The struggle to find, hire and train technicians has long been very real for equipment dealers across the country. Rising to that challenge in an industry filled with them, manufacturers and dealers are finding glimmers of hope on the horizon.
Tech Shortage Stats
The warning signs have been coming for quite some time. Five years ago, the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) Foundation commissioned and subsequently released a comprehensive report during ConExpo 2020. “The Equipment Industry Technician Shortage: Reassessing Causes, Impacts and Policy Recommendations” gauged where the industry stood, and helped better understand the future workforce outlook.
The findings were staggering: the industry anticipated needing to fill as many as 73,500 heavy equipment technician positions by 2025. The report also found equipment manufacturing possesses a job opening rate 3x higher than the national average. Among survey respondents, 95% agreed with the assertion there was a skills gap in the industry, while 89% reported a shortage of workers within the walls of their respective companies.
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ summary of the category including mechanics and service technicians, from its most current summary of Occupational Employment and Wages (May 2023), reported 36,830 workers, earning a mean hourly wage of $25.06, and a mean annual wage of $52,120. The states with the most mechanics and service techs were California, Texas, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.
Spotlight on Training Solutions
It’s out of Minnesota that Farm Equipment’s editors found a particularly comprehensive training program. A deep-dive discussion with its training program advocate and a tech intern uncovered successful strategies for feeding the future tech workforce.
As a family-owned local ag dealer with nearly 30 locations across Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, Ziegler has been manning the store, and its technician needs, in a way that others can learn. Director of Branch Operations Joe Atkinson, based in Rochester, Minn, has been with Ziegler for 25 years, starting his career as a technician. He says he doesn’t know what the company would do without their comprehensive pipeline technician programs.
From Trainee to Head Trainer
Coining the phrase, “he knows a thing or two, because he’s seen a thing or two…” is wholly appropriate in sharing background on the man behind Ziegler’s Tech Training program. After serving as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army, Joe Atkinson began his equipment industry career at Ziegler as a technician. He has been with the company for 25 years, working his way through the ranks. His experience includes being the lead night shift support technician for the Rochester, Minn., location. He then spent 11 years as a branch operations manager managing all parts and service operations for the Rochester location. In 2017 he became general manager, Product Support, managing 9 Ziegler locations before being named director of Branch Operations in January 2023. In this role, he is responsible for guiding product support operations for all Ziegler locations in Iowa and Minnesota with a focus on supporting the general managers and overall company strategic initiatives, while putting a heavy focus on branch consistency and safety. His entire career has involved product support across agriculture and construction equipment.
Ziegler partners with local technical and community colleges to hire intern technicians for their in-house training program. The program gives students hands-on, paid experience at Ziegler shops, using the latest technology, and guidance from trained, experienced technicians. Each intern technician has a mentor, can work flexible hours to accommodate school schedules, and has the opportunity for cross-training to help them find the area they most enjoy (agriculture, construction). Of the 25-30 in the program annually, the majority of graduates are hired as full-time technicians.
“Ziegler has always really focused on a train-the-trainer type approach,” says Atkinson. “Our OEMs offer factory training for all technicians, of course, but our approach really from the start has been, let's train a trainer and then come back to our operation and let that trainer really be the expert, really create our own expert within Ziegler, and allow them to train the rest of the organization. That's been our philosophy.”
In addition to their Intern Technician Program, Ziegler continues to prioritize the ongoing training and education of all shop and field service technicians. To ensure the training hits each store’s target goals, Atkinson hosts annual meetings with Branch Operations Managers (BOMs), tuning into their needs and tailoring the training to address them at local branches. Atkinson noted the trainers will visit one of the larger branches, pulling in tech trainees from regional shops, typically hosting 8-12 students. Training sessions are most often held in winter months, running from 4 full days for first timers to 1-2 days for updated training, in addition to the OEM training to help new and veteran techs learn the new products and help maintain best-in-class service.
Keys to Success
“It's hard to find youth who want to go into this industry, to get them out of tech schools, come to work for us and have that opportunity to continue and advance their teaching and training,” says Atkinson. “In our eyes, while it's the tech school's role to teach these kids the basics, it's really up to us to drive it toward our OEM partners, with Caterpillar and AGCO, and focus that training for the direction they want to go in their career.”
Seeing training as an ongoing process is essential for dealers and techs.
“For each technician, honestly, the training never ends. When you look at this industry and the technology and how fast and quickly it advances over the career of a technician, it isn't a one and done thing. It's ongoing. We continuously look at and update our technician training on a regular basis.”
Ziegler’s Atkinson identified several key components of the tech training program most critical to its success: outreach, recruitment, mentoring and maintenance. Each combines to allow the next generation of techs to seek and find a career path which incorporates ongoing training to stay up to date with new equipment and emerging technologies; for the dealers across the network, it helps them recruit and retain qualified technicians to meet the demands of manufacturers and customers.
The Role of Outreach: How Community Partnerships Deliver Valuable Yield
The primary factor driving Ziegler’s high retention rate is employee referrals. Atkinson explains that dealership staff are well established in each of the communities in which they operate, so the ongoing outreach by the recruiting teams and branch leaders, and success with those who have come through and continue in the pipeline training program, is essential to not only finding, but keeping, valued technicians.
With strong roots in each community, outreach by Ziegler’s training team is fundamental to the success of the program and, by extension, the dealerships. Not only is the commitment a financial one in various ways, but a textbook example of how relationships continue to be the driving force matching young upcoming technicians with some of the nation’s leading ag equipment dealers.
