Every week Nexus, in collaboration with its suppliers, delivers training to more than 100 participants. They are from all over the world, from technical referents to those employed in purchasing departments. It makes training one of Nexus’s most successful initiatives.
But the bigger challenge is to attract new talents into the aftermarket. At N!BF 2020 Nexus CEO Gael Escribe and Gunter Weber, SVP with Bosch Aftermarket, explained how Nexus is engaged in a major project to modernise the industry’s image and entice the ‘new blood’ that will secure its future.
Why has it been difficult to attract talents to the aftermarket?
Attracting new talents is a massive challenge to be tackled. It is a task that requires leadership, without it we cannot make a new future for the aftermarket happen.
That is why NEXUS brought around the table a number of distributors, manufacturers, associations and consulting firms to understand why there is such a problem, and how we can solve it.
We recognised that this industry has failed to seduce people to join, and also there is a lack of a proper recruitment plan. The industry is considered dusty and does not have an ethical image. Also, it is not properly a digital industry.
So, overall, it is an unfashionable sector to be in, which is not the best image to have to sell to future talents. Yet, we still have a lot to offer.
Our car parc is still growing, we have an exciting future and tremendous changes underway in vehicle technology, changes in the ownership models and as well in the distribution channels.
But there are positive things happening, so what can you do to communicate this to new talents?
As a task force we have started with two big initiatives:
Firstly, we have a collaboration with two universities, one in Denmark and one in Germany, and we would like to find out how students are looking at our industry and what they think about the automotive aftermarket? Why they choose to join or not to join the industry? In France, as well, we are looking into the workshops.
Secondly, we have launched a research project to find out what people think about the aftermarket.
We will present the results of our study int the coming weeks , along with a proposal for a digital social platform to advertise the campaign and a media day.
What can you do practically, with potential new recruits?
We would like to look at foreign exchange programs to help young talents to work internationally. We are also looking at partnerships with schools and universities because those are the places that most influence the career choices of young talents.
We also want to work on a hackathon with some young talents to find out how we can attract even more.
By doing these things in collaboration with people who are usually our competitors, with great leaders and some individuals, we are sure that we can make it happen, but we will need lots of contributions from the industry.
