Situation
A luxury automaker wanted a solution to an industry-wide problem: a shortage of qualified auto mechanics.
Given the generational push towards 4-year college degrees, fewer people had been considering careers as automotive mechanics. This trend had been adversely affecting the ability to hire high-quality engineers to maintain and repair customer vehicles.
Driven by that objective, the business sought a proactive approach towards enrolling more people in their service technician education program.
Excellent classes were available, but student enrollment was down. In this environment, business leaders turned to us for employer branding and recruitment marketing expertise to fuel talent at more than 300 dealerships across the United States.
Journey to success
To help drive enrollment, we developed a fresh website to attract and educate prospective students. The site pushes visitors to a user-friendly application system.
Creative advertising and marketing promotion have been used to help broaden the applicant pool. We’ve run sponsored campaigns on Google AdWords, Facebook, Instagram, and Indeed.
Within one year of program launch, the class fill rate jumped from 60 percent to 91 percent, and the organization’s public website averages 10,000 monthly visitors. Within 18 months, the class fill rate reached 98 percent.
Project expansion
Business executives also sought to transform the reputation of the automotive sales industry. They wanted to open the world of automotive sales to a more diverse talent pool.
Towards this objective, we helped build an engaging employer brand to attract Millennial and Gen Z candidates.
We launched a private website to help drive engagement between students and automotive dealers. We also developed, launched, and maintain a private job board website that includes student profile pages and matches upcoming graduates with car dealers’ open positions.
A specialist course for military candidates has also been launched.
Behind the scenes
The employer also needed to spread awareness that their training program is free of charge to those who accept a job with one of their dealers for one year. That benefit had been a significant, yet under-communicated, program feature.
About the client
A luxury automotive maker runs an automotive technical education program to provide students with hands-on technical training and prepare them for an exciting career at a dealer location. The program is open to graduates of post-secondary automotive schools who will further their knowledge working on some of the most technologically advanced and luxurious cars and motorcycles in the world.
