Scramble for skills intensifies

Skills is the number one challenge facing businesses today, while communication and collaboration with partners is the best way to overcome this and other challenges.

That was the message from the second ARC360 webinar of 2022, hosted in association with I Love Claims (click here to watch).

The session, which addressed the operational issues facing the industry post-pandemic, featured panellists:

• Harry Abraham, Operations Director, Halo ARC
• Jeff Mack, National Account Manager, NWVA
• Jane Pocock, Managing Director, Copart UK
• Robert McWilliams, Approved Repairer Vendor Manager, UKGI Claims, Zurich Insurance

Recruitment

While all represent different sectors of the industry, all said they were facing the same challenges when it comes to staffing levels.

Jeff said, “The recovery business is heavily reliant on drivers, but it’s not easy for our industry to compete with what supermarkets are paying their drivers. For us, the challenge is also attracting the right sort of people. We are often first on scene so we need people who can present the right sort of customer service on the roadside.”

Highlighting the scramble for skills in this area, it was revealed that Amazon has increased its UK workforce fourfold since Covid-19 struck.

Jane explained how Copart is investing in apprentices, while also upskilling its current workforce and providing clear career development paths.

She said, “Succession planning is important because we do need a lot of experience in our line of work.”

Volumes

Coinciding with this skills crisis has been a dramatic return in volumes. Jeff said NWVA had peaked at 160% of pre-pandemic levels, driven by a combination of more people getting back in their cars and fewer recovery operators still in business post Covid.

Harry agreed, suggesting the sudden return of volumes has surprised repairers too, and this, Jane said, was having an impact at Copart as well.

She said, “Operationally we’ve had to gear up for significant increases in volume. Obviously there is more road usage now, which creates work, but the chip shortage has driven up the price of used cars, which has driven up salvage prices, and we’re also getting more work because bodyshops aren’t always able to handle the volume of jobs they’re getting.

“Capacity is a challenge, but because of our size and the fact we have multiple sites we are able to be fluid and move work around.”

Agility

It is this sort of adaptability to inconsistent, unpredictable and often fluctuating conditions that, going forward, all operations will need to display. Robert said the pandemic had forced change on a lot of companies, but all future change needs to be collegiate, with buy-in from partners and supply chains.

He said, “We’re experiencing a perfect storm at the moment. We need to continue to evolve while at the same time managing customer expectations, but the only way we can do that is by working together with our suppliers.

“At the front end, insurers need to supply the network with as much information as possible to enable them to assess damage and order parts, and at the back end we need to make sure the cash flow is good by paying suppliers on time.”

Understanding

Jane agreed that cooperation and understanding each other’s issues was fundamental.

She said, “Speed and ease is critical to insurers so we invest all our time and energy into making processes as efficient as possible. Agility is part of our DNA. We see ourselves as a tech company which is constantly transforming, and a logistics operation; we all know how logistics has moved on in Covid and we are part of that journey.”

Halo ARC has also seen substantial change in the last few years, not least because of its partnership with IRS Group last autumn. But incorporation into the group has only accentuated a culture that was already in place.

Harry said, “We’ve never been afraid of changing direction, and our teams are used to being agile – that’s enabled us to remain at the forefront of the industry. Going forward, there will be even greater change. We’re only on the threshold of artificial intelligence and robotics, so when it comes to recruitment, we shouldn’t stop at technical talent. We need to attract fresh minds to the industry who will be able to drive the change that these technologies will enable, and our partnership with IRS definitely makes us a more attractive employer in that sense.”

Electric vehicles

For many in the industry, the most substantial change taking place now is electric vehicles. Much has been said about the surge in demand for EVs, and the escalating prices at the fuel pumps will hardly temper that demand. However, the introduction of an entirely new powertrain to the sector poses operational challenges.

Jane said, “We typically plan five, six, 10 years ahead, and EVs are a big part of our strategy. It’s probably the biggest thing in our working lives in terms of transitioning and doing things differently, but we don’t know all the risks they pose. There are lots of factors and we all need to prepare ourselves.”

Harry suggests that those preparations are not yet taking place across the wider aftermarket, or are taking place too late and too slowly.

He said, “Some groups are doing a lot of good work, but I don’t think we as an industry are anywhere near ready. I think we’ve massively underestimated EVs. We can see the challenge coming but we’re still waiting for insurers to take the lead and tell us what to do.”

That’s not the case at NWVA, which will launch an IMI-approved course specific to the safe recovery of EVs next month.

Jeff said, “If it’s a straightforward recovery then there is no problem, but it’s a game-changer if there is battery damage and at the moment no one knows what to do. So we’ve put a course together that will train on-scene agents on what to do if there is battery damage. Because the implications are enormous.”

Cooperation

Regardless of the challenges though, the panel agreed that working in partnership and in an open and transparent way is the only way forward.

Greater integration between systems was highlighted by Harry as critical to achieving operational efficiency and removing ‘a lot of the stresses and strains out of the process’ whilst Jeff summed up exactly why all of this was so important to any claim: “We all share the same customer”.

ARC360 would like to thank its Corporate Partners BASF, BMS, CAPS, Copart, Emacs, Entegral, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Innovation Group, Mirka, Nationwide Vehicle Recovery Assistance, S&G Response, and Sherwin Williams as well as Partners asTech, The Green Parts Specialist, Indasa and Prasco UK, and Associate Partners Gemini, Trend Tracker and Thatcham Research.