was my big, he was the big pusher for me. And I, you know, I'm very thankful for him, for everything that he's ever done for me. So, yeah, 

Jimmy Lea: he's expanded his kingdom here recently.

Jimmy Lea: I think he has a second shop now. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah, he does. He does. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 

Mike Grosse: Running two shops now. I you know, again, my hat's off to him. I, it's being an MSO is not for everyone. So. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, and that I was gonna ask you that, Mike, are you looking at. Expanding your kingdom, are you wanting to add to the footprint or do you think you're comfortable where you are at the moment?

Mike Grosse: I think I'm pretty comfortable. You know, I don't wanna say I've ever considered it. It certainly has crossed my mind a time or two. But, you know, I don't know, I don't know what the future holds. You know, I'm getting old. And I, you know, I just don't know if that would be a good move, Brian.

Mike Grosse: What does that 

Jimmy Lea: make us? If he thinks he's old? 

Mike Grosse: Oh, yeah. I'm just not sure if I'm, you know, prepared for that. So, but you know, he can only, each individual can only handle so much and I'm not sure if another shop is in my wheelhouse, but, 

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Well, and if it does come to that and you do look at expanding the kingdom.

Jimmy Lea: And adding additional shops to what you're doing. Gosh, man, reach out. We'd love to help you out with what that looks like and how you can build onto what you've already developed and built. 

Mike Grosse: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: And that goes right into what we're talking about today is if you were to lose one of the two technicians you have, yeah, you could step in for a minute, but you've gotta replace that person fairly quickly.

Jimmy Lea: If you are adding to the kingdom, and now you've got a second location, a third location, a fourth location, you've gotta have somebody like a Brian Burris, a promotive on your side to help you find the right people that are qualified. So that you can now go in and interview them. And so Brian, my question for you from a a recruiter's point of view, how do you define a company's culture clear enough to be able to hire for that?

Jimmy Lea: Do you know Mike's shop so well that you're able to hire for or qualify or interview candidates to match his culture? Or how do you do that? What's your process, Brian? 

Brian Burris: So initially when, whenever someone signs up with a promotive we will set up an intake call. So that intake call, I had one yesterday.

Brian Burris: It was two hours long. Just learning the the shop's culture and what they were looking for in a technician. Building that relationship with the shop owner and myself and the other account managers we get a good idea of what they're looking for. What the culture of the shop is, and we try to plug and play that.

Brian Burris: We'll go through hundreds of candidates before we send somebody that we think is a good fit. If we send somebody that you know isn't a good fit, Mike would come back to me and say, Hey, here's some red flags from me and let's pivot moving forward. And the recruiting team will also do the same. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, that's interesting.

Jimmy Lea: Brian, from a a red flag point of view, what are some of the common red flags that you see from other shops? Or maybe it's something that you've seen even from Glen's Automotive. What are some of those non-negotiables that you see with a lot of shops? 

Brian Burris: One thing is, it's a common occurrence is when we have a candidate we're screening them.

Brian Burris: We're asking about their experience as well. And when they go into a shop, their experience doesn't match their resume. That happens all the time. And then we also see the candidates. Unfortunately speaking bad about the previous employer, that's a red flag usually from any shop out there. When you go into an interview, you're not, you don't wanna be the one sitting there talking bad about your previous employer, your current employer.

Brian Burris: What if that technician leaves you? What are they gonna say about the job? 

Jimmy Lea: That's the story that I'm hearing is I don't want to be the next bad story that you're telling to your next employer. Correct. So there's a red flag that says Yeah. No. Next. Yeah. So do you hear that in the prequalification interviews that eliminates them?

Jimmy Lea: Or is it on to mike to listen for those indicators? 

Brian Burris: So we do ask a ton of questions when we're pre-screening or vetting a candidate for a shop. The recruiters will actually, we have a section for internal use only. They'll put red flags in of stuff that you know, we necessarily wouldn't send to a shop.

Brian Burris: But again, the recruiters vetting that person. I know Mike, I know what he is looking for. And those red flags I won't send to Canada. I'm not gonna waste Mike's time. Setting up an interview if there are things that Mike and I have discussed that you know, he doesn't want, that's where the buck stops with me.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and Mike, to your shop and to your experience, I want to talk about a success and then talk about a failure. Maybe we talk about a failure first. Have you ever hired somebody into your shop that disrupted your culture, and what did you learn from that? 

