Dashboard By Robert Counts and Chad Counts
Hiring & Retention in a Full Employment Market Employment Statistics T
he Bureau of Labor Statistics web page stated that for January 2018 the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent for the fourth consecutive month. In all of this is the fact that many people classified as having a full-time job in the past were actually working less than 40 hours a week. Many com- panies had gone to trimming hours to 30 to 35 hours to avoid paying benefits. So not only have we seen the unemploy- ment rate drop, but we have also seen the number of hours worked increased to 40 or more hours and in many cas- es benefit inclusion. With that said, the number of full time employees rose from 123 million in January 2017 to 127 million in January 2018.
Wage Statistics
• Cost of wages and compensation in- creased for companies by 2.6% in 2017. • Warehouse workers – production and non-supervisory average over $17 per hour. For our industry this would in- clude parts pullers, warehouse workers and fork lift drivers. • Delivery drivers – average $14 per
hour. This will vary by size of delivery ve- hicles and complexity of routes. • Dismantlers – $18 to $20 per hour in most major markets. Less and less people are working on vehicles. High schools are not offering many options to learn about mechanics. So, it is becom- ing more difficult to fill these positions. • Sales – the median (half above, half below) is $20 per hour. There is an exo- dus of sales people from brick and mor- tar stores. Therefore, people who have been in “sales” may have worked more in the customer service area than in actual sales. Finding someone with commission sales experience should help them fit better on your sales counter.
In fact, Amazon is opening distribu- 14
Always be hiring – be on the lookout for good people.
tion centers all across north America and they are getting many of their hires from the brick and mortar stores that are closing.
What Can You Do? Work on retention; start by making
sure your best employees are happy and content working at your place. It is always cheaper to keep a good employee than go through the process of hiring and training a new employee. You need to keep your best employees because they will be more difficult to replace and in many cases you will pay more and get less. Our sense is that it will become more competitive for productive employees. There will be more opportunities for your people to find jobs in manufactur- ing that offer above average wages, good working environments and benefits. As you may have heard us say many
times: • We rarely overpay good employees. • We almost always overpay poor em- ployees.
With some of the new tax credits, new equipment will be purchased by manu- facturers. Many manufactures will use that incentive to purchase more robot- ics. They will do this because it is hard to find and hire people. It also simplifies and standardizes what employees are re- quired to do. You will need to make your work envi- ronment as attractive as possible. Com- puterize and standardize your work pro- cesses so that they require less thinking and employee decision-making. About 80 percent of your workforce is or will be people that can move from point A
to point B, but are lost if it requires a point C.
Improve Your Applicant Pool The time of $12 an hour employee
is rapidly coming to an end. The most productive employee is always the most cost-effective employee. It is not how much you pay your employees. It is how much they produce. You may end up paying more, but you may also be get- ting more. And, it is not only the pro- duction. You also need to consider the time they take to supervise. How much more could you or your supervisors get done if they were not having to always check everything your workers do? If your wages, commissions, etc., are more than 20 percent of your monthly income you do not have productive em- ployees. Again, it is not how much you pay that matters as much as how much your employees can produce.
Never Stop Looking
Always be hiring – be on the lookout for good people. Always have a help wanted presence in your business, in your social media, etc. Look into ap- prenticeship programs that may be of- fered through your state workforce com- mission. These may offer opportunities to cover some of your training costs. We know that hiring, training and motivating employees is difficult and is something that we are involved with on a daily basis.
Counts Business Consulting provides sales management services to the automotive recycling industry, such as sales
force training. We have the expertise and experience to increase your company’s sales performance. Reach Chad Counts at (512) 963- 4626 or crcounts@countsbusinessconsulting. com and Robert Counts at (512) 653-6915,
robert@countsbusinessconsulting.com or visit
www.countsbusinessconsulting.com.
March-April 2018 • AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING
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