Navigating Hiring Challenges in the Automotive Industry with Jay from Teamtailor

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy. On this podcast, we're not just exploring the latest trends and technologies in the automotive industry. We're also getting real about the journey. Yes, the bumpy road of mistakes and lessons learned hard along the way. This is the Gearbox podcast. So, Mars 2024. Is this your first time at Mars?

Jay Teamtailor [00:00:36]:
It is my first time at Mars, yep.

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:38]:
Right on.

Jay Teamtailor [00:00:39]:
It's been cool. Cool.

Jimmy Purdy [00:00:40]:
What do you think about the institute?

Jay Teamtailor [00:00:42]:
The institute's been great to work with. I think it's really interesting what they're doing regarding the marketing aspect of automotive repair shops. Right. And I think there's so many avenues when it comes to automotive repair. And you got the imports, you got the euro, you got general automotive, you've got got specialties like transmissions, things along those lines. And I think what they're doing is great. It's one thing to be a business owner in a small business space. It's another thing to have the tools and resources with people like the institute that want you to succeed and grow, scale out of that business.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:12]:
And so you were talking about marketing here when we were talking downstairs a little bit, which we'll get into why you're here, generally. Right. For hiring techs, which is, like, pain point for everybody. Like, we. As we grow, we need more people. But the institute has a different way of coaching, and I don't know if you're familiar with the other coaching companies that are out there.

Jay Teamtailor [00:01:34]:
Not incredibly familiar. I've seen them in other industries, so, I mean, it's something similar to that, but definitely, I would love to learn more.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:42]:
Yeah, it's. I mean, it's the best, right. That's always.

Jay Teamtailor [00:01:47]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:01:48]:
The institute has the best coaching program, but, I mean, we were talking last night at dinner, too, about the differences in coaching companies and how you kind of get stuck in, like, I don't know, without saying, like, a cultivation, but, you know, you kind of, like, follow it without really, like, understanding what it is that they're trying to give you. Right. And a lot of coaching companies want to put you in a contract. Right. And the institute doesn't do that. It's just got to, like, agree with you. Like, you got to listen to who's running you, who your coach is going to be, and actually, like, truly believe in your heart of hearts. Like, this is who I want, and this is on my side and what I want my shop to be.

Jimmy Purdy [00:02:26]:
And I guess without you looking for a shop coach, it'd be kind of hard to wrap around that situation.

Jay Teamtailor [00:02:32]:
But it's, I think a lot of approaches for some of these things are, hey, we're going to give you plan a through z and you're going to follow plan a through z. Even though it might not directly relate to your business, it needs to be right. And I think we talked a lot about value last night. Being able to find a coach that you can patent pair up with, match up, understands you and really wants to work with you and coach you through a specific problem, but also has a diverse network they can reach out to you to help you succeed is huge. I mean, that's paramount to trying to scale.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:02]:
That's a. Well, yeah, a good way to put that. And success is different for so many people. And that's what I think a lot. Especially if you're new, if you just open a shop, say, in the last six months or a year, if you don't even know what it. You just know that you don't want to work for somebody.

Jay Teamtailor [00:03:16]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:17]:
Like, doesn't that. Isn't that why everyone opens a business? I don't want to work for the man. I don't work for myself, and I don't know what that is.

Jay Teamtailor [00:03:22]:
I'm gonna bet on myself. Right. And actually be able to engage a variety of people.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:26]:
But then, like, what does that look like? Like, what does that vision path and, like, what do you want to have your culture be? Do you want $200 Arros and deal with 1000 people a month? Do you want, you know, 1500 aros and only deal with, like, 30 clients a month? Like, so you gotta, like, figure out what your why is and what you're doing.

Jay Teamtailor [00:03:42]:
Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:43]:
And sometimes it's just talking to, like, many different coaches out there until you're like, dude, I like what this guy's saying. Like, I didn't even know that's what I wanted until you heard it.

Jay Teamtailor [00:03:51]:
Yep.

Jimmy Purdy [00:03:51]:
So it's. And that was, for me, that was interesting that when I got into the. With the institute, it was like, that's. I didn't know. Like, I thought I knew.