Mike Grosse: I haven't had anybody in here that had, I mean, that was just completely the opposite of what our culture is.

Mike Grosse: Most of the issues that I've had with people that I've hired is just their inability. You know, there, there's, I have different personality types that work for me now. Everybody seems to get along pretty good with one another. Every once in a while, you know, I have to intervene. You know, maybe we forget about our lines of communication around here, but having just a really rotten banana in my basket is not something that I've had to deal with yet.

Jimmy Lea: That's lucky, Mike. That's really good. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah I've heard horror stories, so, oh, 

Jimmy Lea: I yeah. You gotta what's the saying you gotta be slow to hire and quick to fire. Oh, yeah. I think that's what I've heard. Gary V say that quite a bit. The question. Whoops. Question for you, Mike. And then Brian, same question for you.

Jimmy Lea: And this is a comment that's coming in from Sherman. What are the top three hiring tips that you've got that you can share here? Mike, what are your top three hiring tips? And then Brian will ask you the same question. 

Mike Grosse: I think the first thing for me is patience. Don't. Don't fall in love with somebody on the first interview.

Mike Grosse: Take it slow, but not too slow for sight's, 

Jimmy Lea: not a thing. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah. You know, take it a little slow, not too slow because you know, you might not be the only person interviewing that candidate. The other thing that I would have to say is think about the position you're hiring for. 

Jimmy Lea: Okay. 

Mike Grosse: And compile.

Mike Grosse: A really good list of questions job related questions and also you know, personal questions. Get to know the person a little bit on a personal level. If they're a chatterbox like me, you'll get them to almost forget that they're in an interview and then just start talking openly and candidly.

Mike Grosse: And you can oftentimes. Really see somebody's true colors when you can get 'em to just open up and start chatting. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah. The more you can get that candidate to be the one talking, the better off. You're gonna have a field if it's working or not. Brian, same question to you.

Jimmy Lea: What are your top three hiring tips for 

Brian Burris: going back to what Mike said there. They're not just meeting with you. You know, that's one of the questions that we asked during our prescreen of vetting is, how many other applications do you have? Do you have any offers on the table? Any of that. So circling back to that, it's speed to lead.

Brian Burris: We, that's the saying we use almost every day. We've gotta be fast on these candidates. If they're good, we need to get 'em in front of the shop owners as quick as possible that we're working with. Because there's other dealerships you may not be. Offering the most you know, hourly or flat rate, whatever it may be.

Brian Burris: But if the FR culture fit is good, they're gonna pick you. So sell your shop on that. So speed of lead the questions that we use can be edited per se. We ask tons of questions, like, if I send somebody over from Mike, we're ask him, you know, how much do you have in tools? Ask those tough questions upfront.

Brian Burris: Ask, what do you think your level is of diagnostic being electrical drivability on a scale of one to 10? That's one of the questions that we ask as well. So we try to get as much information as we can upfront before we sit 'em to the tech, to the shop. Secondly, I would say, you know, keep the communication open.

Brian Burris: Even if you're not, it doesn't work out. Right. They take another job over you. We see it day in and day out where a technician won't accept your offer, but they accept somebody else's. And they always thought that grass was greener on the other side. Turns out it wasn't. So we see that a lot as well. So again, keeping communication open with that candidate is key.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, and I'd like to call that building a bench. Absolutely. So as a as the coach. You've gotta build a bench of technicians that you're engaging with and you just keep in touch. Once a month you reach out and say, Hey, how's it going? How's the shop? Oh man, I'm so glad you're having success over there.

Jimmy Lea: It sounds like you're doing really well. Oh my gosh, whatever. But eventually there might be an opportunity that comes back around. And Mike, you may lose one of your technicians at the shop. Maybe he has to move back home to Wisconsin, take care of mom and dad, or whatever the case is. If you've got a bench of people that you can pluck from, makes that interview process much shorter.

Jimmy Lea: I. Correct, correct. Yeah. 

Mike Grosse: And I do keep a, I do keep a file. I try to keep good, clear notes and right on the top of the page, you know, I, you know, you might put on there something you know, might wanna follow up with this guy you know, in the future. Yeah, I've got one guy in particular that I really liked.

Mike Grosse: And although we couldn't come to terms I text him once every couple of months just to see how he's doing, and he's chatty he'll get back with me and you know, would he ever be the right fit for my shop? I don't know. But there was something that we liked about one another. And you know, again you never know what life brings you.

