Recruitment drive

Canadian automobile industry looking for skilled labour; targeting millennials, women, new Canadians and military veterans

While no one can predict the future, it’s safe to say that certain industries will always experience quick and continuous growth. Banking, funeral planning, real estate, and telecommunications, just to name a few.

Another sector that anticipates upward momentum in the years to come is the automobile industry, which currently provides employment for more than 150,000 people across Canada at over 3,200 car and truck dealerships.

In 2017, revenues exceeded $120 billion in revenues, reached record sales numbers for the fifth straight year and achieved the first two-million vehicle year.

With growth comes a need for labour and the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) says its membership is crying out regarding a lack of skilled labour to fill positions within their respective dealerships.

“Not only the positions you would assume in terms of service technician or sales… but in other types of positions that are not necessarily naturally associated with dealerships,” explains Catherine Fortin Lefaivre, marketing co-lead for CADA’S Auto Career Start campaign launched earlier this month. That might be in management, parts and service, administration, accounting, marketing, IT, finance and even HR.

In an effort to back up membership’s assertion and gather more marketing data to address the issues, CADA contracted market research company Abacus Data to conduct a national survey on human resources and hiring projections.

It found that in the next 12 months, 99.5 per cent of new car and truck dealerships intend to hire at least one and up to six people, while nearly half (44 per cent) plan to bring on at least six and up to 20.

“If you’re looking for a job, the numbers have shown us that it’s a growing industry and we achieved record sales last year and it’s a good place to be, so, why not take a look at the options there if you want a meaningful career in an environment that’s changing, that’s innovating,” suggests Fortin Lefaivre.

A major component of Auto Career Start is aimed at diversifying the work force, one that is currently dominated by middleaged white men.

As such, the campaign targets millennials, women, new Canadians, and military veterans.

“Innovation comes from a variety of ideas, so if we’re positioning ourselves as an innovative new type of modern dealership that’s not the dealership that you envision from the 1970s, then we have to try new things and we have to be proactive in getting people that you may not see at the moment when you go in a new car and truck dealership,” says Fortin Lefaivre.

A separate Abacus survey of 2,000 millennials conducted in late December 2017 and early in 2018 found that nearly 70 per cent had never considered working in a dealership.

“Look, we’re also innovative, what’s more innovative than cars,” asks Fortin Lafaivre. “You can have a well-paying job with great benefits and opportunities to move up, all these things that we know millennials are looking for are there, but they may not know.”

Marian Templeton, executive director for the Automobile Dealers Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (ADANL), says its local membership falls in line with the rest of the country on the need for more skilled labour and fully support the diversification movement. “We would absolutely love to open up the industry to more women, more people coming in from other countries, to more career changers, people that are getting out of one industry and wanting to try something different,” says Templeton.