To answer the question, “Where do we go for techs?” Atkinson would advise dealers looking to fill the pipeline of future workers in schools. He noted that while safety is and always will be the company’s top priority, the intensity of their connections with schools, from middle school to tech and community colleges, is the most important priority.
FSOs at the Intersection of Safety and Training
Another “game changer” Joe Atkinson prioritized is a project focused on shop structure. Nearly complete in all of its locations, he explained the Future Service Office (FSO), which emerged from the company’s laser focus on safety. He says, “If we can't do something safely, we're not going to do it. We're going to work together, put our heads together, and figure out a way to do it safer. We don't put our people in harm's way to get a job done. That is rule number one.” He explained that they found shop supervisors were answering the phone, taking the day-to-day work, and interacting with the customers, but it wasn't allowing them to get out on the floor the amount of time needed. So they changed the structure.
“We took the phone away from our shop supervisors, put service advisors in place to take those calls and interact with the customer, and really focus that shop supervisor on the floor. That really has been a game changer. They're traditionally technicians, so they know the ins and outs of our business, are trained and highly educated. They are out on the floor, and they are that resource for these technicians that maybe haven't gone to a lot of training yet and are working out on the floor. It's almost a second mentor. That go-to person on the floor that they're interacting with throughout the course of the job they're working on throughout the day. I would strongly suggest to any dealer who has that dual role — where that shop supervisor is interacting with the customers and on the phone a lot — to take a look at the tasks you're asking them to do every day, then ask and understand whether your shop supervisor is really out on the floor.
Atkinson detailed the range of opportunities presented to the ag dealer in each community, including middle school career fairs, where Atkinson makes sure he brings Ziegler techs to talk with both parents and the prospective trainees. Even in middle school, it’s important to plant the proverbial seed, he adds.
High school Job Shadowing Days, where students spend half a day in the dealership seeing the heavy equipment being serviced by techs up close and personal is another great way to bring the idea of this career path to them. Future Farmers of America (FFA) tours during regional events often bring in as many as 200-300 students into the local shops.
The largest area on Ziegler program leaders focus is working closely and consistently building relationships with local community colleges and tech schools. With students who tend to know they are mechanically inclined and enjoy working with machinery — whether their car or family farm’s equipment, these schools and their curriculum create a natural path for equipment techs in the making.
Atkinson says that for Ziegler, the commitment to future generations extends beyond financial support to the communities they live in. “We’re all about the commitment to these kids and the success in their programs that they're attending, and that's really helped us when they hit the ground running in our operations.”
Mentoring Matters
Driving home the message that mentors matter was a common theme shared by Atkinson and one of tech interns who’s been involved with the program over the past year.
“Those first days and weeks can be scary and intimidating, so it's important to have someone they can go to with any question and build a relationship,” says Atkinson. He noted that Ziegler is below the national average on turnover, and he feels the mentoring focus is a vital component.
“The industry has changed so drastically, these are no longer just mechanics, but highly-trained and skilled technicians helping to keep equipment and their operators running efficiently year round.” – Joe Atkinson
“It’s all about technicians and the customers, and any time you have a technician who knows he’s got someone as the go to person, it’s a win all around when you send that highly trained technician out to that customer. You can give them the latest and greatest in the facility, tooling, and service truck. But if you don't teach them and educate them, then all you've got is the latest and greatest. The differentiator for us is our people, and that really is why we invest in the training the way we do.”
“It’s the job of our entire industry to work together,” he emphasized. “The industry has changed so drastically, these are no longer just mechanics, but highly-trained and skilled technicians helping to keep equipment and their operators running efficiently year round. There truly are endless opportunities.”
Case Study: One Technician Intern’s Story
Tyler Grob-Yurek is a Rebuild Technician at Ziegler CAT in Bloomington, Minn., who started the paid tech internship in Nov., 2023, which he’ll complete in spring 2025. Here’s how one young man started, and is poised to stay, on the heavy equipment tech career track.
Grob-Yurek first learned about the Ziegler intern program at the start of the fall 2023 semester, when the local Ziegler Branch Manager came into the tech school he was attending, Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) in Rosemont, Minn., which offered a 2-year heavy equipment program. Learning about the tech program, and benefits of future full-time employment — from sign-on bonuses to health insurance coverage — he wanted to get his foot in the door and try it out. He’d always loved working on his truck and 4-wheelers, enjoys being hands-on with tools, and knew he wanted to do something with heavy equipment.
He discussed how he was paired with a one-on-one mentor who taught him the basics from the beginning, working on dozers at the start, taking apart and replacing valves and motors.
“It’s all hands-on training and different from what is being taught in the tech school classes, so it's really helpful to have someone walk through the actual work on the equipment,” he says. About his mentor, who is a lead tech, he says, “It's also nice to have that one person to show you how to do everything.”
Weekdays, Grob-Yurek attends classes from 7 a.m. to noon, then goes straight into the Ziegler shop to work until 8:30 p.m. He gets consistent feedback, and says the more he works on the machines, the simpler it gets. With ongoing positive feedback, he’s confident he’ll be hired full-time. Tech intern reviews every few months help him and his mentor track his progress. Considering he had not had prior heavy equipment experience, and wasn’t sure how it would be, he has had good feedback from the program leaders and feels certain he followed a good path.
“Now that I’ve been here longer, getting to know the people and the equipment, I can definitely see myself doing this,” he says. “To me, one of the most important things is if you really like working with your hands, it’s definitely something to look into. You always have someone on your side, teaching you.” He’s looking forward to graduating from Dakota County Technical College (DCTC), finishing his internship, then moving onto the next phase at Ziegler, confident that the ongoing training on all of the new technology coming onto the scene will keep him in learning mode and keep it interesting.