Mike Grosse: So, and like you said, you could have a technician that just might wake up having a bad day one day and decide that it's time to move on, so, oh, yeah. Yeah. It's nice to keep that, you know, keep all those candidates in a warm pool. 

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. And Tim, Ian's probably got one of the best stories that I heard recently about a technician wanting to come back to the shop.

Jimmy Lea: He expanded the shop just to bring this guy back in. Oh my gosh. What a beautiful experience. And this technician that is returning to the shop is now taking on an apprentice and teaching the industry as well. Yeah, phenomenal. I love it. I love it. Okay. Question has come in here, and this is a question for both of you.

Jimmy Lea: Coming from Angel, what kind of questions would you recommend for a non technician? Somebody like me, I'm not technically skilled. Somebody like you Mike, you know, technical questions, you know the technical things to ask and Brian, maybe you do as well, but for me, I'm not a technician. I'm not master certified.

Jimmy Lea: What kind of questions can someone who's non-technical ask a technician candidate? 

Mike Grosse: Ah, let's see. Well, if I, maybe I'm gonna read into this a little too much, but if if Angel happens to be a shop owner that has no technical background I would probably confide with whoever your lead tech is at that time, who does have the experience, let them compile a list of those questions.

Mike Grosse: And again, it kind of depends on what skillset you're hiring for. I mean, if you're looking for a rockstar bumper to bumper guy, if you already have one of those guys, have them put the questions together. If you don't network you know, most of us know other shop owners who are, you know, some of us doing better than others reach out.

Mike Grosse: That would be my recommendation. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. And Angel, where are you from? I'm Go, oh, chapel Hill, North Carolina. So, angel, make sure that you are part of the association there. Asta. Asta is a phenomenal association. They have a very strong membership. And if technical is not your background.

Jimmy Lea: They will definitely help you and Mike to your point if you've got a master tech creating your questions, also make sure he gives you some appropriate answers that are good answers, that this is what we're looking for. For sure. This is good. This is mediocre, and this is somebody who just doesn't have a clue what you just asked.

Mike Grosse: Yeah. Yep. 

Jimmy Lea: Brian, what about you? What would you say is advice for the non-technical to ask a technical person? 

Brian Burris: You know, going back to what Mike said getting another team member or, you know, a peer involved with those questions, we do provide a lot of questions for you. I get it quite a bit.

Brian Burris: I actually had a shop yesterday ask me, he is like, Hey what can I not ask? I was like, oh, there, there's a whole list of stuff. He is like, what about politics? What about. I'm like, stay away. Don't do that. Yeah, you can't go there. No, he was just joking with me. But we can also help you with that. I do ask, get that question from shop owners quite a bit of, you know, what are your thoughts on this guy?

Brian Burris: Or, you know, what are some questions I could ask? And I've actually typed up an interview just bullet points for a shop owner for him to go over with a service advisor or a technician. I've been both. So, granted it's been many years, but I still turn a wrench in the garage with my house. But and I'll even call a shop too.

Brian Burris: Hey I'll call Mike and be like, Hey, what would you ask this guy? Or Can you help this other shop owner out as well? 

Jimmy Lea: And Angel's gone a little bit deeper into this, so this is even getting even better. This is a prescreening of a technician. They've got 13 different stores, 13 different shops. So what are some good question?

Jimmy Lea: Culture questions, team questions for someone to ask to find out which culture of all these different stores is the appropriate to go into. So 

Mike Grosse: trying to place him in the correct store. 

Jimmy Lea: Him or her. 

Mike Grosse: Him or her. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. There's, I know the Institute has some information on what am I thinking about assessing people's personality types, the DISC personality test, the disc personality test.

Mike Grosse: That might be a good place to start giving them that test. And also, and again, it's not something that we've done here, but I know a lot of shop owners do it. Doing that within your current staff and getting to better understand their personality types and then give that same test to incoming candidates that could help right there.

Mike Grosse: Trying just by doing that, figuring out which store would be a good fit for these incoming candidates. 

Jimmy Lea: Brian, what about you? 

Brian Burris: You know, that's a great tool. I have quite a few shops out there that we work with that use the disc. And we'll have the candidate complete that prior to them, you know, being sent over to the owner.

Brian Burris: We do ask some questions, you know, what are you looking for in, in a new shop? You know, it's stability, work-life balance, culture. You know, some of the guys they work with are toxic and management won't do anything about it, so they're gonna move on, unfortunately. Yeah. So those are some questions I would ask as well to make sure that you match up.