Jay Teamtailor [00:03:58]:
I think a lot of people that become entrepreneurs, they want to work for themselves. Right. But there's so much that goes on behind the scenes to make a business successful. And we're talking about different levels of success, different definitions of success. My definition of success might be different than your definition of success. Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:04:14]:
Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:04:14]:
Not everybody wants to be a 1012 shop owner. People are totally fine in one or two, three shops. That's going to ultimately drive them and be happy. Right. You talked about culture. Culture, I think, is a portion of having an ideal customer profile, which we've talked about previously. It's a matter of being able to drive value to your consumer. We talked about transparency.

Jay Teamtailor [00:04:37]:
Transparency is also huge for a lot of businesses as well. And really making sure that you can have repeat customers. Right. Those recurring customers that you know are going to be loyal to your business because let's face it, really, every industry, and I saw this in previous industries that I've worked in previously, the repeat customers are where it's going to be. Right. That type of customer relationship that you can go ahead and establish and make sure that you're both driving value mutually is pretty paramount.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:04]:
That's what we all want. I mean, I can't say that, like I said, everyone's definition of success is different, but I think, like, once you get to a certain level or you get around a certain group of people, like, that's, that's the goal, to retain a high level client and establish a relationship.

Jay Teamtailor [00:05:20]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:20]:
And then we can all take care of each other.

Jay Teamtailor [00:05:22]:
Absolutely.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:22]:
They take care of my family, I take care of their family. Right. For me, it's financial for them is to keep the car on the road. But I mean, that's the idea. Right? Like, it goes back and forth. Like, obviously I gotta work for money. Like, not free, but I gotta charge for it. Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:05:36]:
But, yeah, I mean, that's the ultimate goal, I think, to running a business, but it takes a long time to figure that out, I think, for a lot. Right?

Jay Teamtailor [00:05:44]:
Yeah. A lot of trial and error, a lot of. I'm a big fan of working in startups. I've worked in startups my entire career until I started with, with my current role now. And I would say we're even taking a more of a startup approach and attitude to the north american market as we, as we tackle it right. We're moving fast, breaking stuff, seeing what works and trying to just learn. I think that's the most important thing that we try to accomplish, right. Is be a sponge in every industry that we're approaching, but also be a thought leader in what we do know about.

Jay Teamtailor [00:06:12]:
Right. And in this case, it would be the hiring side of things.

Jimmy Purdy [00:06:15]:
Yeah. And on that note, we can make that transition over. We'll shift gears into what that is. So start with an introduction. Cause I'm terrible with that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:06:25]:
That's okay. Yeah. My name is Jay Rogotsky. I'm the associate marketing manager of North America for a company called Team Taylor. We are an all in one solution for hiring auto mechanic techs as well as other industries. We've got about 8000 plus clients across the entire globe, primarily focused in Europe, but making a big push into the north american market. Right now. We essentially give you a customized career page where candidates can go ahead and apply.

Jay Teamtailor [00:06:51]:
So you can put a video up there, you can talk a little bit about your business and really focus in on what's called employer branding. And employer branding is what a cut or what a potential candidate is going to see when they come to your website to apply for a position. It's potentially a day in the life of what it's like to work with your company. It's maybe some of your core values, right. You really want to be able to show off that employer branding side of a business that attracts talent. Not only attracts talent, but attracts the right amount of talent. I think a lot of people think about trying to find more candidates and they're looking at a big volume of candidates, potentially 1400 candidates in certain industries for a specific position. But out of those 1400 you can only make one, two, maybe three hires.

Jay Teamtailor [00:07:33]:
Right. And so you create a lot of noise in the funnel, which is something that we try to simplify on the back end. So a candidate comes to your website, they learn a little bit about your business, what the position is that they're going to apply to on the back end where you are administratively you can set up various stages of applied to a specific position is now being interviewed, going ahead and automating that entire flow on the back end so you can make an accurate decision with the rest of your team and collaborate and actually go ahead and make that hiring in a very efficient process.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:03]:
That's rad. It's a lot.

