The benefits of job shadow interviews for technicians and shops
Key Highlights
- Pairing job shadowing with interviews can help shops stand out from their competitors, especially when they pay an interviewing technician for their time
- This also allows shops to see how a technician works, assess their skills, and see if they'll fit their culture
- For technicians, job-shadowing interviews lets them preview their work environment and see if they'll get along with their potential co-workers
When looking for your next top-performing technician, shops have the odds stacked against them. They operate in a competitive industry with a limited pool of desirable candidates. This is something Wade Massey, a recuiter for the heavy-equipment sector, has seen time and again as VP at Jordan Sitter Associates. His company runs the heavy-duty repair gamut, hiring executives, managers, technicians, and more.
And hiring right now comes down to one simple economic principle: supply and demand. It's no secret many shops aren't staffed at a comfortable level because there's a growing need for techs and the trade has not attracted enough new tradespeople to make a career out of fixing trucks and construction equipment.
Massey inplied this requires companies looking to hire to have an ample supply of creative workarounds.
“The best hiring managers and the best companies start to understand this supply and demand issue that's out there, and have to start thinking outside of the box in terms of recruiting, interviewing, offers, pay, compensation, etc.,” Massey said. “Those that can do that are usually going to be the ones that separate themselves from their competitors, who are probably going after the exact same candidate.”
One way to do that is through paid job-shadow interviews, Massey advocated recently. With this type of job interview, both shops and candidates can benefit from experiencing each other’s work environment and skills while cultivating loyalty before a shop even makes the hire, ultimately minimizing the hiring risk for all involved.
What is job-shadow interviewing?
Job-shadow interviewing is what it sounds like: Alongside a typical sit-down interview, shops will get the prospective hire to work on the floor for a few hours. Massey noted that he doesn’t tend to see this type of interview for technician positions, even though it’s a very hands-on role and has proven effective in other postions, such as sales roles.
“Sales is a great example where you really don't know how good of a salesperson you have until they're in that role,” Massey said.
So why can't it work just as well for technicians?
For instance, in Massey’s post, he described how a regional dealership leveraged this method to hire a technician a few years ago who’s still working with them today. While he couldn’t share specific details about the company, he said it was a decently sized construction equipment dealership with 12 locations and 300 employees, and offered sales, service, rental parts, and more.
For this dealership, the job-shadow interview was step two of a two-part hiring process, after an initial interview with HR and the hiring manager. The job-shadowing aspect can vary depending on time constraints, with Massey noting he’d seen job-shadow interviews last from a couple hours to half a day or a full day.
The job-shadow interview process
For this dealership, Massey said they started by interviewing the technician in the office, and then heading into the shop. There, the technician watched the shop at work to get a feel for its workflow before assisting with some light work.
“They didn’t have him do anything too intense, but he was definitely helping out,” Massey added.
As he did so, the dealership’s representatives kept an eye on the candidate to see how he’d interact with his potential peers and the work they did. Then, once they wrapped up that part of the interview process, the manager paid the technician $200 for his time.
“I think what makes this successful is actually paying the candidate at the end of the process,” Massey emphasized.
He also said that the payment doesn’t need to be huge to make an impact. Standard rate will do to show the technician that if the shop manager cares enough about an interview candidate to value his time, then she must treat her hired technicians equally as well, if not better. Additionally, this tactic also respects that the technician likely had to take PTO from work to do the interview, making the payment a mark of appreciation.
Drawbacks and benefits
However, Massey did note that the job-shadow interview might not be right for everyone.
“If you're a company and your shop floor is in chaos, this is probably not going to be the best way to go about the interview,” he admitted.
But if your shop runs anywhere close to a well-oiled machine, a look into how a technician may fit its inner workings before making the hire can be invaluable. For the employer, the job-shadowing aspect acts as a hands-on skill assessment, as well as an insight into that technician’s work style.
After all, “You can tell an employer that you [know your way around the shop], but now you're putting yourself in a live situation, and they're going to be able to tell real quick what your comfort level is,” Massey stated.
Additionally, the interactivity helps the shop get an idea of how the candidate would fit into their culture, partially (and crucially) by seeing if the technician gets along well with the rest of the team.
“It doesn't matter how much you're getting paid, how great your shop floor is, if you hate everybody you're going to work with, you're going to end up leaving,” Massey said.
This culture check-in also applies to the technician, because it lets them test the shop’s work environment. This can be helpful since it’s hard to describe how your shop with words alone. This can lead to misunderstandings during hiring, and turnover once the shop’s reality becomes clear.
“If you're an employer that has experienced a lot of turnover in your shop, maybe the reason is because the candidate didn't know what they were stepping into,” Massey offered. “And that's not to say you have a bad work environment or it's chaos, it's just that every shop is a little bit different.”
Not only does the job-shadow interview let the technician test out the shop environment and day-to-day workflow, it also lets them check the shop culture, and evaluate questions that don’t typically come up in a standard interview.
“Do the company's values line up for my core values as a candidate?” Massey asked. “Are the expectations realistic? This gives the candidate a chance to evaluate that and see if this is really going to be the right fit for them.”
While it might take a bit of extra effort than a standard conference-room discussion, this kind of personal attention during a job-shadow interview gives both the shop and the technician a chance to authentically show their value. And it lets shops concretely show that they’ll invest in their technicians, so that they’ll invest in your business in return.
About the Author
Alex Keenan
Alex Keenan is an Associate Editor for Fleet Maintenance magazine. She has written on a variety of topics for the past several years and recently joined the transportation industry, reviewing content covering technician challenges and breaking industry news. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.