Brian Burris: 13 stores is a lot, so. 

Jimmy Lea: Which is also really good. You've got a lot of opportunity of retaining that talent because you've got different options for him or her to go to. As an option though. Well, if it doesn't work out at this shop, I've got 12 others and I've got three that I think you would be a very good fit for.

Jimmy Lea: So let's talk about what this looks like. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that's good. That's good. So Andrew types in with a really interesting question as well when it comes to interviewing technical technicians. Have you ever had a what does he say? A senior tech sit in on technical questions in the interview?

Jimmy Lea: Mike, have you ever done that? 

Mike Grosse: Yeah, I did that one time about a year and a half ago. I did have my lead tech really I. Conduct the majority of the interview. And we ended, we did end up hiring the guy. But I don't think I asked enough of the cultural questions. He was kind of a, you know, just in it for himself.

Mike Grosse: But 

Jimmy Lea: oh geez, 

Mike Grosse: You know, but having my lead tech. Interview him from a technical standpoint. The guy was, he was savvy. He knew what he was doing. So, 

Jimmy Lea: so you were looking for an a tech and you had an a tech interview to make sure that you were pulling in the right person. 

Mike Grosse: Correct. 

Jimmy Lea: There you go, Andrew.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah I think that's phenomenal. Brian, 

Brian Burris: real quick, so I wanted to mention something that I've seen a lot more lately is I. Working interviews where they come in for, you know, four hours or whatnot, but you get 'em in there with the team that they're gonna be working with every day. Get feedback from your current team so you're not throwing that toxic person in there and potentially losing your other, you know, great techs who's been with you forever.

Brian Burris: One shop that I worked with in Oregon will actually the shop in a row do their first initial interview, and then they'll just throw 'em out in the shop. Just do walkthrough, put 'em up with your senior tech or, you know, the. The head guy in the shop or gal and get the feedback from them, see if he's gonna work, ask those technical questions.

Brian Burris: You know, your tech can, you're not in a office bubble of the interview, right? The pressure of the owner staring at you. They're gonna open up a lot more with that fellow technician or fellow service advisor about their personality and if they're gonna fit or not. So working interviews is great. And just do you wanna a walkthrough with the shop?

Brian Burris: You know, you'll learn a lot about that candidate. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, and so you two, two different ideas here. Brian, one is a walkthrough of the shop, but what about also a working interview? Technician comes in and works for the day to see how he j he or she jives with the whole team. Do you do that?

Jimmy Lea: Is that Yes. Appropriate? 

Brian Burris: Absolutely. It happens. And do you pay for 

Jimmy Lea: that day of work? 

Brian Burris: So the, typically the shop owner will pay. Cash, right? So they're taking their time off. They're using PTO or whatever. Sure there is a form of payment. Sure. You know what I mean? To pay them for that time. Again, working side by side with the guys you're, or gals you're gonna be out with in the shop every day is good.

Brian Burris: And then get that feedback. So it happens quite a bit. 

Jimmy Lea: I like that. I like that. What do you think, Mike? Working interview? 

Mike Grosse: I think it's a good idea. But you know, again, sometimes you're. In most cases, we're dealing with people that are currently employed and, you know, depending on how their work schedule is.

Mike Grosse: I, I mean, I've interviewed people that, you know, may have one day off during the week and then they work on a Saturday. We're a Monday through Friday shop, so we're not open on the weekend. So if I had a guy that had a Wednesday or a Thursday offer, whichever day guy or gal I could bring them in and do a working interview.

Mike Grosse: I. But at this point, I did have one entry level guy come in a couple of years ago on a day off, and he came in and worked for us. But yeah I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea if it works out for the candidate. If it works, yeah. With their schedule. So I'm a pretty compassionate person.

Mike Grosse: I, you know, I hate the thought of having somebody quit their job and come to work for me, and then after eight hours, I. You just cut the Yeah, cut the cord. So, 

Jimmy Lea: I've heard all those horror stories, Mike. I've heard technicians that failed to even show up for the first day of work. I've heard of technicians that show up for the first day of work, go to lunch and never come back.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I've heard of those stories. So yeah, it would be very powerful from a stability point of view, from a tech point of view to make sure that they're a good fit and a working interview, whatever compensation it is that you work out with that technician for the working interview, I think it is well worth it.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. Yeah. Brian, question for you. Now, this comes from Kevin. Kevin's asking, are there personal questions that you are not legally allowed to ask? And I think that there's probably a plethora of, I. Questions, thou shalt not ask. This is 

Brian Burris: correct. Yeah. So there's a list of questions that our recruiters stick with.