Jay Teamtailor [00:08:05]:
It's a lot. Yeah, it is a lot.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:07]:
But is hiring when is hiring not a lot? Yeah, and I think that's a pain point for me. I mean, I think, I mean, I think a lot. You listening right now probably can relate to that. Like hiring sucks. Like it sucks, firing sucks even more. But hiring sucks.

Jay Teamtailor [00:08:22]:
It can be brutal. I think, you know, the most important thing for us at Team Taylor is to try to simplify that process for you and make it a process that's scalable. Right? I mean, we talked about various levels of success. Not everybody wants to have, you know, 510, 15 different shops in the automotive industry and that's totally fine. But if you do want to get to that 15th shop, you need to have a process that's for you to go ahead and hire people from day one.

Jimmy Purdy [00:08:47]:
Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:08:48]:
That way you can go ahead and know, okay, my HR personnel is going to be able to do this. My hiring manager or my shop manager can go ahead and post a job where they're located, make sure that they're going to get candidate flow because we do tap into indeed and all the major job boards and make sure that you're not kind of what we call service hopping, having to go from indeed to Craigslist to any other platforms that you're using currently. Individually, we centralize all of that in one system out of a box so that you can go ahead and make that.

Jimmy Purdy [00:09:17]:
And I mean, a lot of that's like up to the shop too, right? Like if you don't have the culture, like, what are you promoting? Right. We're at a marketing event. We were just listening to the same thing about, like, not just branding. Well, not just through your logo, but having a brand. Right? Like you gotta brand yourself. Right. And it's like I've, I've realized that with the shop, like, as I start getting more technicians in and I start building a better culture and they start telling their friends, I get more people wanting in, coming in, wanting a job, I'm like, what's going on? Like, what did I change? Like, like, you know, like, is it like. And sure, I use chat GBT for my indeed posting, right? Like I'm just like, whatever, you know, it can write it better than I can, right? And it's like, oh, maybe that was the trick, right? But it's like I start looking around and I'm like, I got four technicians and they're all laughing in the middle of the day, having a nice, yeah, having a good time.

Jimmy Purdy [00:10:04]:
And it's like, what, maybe that's the ticket. So how much is that is like when you bring on a client, how much of that, like, client advocacy that you have to give to the shop owner? Like, look, I can find you people, but you got to retain them. Right?

Jay Teamtailor [00:10:19]:
Yeah, yeah. So we, we are operate different than a recruiting service, right. A recruiting service has a pool of candidates that they go ahead and choose and try to place with a specific business. Right. Ours is pretty much highlighting the brand of that business, hence the name, employer branding. Right. And making sure that we can get your job listing out into as many hands as possible. Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:10:40]:
And I think the employer advocacy side of things is huge. We have a feature called a story feature. If you're familiar with Instagram stories, it's a little short. You can go ahead and record those on our platform and show what it's like to work at the shop so your guys that are laughing in the middle of the day, having a good time, you want to highlight that culture and show it off to people that are applying to your positions. You can do that in that system. Right. And it allows you to really show off that company culture that you built. Because culture is not built overnight.

Jay Teamtailor [00:11:08]:
Right. It's something that is cultivated as accumulation of, you know, potentially months, weeks of people kind of having this camaraderie and the leadership that really drives forward that culture. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:19]:
And I think that's. That's like the critical point. Having a good shop and we all worked at one word, you know, the culture wasn't good or I worked at a company or somewhere is like, it's just not. Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:11:29]:
Sure. Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:30]:
You know, like, you just walk in, you're just like, I'm not having a good time here. It. No matter how much you're getting paid.

Jay Teamtailor [00:11:34]:
Sure.

Jimmy Purdy [00:11:34]:
And it's just like, it's so massive. And so when you're going through, and I know you said you're not like the recruitment style, but on the vetting of, like bringing in advisors, bringing in technicians, bringing in employees to a shop, how does that vetting process work?

