September/October Issue 63 - Flipbook - Page 8
NEWS
ONE OF THE INDUSTRY CHALLENGES –
We shelved our plans to
implement a planned pay increase
last year for obvious reasons, but
we couldn’t not do it this year. Our
last one was in April 2019.
This year, as it was two years ago,
we are again largely footing the bill
which, in our case, at an increase
of circa 6%, is an additional
£23k a year in wage and other
employment associated costs.
By James Weedon, Isis Rescue –
Region 8
I wrote an article published in
Professional Recovery back in
November 2014 highlighting a
very real and present challenge
we operators were facing at the
time, namely the recruitment
(and retention) of staff.
I implored the work providers to
recognise the issue and appealed
for help in tackling it. Fast forward
some six and a half years and
nothing has changed. We are no
better off - in fact, predictably, the
situation has become worse.
Over the years, we have fallen
so far behind the curve in the
rate of pay we pay our recovery
operatives, in comparison to similar
job roles in other industries, that
our men and women are getting
sucked back closer and closer to
the national minimum wage, which
has recently increased again to
£8.91/hr.
This isn’t right. We conduct annual
pay reviews and do our best to
bridge this ever-widening gap but
we are still a long way short of
what prospective employees can
command elsewhere.
08
We recently approached and
had discussions with a number
of the smaller independent work
providers on this subject with
some success and I thank those
who have been receptive to, and
understanding of, our situation.
However, the rates paid by the
traditional work providers simply
have not kept up with inflationary
increases and the appeals I make
to them on an almost annual basis
for an increase often falls on deaf
ears.
Consequently, it is not just the
increase in wage costs we are
having to absorb but also increases
in all our other operating costs.
Do not get me started on our
annual insurance renewals and
the “inflationary-busting” and eye
watering increases we see in our
premium every year. We can’t
keep doing it.
Bringing it back on topic, until we
can offer considerably improved
wages, the problem of recruitment
just will not go away.
We are finding it increasingly
difficult to recruit recovery
operatives, let alone roadside
technicians. Whilst we have
always found it hard to prise
qualified mechanics out of their
cosy workshops working standard
hours, drivers were always “two-apenny”. Not anymore.
With summer looming, and with
it an expected sharp rise in work
volumes as more people choose
to holiday in the UK rather than
go abroad, this gives me serious
cause for concern.
There is a real danger of us not
being able to meet this pentup demand. Judging by the
recent recruitment drive of one
well known, brightly coloured,
breakdown service provider, we
are not alone in harbouring these
concerns.
We have an advert permanently
running on Indeed, yet it generates
very few applications.
We at least used to be able to
entice them through the door (if
only for the vast majority to drop
out after the interview stage citing
money as the reason for not
accepting the job) but we can’t
even do that anymore - the job
holds very little appeal to people
nowadays.
Those we can persuade to give it
a go we often find do not stick at it,
deciding within a matter of weeks
it’s not for them.
Whilst the money is not always
the underlying reason for this,
there is no doubt the hours vs
money equation in recovery does
not make it an attractive career
choice - the pay on offer does not
compensate sufficiently for the
sacrifice they make being called
out at all hours and the detrimental
effect this has on family life.
