How a 4-day, 10 Hour Work Week Could Help Transform Your Service Department
Lee Peters | 13 December 2021
The old adage that ‘time is money’ is as pertinent to a dealership’s service department, as it is any business in Australia. An optimised service department can be a key driver of dealership profitability, but we frequently see it being a dealer’s most underperforming department. Often this can be due to the ever-challenging task of efficiently allocating time in the workshop.
One change we are seeing in the market is adjusting the opening hours to 5-6 days a week and creating a 4-day, 10-hour roster by splitting technicians into teams. While this could be a significant shift away from the traditional way of working of 9 to 5, the potential benefits we have listed below can help provide a compelling case for making the move.
Work Life Balance
It is no secret that there is currently a significant shortage of technicians across the country. With the war for talent in the industry as hotly contested as ever, this move could be a significant differentiator when trying to attract and retain top performing technicians.
While the working day becomes longer under this proposal, it is possible that many technicians are far happier adding a few extra hours to each shift in exchange for a four-day week.
A three-day weekend’s impact on work life balance, coupled with a 20% reduction in weekly commuting time, could be an incredibly attractive proposition for existing and prospective technicians.
Boost Throughput and Efficiency
In the workshop it often feels that there are simply not enough hours in the day, particularly when at 100% capacity and the added pressure of jobs taking longer than allocated. At the end of the day, each hour the service department is closed can be considered a wasted capital resource.
Having the workshop active for longer each day will create more booking availability, likely leading to a significant boost in overall throughput.
Further to this, having the ability to start and finish jobs earlier will likely free up parking space later in the day and reduce the capacity constraints that can be a thorn in the side of even the best run service departments.
Customer Satisfaction
While the benefits to your staff and dealership are potentially significant, it is an attractive proposition for customers too. Clients love flexibility, and often hate the morning congestion of the traditional 8am service drop off. Staying open for longer and giving customers the option to drop their car in earlier could be a significant selling point of your operations.
Have you ever considered restructuring the rostering of your technicians? We would love to hear from you if any of the issues mentioned above resonate with your service operations.
To read more visit, https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/consumer-blog/2021/how-4-day-10-hour-work-week-help-transform-service.html
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