Jay Teamtailor [00:11:48]:
Yeah. So typically you'd set up a interview process very similar to whatever your interview process is internally. Right. And our whole point is to be able to process that systematically through software solutions that just make very clear stages of where you are in that interview process. You can go ahead and set up a, say, interview kit that allows you and the rest of your team to see exactly what questions are being asked. You can tag various teammates, et cetera, that can go ahead and organize that entire functionality. Right. So in terms of us bringing in text, necessarily, it's really showing off what it's like to work at that specific location, and then the rest of the process is handled by your team internally.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:28]:
I see. So you just kind of given the. In a sense of the top candidates and then you say, and then it's up to, like the hiring manager of the shop. Is that kind of.

Jay Teamtailor [00:12:38]:
Yeah, that's correct. That's correct. Yeah. So you can rank different candidates based on different skill sets if you wanted to. So you can rank them one through five if you wanted to say, okay, this is a specific candidate, is a five in personality, is a foreign skill set, is a five in various region of whatever the interview process.

Jimmy Purdy [00:12:55]:
And then as you continue that relationship with, with your client, does that, do you keep tabs on that? Do you start learning like you have, like a client you know, success manager in a way where it's like once you've hired a few, they kind of get an idea of like, what the shops looking for and they can better serve that process.

Jay Teamtailor [00:13:11]:
Yeah. So every single one of our clients gets a customer success manager associated with their account. Support is huge. Specifically in an industry like automotive industry, where, you know, on the smaller scale, you may not have those processes or you may be looking for better best tricks, tips, et cetera, to go ahead and make sure that your company's best foot is being put forward. For a lot of candidates, the job market is incredibly competitive right now, and so we want to make sure that you're getting the proper candidate. Right. The best fit that you can possibly get. That starts with your employer branding.

Jay Teamtailor [00:13:43]:
It starts with your internal processes and making sure that you have a team member, essentially from our team, kind of like, think of it as an additional team member, right. To go ahead and help you out with that.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:52]:
Like a PR person, huh?

Jay Teamtailor [00:13:54]:
Almost sure.

Jimmy Purdy [00:13:58]:
I don't know about that. Some people can't be helped, but I've come to find that's like, part of the issue is definitely making sure that, and it's the same with, like, bringing in car count, right? It's like you can have a marketer bringing you 100 cars a week, but if you're not answering the phone. If you're not answering the phone, right. Like, they're going to go somewhere else. And it's got to be the same thing with, like, hiring process. And I don't think a lot of us, I don't know. I don't say a lot. I think it's me.

Jimmy Purdy [00:14:26]:
I'm definitely, like, opinionated because it's like you open a shop and you're moving forward and you hire people and you're like, hey, I gave you a job. How come you don't want to show up, right? And it's like that. I don't know. If you, if you were raised in that same generation of, like, just show up for work, right? Like, doesn't matter if you're sick, hungover or whatever. Like, if you got a job, be grateful for the job you have and just show up. And I know that's kind of, like, frowned upon in this, like, new, in this day and age, right? And it's like. But I get it. Like, because we've all worked somewhere where we didn't feel like we were appreciated, some of us just put our head down and, and just did the job.

Jimmy Purdy [00:14:59]:
But then other ones got smarter than me and we're like, wow, I could work somewhere else because I don't like this place. Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:15:05]:
Well, that's, that's the thing about the job market, right. Is the job seeker for, you know, for. I think what you're describing is a more traditional job market, right, where work from home was not a choice for a lot of people where you didn't have maybe flexibility within your day to day role.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:21]:
Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:15:22]:
Now we're seeing specific job seekers look for those types of benefits depending on the type of position that they're located. It's different for auto mechanics and maybe shop tax, etcetera.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:32]:
But I mean, but really is it, though? I mean, we're kind of looking all for the same thing, right? Like we want to be appreciated.

Jay Teamtailor [00:15:38]:
Work life balance.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:39]:
Yeah. I mean, most technicians are pretty sensitive. We're sensitive guys. You know, we like to be, have a little appreciation. Everyone likes to be paid.

Jay Teamtailor [00:15:46]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:15:47]:
Finding the motivation. Right. For certain employees, that's, that's another really hard thing is like, what's your motivation? Like, you want to be paid, do you want time off? Do you want to work from home? Because I think that's where the difference is, is like, well, if your benefit, the benefit you're looking for is to work from home, that's not going to work at an auto repair shop. Like I, it's just unless you're marketing. Good point, good point. But you can't take the car home with you, like, you know, like so. And work on it in your driveway or whatever. But there's so many creative solutions that guys are coming up with now to have that, like, you know, and hiring, say, a marketer instead of using an outside company.

