Staff Profile
Not all collision businesses have all types of employees. According to survey results, 44 percent of collision businesses have one apprentice technician. Forty-five percent of businesses have two entry-level technicians. Almost all collision businesses (97 percent) have four experienced technicians. Eighty-one percent have an office staff person, and 38 percent have an entry-level painter. Eighty-eight percent have two experienced painters, and 67 percent have two estimators.
Not quite a third (30 percent) report having a production manager. Eighteen percent of shops have an outside sales person who works full or part time. Fifty-five percent of shops have a shop manager, and 33 percent have a parts manager.
Apprentice technicians earn an average of $19,473. Entry-level technicians earn an average of $26,638. Experienced technician salaries held constant at $51,674 for 2004. Entry-level painters earn an estimated $27,713. Experienced painters receive an average salary of $55,355. Estimators, whose task may also be fulfilled by the shop manager, earn an average annual salary of $48,204.
Office staffers and claims professionals average $30,680 annually. Parts managers earn $37,637; production managers earn $60,590; and shop managers earn $58,771. Flat rate continues to grow as the most common form of payment for technicians. Forty-one percent of technicians are compensated on a flat rate system. Twenty-eight percent receive an hourly wage. Twenty percent receive a percentage of the labor rate, and 15 percent receive hourly wages plus commission.
Salaried technicians remain at 11 percent; 6 percent of technicians are part of a team pay system; and 6 percent receive salary plus commission. Allowing respondents to check all forms of payment that apply accounts for results greater than 100 percent.
Benefits and training are common elements of an employee's overall compensation package. Ninety-six percent of independent collision repair facilities offer employees a paid vacation. Paid holidays come in second at 87 percent. Currently, 85 percent of shops offer health insurance. In some situations, the employee funds a portion of the cost. Uniforms, which benefit both the technician and the shop's image, are provided by 81 percent of collision shops. Technician training is another two-way benefit offered by 79 percent of collision shops.
Retirement plans such as 401Ks or simple IRAs are offered by 51 percent. Management training (46 percent) and an annual bonus (45 percent) are additional benefits provided by almost half of the collision shop population.
Life insurance is provided to technicians by 42 percent of shops. Other benefits include dental insurance (34 percent), a cafeteria plan (26 percent), eye care (21 percent) and tool reimbursement (10 percent). Management and technician training, although listed as benefits, are essential elements in the survival and success of any business. Nine out of 10 businesses allow technicians to attend training during the workday. Of those, 83 percent compensate technicians who attend training during the workday.
Results show 79 percent of collision businesses fund the education of their technical staff. Thirteen percent are sharing the cost of training with their employees. A slight 4 percent require sole funding from their employees. The remaining 4 percent do not participate in training.
It is estimated that 17 percent (36,720,000) of the 216 million registered vehicles are involved in vehicle collisions annually. Of that, 15 percent (5,508,000) are totaled, and 28 percent (8,739,360) will ignore repair. That leaves approximately 22.5 million vehicles up for repairs, according to Collision Repair Industry Insight's Annual State of the Industry Report.
To perform these repairs, training is paramount. Apprentice technicians received an average of 54 hours of training. This is slightly misleading in that some shops consider all hours spent as an apprentice as hours of training. Entry-level technicians (painter and frame) received 26 hours of training in the past 12 months. Experienced technicians attended 21 hours of training, and managers received 28 hours of training.
Owners reported that an average of $645 was spent per apprentice technician position. About $498 was spent per entry-level technician; $887 was spent on an experienced technician; and $911 was spent on managers.
Respondents were asked to select all applicable training sources. Similar to years past, technicians garner a large portion of their training from paint companies (91 percent), I-CAR (82 percent) and jobbers (70 percent).
Fifty-seven percent of shops cited equipment manufacturers as a source for technician training. Another 51 percent cited trade show seminars. Trade magazines (44 percent) and in-house training programs (41 percent) also continue to be a means of technician training.
OEM training (35 percent) and association seminars (30 percent) are attended by approximately one-third of the collision shop population. Remaining sources include Web-based training (22 percent), independent training providers (19 percent), technical schools (13 percent) and community colleges (8 percent).
ASE certification has real value for collision technicians. According to survey results, 70 percent of collision shops have an average of four ASE-certified technicians; 30 percent did not have ASE-certified technicians. Slightly more common is paint company certification, with 91 percent of collision businesses having an average of two paint manufacturer-certified technicians.
Being I-CAR trained is also common with nine out of 10 collision shops. Most shops have five or more I-CAR-trained technicians. Categorizing these results, 47 percent of shops have five or more I-CAR-trained technicians; 14 percent have four I-CAR techs; 15 percent have three; 10 percent have two; and 5 percent have one I-CAR trained technician.
The need for qualified technicians continues to be heard throughout the industry, making technician retention as important as ever. According to survey results, 47 percent of facilities promoted an average of two technicians in 2003. Fifty-nine percent of collision repair shops had an average of two technicians leave in 2003. Sixty-two percent of collision shops said they hired an average of two technicians in 2003.
Examining these industry stats, we see that nearly six out of 10 collision shops saw technicians come and go. When asked to select the employee type for which their business would have the most need in the upcoming year, 48 percent said experienced technicians. This was followed by entry-level technicians (19 percent), estimators (10 percent), apprentice technicians (9 percent) and experienced painters (5 percent). Other positions registered only a slight percentage. Note, the survey did not allow "none" as a response option.
The main source of new hires comes from referrals (58 percent), followed by other businesses (14 percent), vocational technical schools (12 percent) and classified advertising (11 percent). Other sources with minimal effect of attracting technicians include apprenticeship programs, high school programs, school-to-work programs and the Internet.
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