Brian Burris: Angel put a link in there. Thank you for that. EEOC is definitely, you know, your hrs best friend gender, race, religion, you know, all the top ones. Politics. Politics, yeah. Stuff to stay away from. 

Jimmy Lea: What about drugs? Drug use, personal recreational time. 

Brian Burris: So we do ask that as well. 'cause you know, obviously it's getting more and more free out there of each by state.

Brian Burris: We do ask, you know, are you able to pass a background check or are you able to pass a D drug screen? Do you have a clean driver's license? They're very forthcoming sometimes on what we hear from the candidates of their background or, Hey, I don't do it at work, but I do it at night. So that's stuff that we would provide.

Brian Burris: All you can ask is just would you be willing to take it? Are there any concerns if you were to take a background check or a pre-employment drug screen? Nice. Nice. That's how you word it? Yeah, 

Jimmy Lea: it's proper wording. Can you ask about children and spouses or girlfriends or divorced or family questions in general?

Brian Burris: I would do not ask about that. That's some things that we do not ask on our end. If they're forthcoming with it, you can pick it up, you know, Hey, I've got a family and daycare and all that, but you cannot outright Aztec.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Go ahead and type them in the chat. This has been very interactive. This is quite the conversation that we've had here on a two-way conversation. This is good. It's really good. What other items, Mike, would you suggest that as an industry we need to pay attention to?

Mike Grosse: Oh, to pay attention to. That's a good question. You're really gonna scramble my noodle to try to think of an answer for that. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, maybe we can go to Brian first and you can noodle on that. Thanks, Mike. Thanks Jimmy. Uhhuh 

Brian Burris: light's on you. I would say the culture, you know, when I started in a shop.

Brian Burris: 20 plus years ago. And a lot's changed, let's put it that way. Evolving with the times these technicians that are still in the industry are getting older, right? We've got the young bucks coming up, they ranks and they're not the same mindset. The mindset as the technician that was there 40 years, that's 70 years old now and.

Brian Burris: You know, got arthritis in his hands and back and knees. You've gotta change with the times. Unfortunately. I know some of us like to get stuck in our ways and it's hard, but to keep this industry thriving with the younger generation, we need to make sure we, you know, not coddle, but I don't know how you wanna present that, but, we've gotta change, so 

Jimmy Lea: we have to be sensitive to it. Correct? Yeah. 

Brian Burris: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: Mike, specific areas you think we, we need to focus on as an industry?

Mike Grosse: I think we need to focus on.

Mike Grosse: Training internally. You know, I at least where I'm at cost of living is terribly expensive where we are. And you know, it was the same scenario for me when I became a full-time technician. There just didn't seem to be time in, in the day or evening to. Go to school. So, you know, there's a lot of guys that are growing their own and and that's a better fit for some shops than others.

Mike Grosse: It's a little tough for me because we're such a small little family here. You know, maybe some shops that have four and five technicians they might be better suited for a mentor type program, but. You really got during the interview process. That's one of the questions that we discuss is ongoing training and making sure that these guys are willing to sit down with a, and do a lunch and learn, or, you know, maybe go spend two or three days at STX.

Mike Grosse: They've gotta be willing to continue their education. These vehicles are so advanced now. I mean, you've gotta be, you know, everybody talks about the unicorn. Everybody wants a unicorn. If you're not a unicorn, you're gonna really struggle trying to learn how to do this job on the fly. So, yeah.

Mike Grosse: Training 

Jimmy Lea: is key. Yeah. So, to that, to training. Mike, how much emphasis do you give and this is a comment by Keith, how much emphasis do you ha give for certifications? 

Mike Grosse: You know, we've, we structure our pay scale a little bit differently depending on the technician. I mean, I've had technicians that you know, when we have a production based pay plan for a technician that they'll, they can earn extra dollars per build hour.

Mike Grosse: When they're maintaining a certain amount of ASEs. So, and also for training, you know, I had one technician that was working for me that you know, he'd get an extra dollar an hour for every hour. He produced by doing eight hours of training. And he had no problem with that. So, yeah.