Jay Teamtailor [00:16:21]:
Yep.

Jimmy Purdy [00:16:21]:
Right. And then have it. Having them work. So it's interesting how things have changed and just the last few years, right. I'm sure you've, you've seen that in.

Jay Teamtailor [00:16:28]:
The auto industry looking at kind of some of the trends, right, of how you're acquiring your customers. Customer acquisition cost is a lot. Right. For a lot of businesses and really understanding what that looks like from point a to point b all the way down to point z. Right. In terms of you in your first look. I mean, we've seen trends from TikTok, right. And kind of the short form video format really take off of the last five years or so.

Jay Teamtailor [00:16:52]:
And I think shops that are using trends to document their day to day through things like TikTok may or may not realize how powerful that platform is. And it really is a powerful platform. And that's just one example I mean, you have Instagram stories that allow you to do something similar reels. Right. Really allow you to outreach a specific niche of customer or ideal customer.

Jimmy Purdy [00:17:12]:
Just the power of the social media that is not being encapsulated is just. It kind of blows my mind a little bit because we've all. We're all on it, right? We all watch it, but we don't utilize it. It's like this powerful tool that's free, right?

Jay Teamtailor [00:17:26]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:17:27]:
And it's like you're worried about using it because the Chinese are going to, like. Because they're watching you, right? Like, that's the big thing with TikTok. Like, oh, they're using that data, and it's like, okay, well, if you need free marketing, it's like, you don't get much more cheaper than that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:17:41]:
You know what I love about it is not only is it free, but it gives you an authentic platform.

Jimmy Purdy [00:17:46]:
Good point. Yeah.

Jay Teamtailor [00:17:47]:
And I think authenticity, especially with my generation of consumers. Right. You know, I'm 28 years old, about to turn 29. It's. I mean, we're shopping differently. Who. Who we're going to for help or who we're taking our card to. Different.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:00]:
Yeah.

Jay Teamtailor [00:18:01]:
And I think that authenticity is what we look for in various people that we work with or people that we're investing in when it comes to actually having a service completed.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:09]:
And, like, how important is it to look at a tick tock video or even, like, you know, postcards? Like, you get something in the mail, right? And you see this, like, picture of the shop, and then you show up to the shop and it's totally different.

Jay Teamtailor [00:18:22]:
Yeah. Sorry, but I might be turning away from that. You know, I think that, again, it's speaking to authenticity.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:28]:
Yeah.

Jay Teamtailor [00:18:28]:
You know, and I think what's nice about a platform that gives you a short form and gives you the opportunity of kind of highlighting what it's like to actually go to that shop. Maybe it's an instructional video that I've seen for changing your oil or something like that, if you weren't aware of how to do that previously or properly filling up your tires. Right. I mean, these sound like simple things to maybe you and I, because we're car people.

Jimmy Purdy [00:18:48]:
Yeah.

Jay Teamtailor [00:18:49]:
Right. But to a person that's never done it before, somebody that wants to look for information on how to do that and maintain their cardinal, it's huge. And I think I keep coming back to authenticity because I think a lot of people look at these short form videos and want them to be fully produced. Well, let's go take a step back and remember that the biggest person on TikTok or on Instagram didn't have a perfect video to begin with. And that's great. That's okay. Actually, I think a lot of people would rather see a little bit of a stutter in a video or perhaps drop in the oil, you know, kind of draindez cap out into the oil.

Jimmy Purdy [00:19:24]:
Pan, get a little frustrated.

Jay Teamtailor [00:19:26]:
Right. You know, I mean, it's that really connection that you can make with somebody personally that helps drive the marketing of that business. And it is not something that's going to take off overnight, but if you do it consistently enough, you're going to reach a far different audience and maybe stretch out a little bit further than you would have seen if you were perhaps doing targeted ads like we were doing. Like we.

