If you only ask "Tell me about your experience"… you deserve the hire you get. I mean that. Because here's what happens. Somebody walks in, shakes your hand firmly, says all the right things about flat rate and diag hours, and you think — this is the one. Three months later you're walking on eggshells around them. They won't follow your processes. They blame everybody else when something goes sideways. And the rest of your team is giving you that look. You know the one. You've been here before. And the problem was never that the candidate lacked skill. The problem was you interviewed for the wrong things. I've talked to hundreds of shops over the last seven years. The ones who consistently hire well — and keep those people — don't ask better technical questions. They ask better human questions. Here's what they screen for (before skill ever enters the conversation): THE 3 THINGS THAT MATTER MORE THAN SKILL 1. Communication and presence. Can they explain something clearly? Do they make eye contact? How do they handle a question they don't know the answer to? One shop owner told me recently: "Personality, eye contact, how they talk — more important than knowing how to write an estimate." He's right. You can train your POS system. You can't train someone to tell the truth under pressure. 2. Structure tolerance. Do they thrive with SOPs and written expectations, or do they create "eggshells" every time you try to hold them accountable? Here's the thing lots of owners miss: people freak out when expectations aren't written down and they get corrected later. That's not a discipline problem. That's a communication problem you created. But — and this is important — the interview is where you find out if someone wants structure or fights it. Big difference. 3. Training buy-in (agreed BEFORE the hire). This one's non-negotiable. You must get agreement on training expectations before the person starts. It's hard to change people after you have them.

Bonuses that keep technicians long-term without drama are simple, measurable, and consistent. Here are 3 simple bonus structures that don’t cause fights and work: 👉a reliability bonus for showing up 👉a billed-hours consistency bonus for steady production 👉a team goal bonus for shop-wide wins. Each one has clear rules, quality guardrails, and no guessing games. That's the answer. Here's why most shops get this wrong—and how to get it right. WHY MOST BONUS PLANS CAUSE DRAMA Most bonus plans backfire because they reward the wrong thing. They feel like bribes when they're random, emotional, or changed mid-game. One month you're handing out cash because you're desperate. Next month you quietly stop because margins got tight. Your techs notices. Trust erodes. They blow up when they reward speed over quality, create cherry-picking, or spark internal competition. Suddenly your A-tech is hiding work until next pay period while your B-tech is hustling through brake jobs like he's getting paid by the minute (because he is). They create favoritism claims when there's no clear measurement. "How come Mike got a bonus and I didn't?" If you can't answer that question with numbers on a whiteboard, you've got a problem. Cecil Bullard from the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence puts it simply: if your bonus plan doesn't reward the behaviors and results you actually want, it will motivate the wrong things. Every time. The Principle: Base + Bonus (Performance-Enhanced Pay) Before we get into the structures, here's the foundation that makes all of this work. You need a performance-enhanced pay plan—base pay plus bonus—where the tech knows exactly what they earn for showing up, and exactly what they can earn by performing. Bullard recommends thinking of it as a 60/40 concept. About 60% is predictable base. About 40% is earned through measurable performance. The split doesn't have to be exact, but the principle matters: your tech should never have to guess how to win.

In order to get acquainted and and help fellow community members, please share: 1. The name and location of your shop. 2. Your biggest frustration with finding techs. 3. How you found your last tech.

Hello everyone! Thanks for the invite and happy to be here!