Jimmy Lea: It's important that personal training, you know, Cecil talks about often he, when he was managing Larry's shop up in California, Northern yeah. Northern California. There was technicians that they would get a bonus. If they participated every quarter, I think it was every quarter they had to do eight hours worth of training.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And this one technician, this one quarter didn't do his training. So Cecil went to the guy and said, Hey man, thanks so much for this bonus. You're giving me I'm able to keep an additional two or $3,000 this next quarter because you didn't do your training this last quarter. And the training was a very broad open.

Jimmy Lea: Online training, in-person training, reading books, personal progress. There's, there was a lot of training that you could do that you get to choose from, and this technician missed out on that, and so he missed out on his bonuses for the next quarter, so, 

Mike Grosse: sure. Yeah. I keep a I, each one of my technicians has a folder that their timecard goes in.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 

Mike Grosse: And so they see it every week. And we keep a training log in there. I, you know, I print up a training log, I staple it to the inside of their folder, and it's kind of an honor system thing. You know, again, we're a small little family here. I, and I'm on the premises all the time. So if I see, you know, I come up in the break room and a guy's sitting there doing a world pack lunch and learn, I see it.

Mike Grosse: And, you know, sometimes, a lot of times they'll come to me and, you know, Hey, I sat in on this lunch and learn and, you know, I learned this and I learned that and, or, you know, maybe I, you know, I, somebody showed a different way of something and yeah. So they'll usually be the ones that open up. So you pretty much know that they took the class, you know, they just weren't sitting there on the couch with their sunglasses on pretending like they were watching it and sleeping.

Jimmy Lea: Right. So, 

Mike Grosse: And when they know there's money hanging on the end of that. They'll usually do it. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, for sure. I love what Misty has put in here as her suggestion for a question. And I'm gonna couple that what a good question is where do you see yourself in five years?

Jimmy Lea: And I love that question. I, Misty, thank you very much. That's a great question. I wanna couple that with Kevin's comment earlier about building a career path. If you've got a very well-defined path that says, when you come on with us as a technician, this is the coaching, the training that, that we're going to provide.

Jimmy Lea: In house. This is the trade shows we're going to attend. And if you perform at such a level, you get to go to these trade shows and attend to these trainings. The face-to-face, the hands-on training. So when you are able to build out that timeline. Of what it looks like for these technicians.

Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna invest in you and in fact, I'm gonna invest in you so much that your efficiency and productivity will increase, that you are gonna get a raise because you are a better technician. You build that path and that timeline of what it looks like. 'cause it could be to Misty's point in five years, Mike Gross wants to own the shop.

Jimmy Lea: Phenomenal. Mike, you know what? You and I are gonna work together. There's a lot of free classes we can take at the community college that talks about business ownership. You and I will go take these classes together. There's instructions you can get from worldpac Lunch and Learns. There's instructions you can get from the institute, the gear course library.

Jimmy Lea: Go in there and watch everything to learn about. Productivity, profitability, efficiency, tech efficiency, learn those skills. You need to know as a business owner that you probably don't know as a technician yet. Yeah. Are you building your competition? Potentially, but what a great friend to have in the business that has done this training, and what if in the process of learning about business ownership, they get to a point where they say, Hey, you know what, Mike?

Jimmy Lea: I don't think I wanna own a business anymore. I just wanna be the best dang technician you have ever had at this shop. And I'm digging in, I'm staying here. This is my life. This is my future. This is what I'm gonna do. You got me. I'm a lifer. Yeah. 

Mike Grosse: Well, you know, again, in the interview process too, you know, asking that question, where do you see yourself in five years from now?

Mike Grosse: I mean, I've had guys tell me that, you know, I, you know, this is, you know, I. Eat, sleep and drink fixing cars all day long. And I don't wanna do anything different than what I'm doing now. I've had people say they wanna become educators. I would love to, you know, get into a high school and teach auto shop.

Mike Grosse: And I think that's fantastic, but what does that look like for me? You know, you want to come here, you wanna build up some knowledge for five years, I'm gonna invest all this time and money into you, and then you're gonna boogie. You know, that's definitely something to consider. You know, I've hired, I've had, I've hired older gentlemen, I've interviewed older gentlemen.

Mike Grosse: You know how, you know, how much time am I gonna get out of you? When are you gonna retire? You know, how's that back feeling? There's those definitely good questions to ask. Where do you see yourself in five years? One question that I ask, I, you know, I have nobody to pass this business down to, just like the previous owner.