Jimmy Purdy [00:19:47]:
It's such a good point. And, and I think we all have a problem. We all want to be a perfectionist. And especially in the automotive field, you get to a point where you're so technically savvy that you want to sell that technical ability. Right. But it doesn't translate. Yeah, you can't. It's such a good point that you brought up because it's so true.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:06]:
You spend so much time with the editing and how to make a video. How does, like, dude, just, just do a live video. Just start to start and see what happens.

Jay Teamtailor [00:20:13]:
Just start. I think that's the hardest part, is starting. Right. And it's because we see, I think a lot of content creators have these perfect videos. It looks like it's scripted from start to finish. Well, it's taken them a long time to find that formula that works for them and their audience. But if you don't start to begin with, you're never gonna be able to figure out what your formula is. And I think personally, it all starts with authenticity.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:35]:
And it's not just pulling a client with that authenticity, it's tiring employees.

Jay Teamtailor [00:20:40]:
Sure.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:41]:
Like, if you're gonna, like, you're taking it to the next level, like, sure. You're gonna start a relationship with a client service or vehicle, hopefully for the next ten years, 15 years.

Jay Teamtailor [00:20:48]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:48]:
Maybe even have their kids start coming to you.

Jay Teamtailor [00:20:51]:
Sure.

Jimmy Purdy [00:20:51]:
But they're not there every day. Right. You're gonna hire somebody. You guys are living together. Right. Like, yeah. So it's like, to have that authenticity and see, like, a potential employee. See that, how much, like, how pivotal is that? As well as, like, it's like marketing.

Jimmy Purdy [00:21:09]:
Not just your shop to, for clients, but every time you put something out there that's not scripted that you make a little bit of a mistake, that you show that Volt, that vulnerability. Right. It's like you get more people that are interested in what you are doing, and that could potentially be a client, and you don't even think that's happening.

Jay Teamtailor [00:21:27]:
Yeah, it's a client opportunity, but it's also an employee opportunity. Right. And again, they both really start with your brand and what your voice is as a brand, and really being able to show off and highlight what that voice is, whether it's on your website, whether it's on your social media, whether it's in your conversations that you're having with people at an event like us. Right, with the institute.

Jimmy Purdy [00:21:48]:
Yeah. And I know we talked a lot about, like, these nuances. So how much of this stuff do you help with, with your clients as you take someone in and help them with the hiring process?

Jay Teamtailor [00:21:58]:
So a lot of our stuff is really focused on that front facing end of things. Right. We are really big proponents of not telling you how to run your business, but rather providing you with a solution of tools that gives you kind of like a war chest for you to tackle different, various problems within the hiring process. Right. So we've seen maybe XYZ work for one client and ABC work for a different client, but they might not work for each other. Right. It's just a different process. So we really focus on showing off what it's like to work at that company.

Jay Teamtailor [00:22:29]:
Showing off exactly. The culture of that company through an employee page, being able to simplify that process, allow you to scale for it.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:36]:
Yeah. So, like. Like we were talking, like, some people don't want to be on TikTok.

Jay Teamtailor [00:22:39]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:39]:
Some people don't want to be on reels. They don't understand. They don't want to do the videos. They're shy. They don't like it. They don't want to be on camera. So it's hard for them to hear these good ideas, but then actually take the initiative in that action. So hiring a company like what you got, that simplifies it for them.

Jimmy Purdy [00:22:55]:
Right. I mean, that makes it a little easier to kind of, I guess, determine what their culture even is, because maybe they don't even know.

Jay Teamtailor [00:23:03]:
That's a good point. Yeah, it's, you know, maybe you've never had a career page that allow you to put a video up on what it's like to it to work at your shop every day. Right. Maybe you haven't had not even thought about it. Maybe you've never even thought that that's a thing, right. And that it totally is. I mean, it's one way of actually drawing candidates to you and choosing your shop versus working at perhaps a bigger shop, right. Or a smaller shop that's just local to them because it's local to them, right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:23:29]:
It's a matter of highlighting everything that your company does that allows that specific candidate to say, you know what? I actually want to work at this specific shop. Right? Maybe it's a video of your guys laughing every day. Maybe it's a snippet of a company party that you guys had or an interaction with a specific client that you've had, etcetera. And that's very, very powerful, especially in today's job market, where job seekers do have other options to go and different avenues to go depending on where you are in the country and what type.

