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Accelerating careers - How automotive employers can attract and keep top talent

By Kate Ruberry-Shoemack, Director of People & Communications at Rygor Group

The automotive sector continues to rapidly develop and change, and the key to commercial success is having the right team in place to help implement and drive forward positive and dynamic transformation. Attracting and retaining top talent has become as critical as product innovation, particularly in an industry which depends on skill, dedication, and forward-thinking team members to thrive. Retention is key to a successful business and for employee wellbeing and morale. It’s all about having the right team members in the right roles, at the right time. Simple, right?

Not always! Skills shortages concern 49% of automotive businesses (SMMT, 2022) so long-term workforce planning is key. With an automotive sector skills-gap, attracting new generations is paramount (Mann, 2024) which is why it’s positive to see that employees starting apprenticeships in the sector grew by 67% in 2022 (SMMT, 2022).

Investing in early-stage training prompts retention, because employees today are looking for much more than a salary. They want workplaces that offer purpose, growth opportunities, flexibility, and recognition. The automotive sector has the chance to provide all of this, by showing how rewarding a career in the industry can be and by investing in the long-term success of its teams.

Attracting talent - Getting it right from the start

It’s essential to create an impactful retention strategy for your business, to engender and create psychologically safe environments. This needs to start at the point of recruitment, onboarding and induction (Taylor, 2022) because 33% of employees leave companies within the first three months of employment (Sills, 2019).

This is why, at Rygor, we focus on the recruitment, onboarding and induction process, to ensure that candidates and future employees have a brilliant experience from their first interaction with us. We focus on supporting candidates through the interview process with a company success pack – we want them to be successful, so why not help them with useful information? Our structured first week induction gives new team members the opportunity to embed into the business and our monthly virtual new starter coffee breaks allow all our new Team Rygor members to come together from across the business to get to know each other. And it’s working (rygor.co.uk). In 2024…

  • 66% of new starters found Rygor’s onboarding process ‘excellent’ and 33.3% found it ‘good’.
  • 100% of new starters would recommend Rygor as an employee.
  • 100% of new starters are proud to be part of Team Rygor.
  • 6% of new starters felt that Rygor has lived up to the expectations they had prior to starting.
  • 88% of those who attended the new starter coffee breaks felt the presentation made them feel a sense of belonging and team spirit.

Ensuring candidates get the most out of the recruitment and onboarding experience is essential, but supporting hiring managers with this is important too. For example, during the recruitment process, managers often feedback that applicants’ skills don’t align with the job role requirements. This is one of the reasons that, at Rygor, we created the Career Hub, a free resource to help guide individuals (looking for any job, in any sector) with CV writing, role applications and interviews, to help them be as successful as possible.

So, top tip… Take a look at your current onboarding and induction process. Is it working? Are you seeing new starters leave in the first few months? Is it time to re-focus this area, to help retain your team members?

Job roles and design

Once you have brilliant team members, it’s essential to create a workplace culture which people want to be part of, to retain them in the business. Having ownership over your role and tasks is a crucial part of feeling fulfilled and ultimately leads to more engaged team members who are committed to the company.

With the evolution of new technologies, job descriptions are changing from static to an evolutionary guide, needing to be continually reviewed to meet organisational demands. Unsurprisingly, therefore, recent research shows job design can positively impact employee wellbeing, and reduce sickness absence up to 40%, as individuals feel they have control over and transparency of their role (Carter and Wilson, 2023).

What’s more, it’s important to consider what skills and experience are actually required for a role in today’s workplace. Job analysis is shifting towards strategic approaches, incorporating futurist job traits such as AI and technology, in addition to current requirements, to future-proof resource. For example, in the automotive industry, many desired skills align with those also vital in high-tech companies. Thus, a current development in job analysis and design, is creating roles and development programmes for staff (and job adverts) highlighting these transferable skills; enticing individuals from technological industries into automotive companies and those who have these skills to utilise them in their automotive workplace (Mercer, 2023).

This means, you need to think strategically about where the business is heading and hire new talent which aligns with future required skills. It’s also important to enable current team members to review their job descriptions and see what they think is needed to be a personal success and contribute effectively to organisational success.

Learning & Development (L&D)

Being strategic about talent management in automotive can create high-performance, continual-learning cultures, that contribute to retention and attraction of talented candidates (CIPD, 2023). Ensuring high-performer retention through talent management is paramount for thriving organisations (CIPD, 2021). With total employee-replacement costs amounting to multiple times annual salary (Cappelli and Nehmeh, 2024) the value of resource and talent management strategies is in retention and consistency.

However, what development, learning, and success looks like, will be different for every individual. Whilst long-term development programmes are desirable for some, shadowing, mentoring and peer coaching will be valuable for upskilling others. Therefore, it’s important to look at personalised talent development approaches which add value by upskilling existing employees, ensure employees are invested in, feel valued and enable internal vacancy filling.

Gen Z and Y will make up 64% of the workforce by 2025 (Workforce, 2021). With 46% of companies struggling to attract and retain younger workers, organisations must focus on L&D and talent management strategies for this demographic (Oyeyinka, 2024). In the medium-term, introducing mentoring programmes between long-serving staff and new employees is essential to close skills gaps and ensure all employees feel valued, developed and invested in.

Managers are key drivers of employee engagement and retention as they have the opportunity to encourage employees to thrive. For example, carrying out appraisals with employees (which we schedule annually at Rygor) allows team members to understand how they are progressing against expectations and grow from effective feedback via open conversations, utilising clear goals to support development (Taylor, 2022). Moreover, individualistic feedback allows an employee to feel invested in personally, with a focus on their future and achievements (Taylor, 2022) and better manages their L&D pathway as it’s specific to them.

What’s more, it’s important to look at a range of learning and training opportunities for staff, to offer development at different career stages. At Rygor, we offer a range of industry and professional training programmes, from our in-house future leader programme, to our free self-development journal, which anyone can download from our website - https://rygorgroup.co.uk/self-development-journal/. This is to support on-going growth and learning and long and inspiring career journeys, which ultimately leads to retention of talented team members.

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About the author

Kate Ruberry-Shoemack is Director of People & Communications at Rygor Group, one of the UK’s leading automotive dealer groups. With extensive experience in people strategy, talent development, and organisational culture, she is passionate about creating a workplace where individuals can thrive and progress. Kate plays a key role in driving Rygor Group’s commitment to attracting and retaining top talent within the automotive sector, ensuring the business remains innovative, inclusive, and future-focused in a rapidly evolving industry.

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