Mike Grosse: I asked that question, do you ever consider owning your own shop one day? And, you know, some say yes, some say no. But again, like myself, I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I. When I bought it. 

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. Well, job security for one. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: But yeah, no that's really good.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I was gonna go down another path I totally forgot. Oh. Training. You'll never fail By training. You'll never fail. And we've heard it time and time again. I'll just reiterate it for everyone. What if I train 'em and they leave? To your point, Mike, what if I train you for the next five years and then you decide to go off into the higher education or a high school education to teach shop?

Jimmy Lea: What if I te train you and then you leave? 

Mike Grosse: You know what I think it's a risk that we all take. Yeah, but you never know. You know, maybe that guy that you trained and he leaves and goes and becomes an educator you know, maybe he starts sending you. Yes. Some of his students, 

Jimmy Lea: yes, he sends you his A plus students and now you have the best pick of the litter for that.

Jimmy Lea: But then also on the other side of this, what if you train them and they leave? What's the opposite of that? What if you don't train them and they stay? 

Mike Grosse: If you don't train them and they stay and.

Mike Grosse: You know, they just, they get comfortable, they get complacent. Yeah. And, you know, maybe they end up being removed from the company. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. We want them to progress. We want them to learn. We want them to grow. And as a, an industry, we want to be more professional. We want to have a career path for our people, for our staff.

Jimmy Lea: What's their goals? What do they want to do? Oh, I just want to turn a wrench for the next 20 years. Great. You have got a home here. As long as we stay productive. You've got a home here. 

Mike Grosse: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It goes a long way. It goes a long way. Well, thank you to everybody that has contributed both online and thank you, Mike, to you and your experience with Glen's Auto, your job security there with yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Glen Brian Promotive. Thank you very much for promotive. You guys are a valuable partner with the institute. Thank you for all you're doing in the industry. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you guys. Thanks Mike. You're welcome. Now one last final question. We'll call this the bonus question for each of you. We'll do it one at a time.

Jimmy Lea: Brian, I'll start with you. If you had a magic wand, what would you change in the automotive aftermarket? And Mike, this is giving you time to think. 

Brian Burris: Ah, thanks Jimmy.

Jimmy Lea: Magic wand, what would you change? 

Brian Burris: I would say keeping. A lot of these kids that we see these days, even my kids they don't want anything to do with turning a wrench. I had a magic wand getting more, getting the younger generation more involved with automotive. There's a lot to learn. There's, it's fun sometimes.

Brian Burris: But magic wand, getting a pipeline of. Younger kids into automotive. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Stardom younger. I love it. I love it. Mike, to you, you have a magic wand. What is the, what's one of the things you would want to change in the industry? 

Mike Grosse: I would wanna change the mindset of the young technician. Everybody.

Mike Grosse: Everybody today seems so focused on the dollars that.

Mike Grosse: It's almost like the, you know, like the passion that older technicians have for this industry. They wanted to just come and fix cars and they got paid for it. Now these kids coming in, you know, I don't know where, I don't know if mommy and daddy teach 'em this, or they're college instructor teaches them this, but they seem to want to come in here with virtually.

Mike Grosse: No knowledge or no hands-on experience and wanna make money, the kind of money that it took me 20 years to get to. And they need to fall in love with their career and be good at it and the money will follow. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, I love that. It's almost in the realm of teach them how to work hard and the money will follow.

Jimmy Lea: Find a passion for what you're doing. And the money will follow 

Mike Grosse: work. Smart. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh yes. Amen to that. That's awesome. Well, thank you very much gentlemen. Thank you to the our friends who are joining us online. We are so happy that we are able to be here and be together for this great conversation. As you hear this information, as you gain this knowledge there's a QR code that's gonna show for about 30 seconds.

Jimmy Lea: Once we're done, pull out your smartphone, get ready to scan this QR code. If you find this information valuable and you would like to learn more about this industry, more about yourself more, learn more about your shop. This is an industry that will definitely chew you up and spit you out if you don't treat it with the right respect.

Jimmy Lea: Hire a coach, hire somebody to be in your corner and help you navigate this sea that's ahead of us. It's a crazy storm. We're all in. As we lock arms together, we can survive this storm together. Nobody's in the same ship. All of our ships are different. Let's lock arms and together we'll make it with that.

Jimmy Lea: My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute. I'll see you again soon. Thank you.