Jimmy Purdy [00:23:58]:
Of position you're looking for and highlighting the positivity, right? Because, like, what's everybody always say? It's not gonna work for me. That doesn't work in my neck of the woods, right? I don't, I don't know what kind of client that or what kind of employee that I want. It's like all these negatives. I don't have a huge shop. Like, I already have too many. And it's like you got to tailor it to what you're looking for, right? Like, you, it's so frustrating to hear all the negatives that come out of a lot of people in that position, right? Like, that stuff's not gonna work in my market. There's a technician shortage. I'm never gonna find anybody.

Jimmy Purdy [00:24:34]:
Right?

Jay Teamtailor [00:24:35]:
Yeah. Well, there's a, there's various avenues of finding the type of employee that you need for your business and not every business, just like, you know, you may not be, want to be a dozen shop owner. You may not need to have, you know, ten employees within your business, right? There's multiple avenues that you can go to find different pockets of talent that might not be in one specific avenue. For example, if you're posting on, indeed. And you've consistently saturated the job market with your similar posting, that's one pool of candidate. It's not the entire bunch. And so when we work with a company like us, you can go ahead and post to various job boards. We might have a job board like Ziprecruiter that might work a lot better for you versus in an indeed or a local job talent market pool, right? That allows you to kind of tap into that undiscovered talent pool that might work for you.

Jimmy Purdy [00:25:25]:
So on that, on a little like behind the scenes, what is something that really, really kind of baffled you or like, you like, wow, I'm pulling a lot of candidates out of this, right? Because we all know indian zip recruiter and monster. And like, do you have something that's like really baffled you? Like, wow, I can't believe how many clients really are looking at like Craigslist, right? Like does anybody still post on Craigslist for, for employees is like that kind of stuff. Like do you have anything that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:25:51]:
Yeah, you know, so my, I've been in HR tech for the last two years or so. About, about that time. I've only been with Team Taylor about three and a half weeks actually. So, yeah, so rather new to the team, but not new to the HR space. Right. And in previous industry that I worked in, a lot of companies, depending on where they were regionally, let's say in the middle of Illinois somewhere where you had maybe 5000 people population. How do you go ahead and fill a position when you've already saturated that market, right. And so, you know, one thing that is nice and useful is the ability of choosing exactly which job board you're going to go ahead and access.

Jay Teamtailor [00:26:30]:
Right. And really trying to figure that out and what I like to call a guerrilla marketing style way of doing things. And by that I mean being in the weeds and getting creative and moving fast and potentially breaking stuff and taking risks that allows you to tap into an undiscovered talent pool. And so, you know, one thing that kind of baffled me and I think still baffles me, but it makes total sense. I think on depending on the industry is, is the lack of attention to employer branding and understanding just how powerful your brand is when it comes to a job seeker. I think a lot of people, you know, in tech might look at an Apple or Google or an Nvidia or Microsoft as like one of their dream companies. But there are so many other smaller companies that are doing something that they aspire to try to be the size of one of those companies and have such a significant impact that, you know, those companies are the top companies for that specific type of candidate simply because their employer brand is huge. Right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:27:28]:
And their consumer brand is huge.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:29]:
They don't realize how many other software companies there are that would treat them just as well.

Jay Teamtailor [00:27:36]:
There's other opportunities.

Jimmy Purdy [00:27:37]:
There's other opportunities that you might even be happier with because how many times have you heard someone say, oh, I finally, finally got my dream job and then six months later, like, I don't like it here.

Jay Teamtailor [00:27:45]:
It wasn't cut out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be cut out to be. Right, right. Yeah. And I think that, you know, that's, that's just the, that's. That's just one aspect of business. And trying to figure out who your ideal customer profile is, who you want to be as a brand, and really highlighting that brand not only to a customer, but to your employees.

Jimmy Purdy [00:28:01]:
Yeah. But then also being able to cut ties and, like, the emotional part of it, like hiring someone and realizing they're not a fit for your culture and having to let them go even though they're lead producer, that's a big problem in the industry. You find, you know, your rock star unicorn, a level top producing technician, but he's poison.

Jay Teamtailor [00:28:21]:
Right.

Jimmy Purdy [00:28:22]:
And it's like just bringing the culture down. And we just talked in depth about how important culture is to the next hire or to keep the retention of everybody, the clients, to employees. You gotta have a good culture. You got someone bringing your culture down and, you know, you got to get rid of them. But is making you money. He or she's making you money. And it's like. But that's through any industry, anything out there, like, it just blows me away how long it takes to cut that cancer out.

Jimmy Purdy [00:28:50]:
But it's really, really hard.

Jay Teamtailor [00:28:51]:
It's never way offs firing people. It's not a road. Never easy for any business. And it's.

Jimmy Purdy [00:28:57]:
Do you do that too for anybody?

Jay Teamtailor [00:28:59]:
No, no, no. We are simply a software.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:03]:
There's a hole in the market right there. We're your hiring company, but we're also your firing company.

Jay Teamtailor [00:29:09]:
Simply a software solution to try to make hiring a lot faster.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:13]:
Separate from that conversation real quick. We don't want to do that. Yeah, nobody wants to do that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:29:18]:
No. I mean, ultimately, we want our clients to succeed. Right. In whatever level and definition of success it is that that is for that specific company and give them the tools that allows them to scale quickly, efficiently and sustainably. I think that's really key, especially with an economy that's a little rocky for a lot of people right now.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:36]:
Absolutely. Well, final notes here. Final thoughts for me. For you. What have you seen in this new generation? Technicians. Right. So the big thing I've heard, especially with shop owners, especially kind of older shop owners, that the new generation is not going to be mechanically inclined. They don't know what they're doing.

Jimmy Purdy [00:29:55]:
They're buried on their phones. They're never going to be mechanically inclined to. I don't see that. What's your thought on that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:30:02]:
I don't see that either. Personally, I'm 28, but most of my content, it comes from either a TikTok or an Instagram reel or old school forums. When it comes to looking for cars, like I said, I'm building a 1971 Datsun 510 right now, and I can tell you everything about that car. And I'd like to say people of my generation are mechanically inclined, but you have to meet them where they are, and that's the difference.

Jimmy Purdy [00:30:25]:
Yeah.

Jay Teamtailor [00:30:26]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:30:26]:
I got no interest in EV's.

Jay Teamtailor [00:30:28]:
Ev's are interesting. My personal gripe, and this is just my personal gripe with Ev's right now, is their range. I don't think until it's a thousand mile range and a 15 minutes charge time that you'll find me in any electric vehicle.

Jimmy Purdy [00:30:43]:
That's fair. I think that's what the issue is, too. We want to go fast. I want to go fast now.

Jay Teamtailor [00:30:48]:
Yeah, well, I drive. You know, I'm a big proponent of driving. I drove a Toyota Prius for the longest time, and what I loved about it is 40 miles to a gallon, and I can get to Oregon into two gallons or so from where I'm from and come back and. Or, sorry, two tanks, and where I'm from and come back in another two tanks, and the very next day I'm off to Arizona. But if I wanted to try to do that in, say, electric vehicle right now, it would take me about 4 hours longer. And that's just 4 hours that I'm not willing to be in the car because now my trip is 16 hours versus twelve.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:18]:
Right. It doesn't make any damn sense.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:19]:
Yeah, not for me personally.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:20]:
And it's not like fun and cool, you know, it's not as cool as a damn Datsun, you know, I mean.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:25]:
Which a work in progress, you know, as, you know, projects, they. They take a while.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:30]:
Well, you. They don't take a while. They're just never done that.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:33]:
This is true. There's always something to do.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:36]:
That's right.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:36]:
Yeah.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:37]:
Well, cool, man. Thanks for coming up here.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:38]:
Yeah, thank you, Jimmy.

Jimmy Purdy [00:31:39]:
I appreciate.

Jay Teamtailor [00:31:40]:
Yeah, good to meet you, too.

Creators and Guests

Navigating Hiring Challenges in the Automotive Industry with Jay from Teamtailor
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