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Jason Duffy leading a recruiter development session
Three years of data challenges how collision and automotive employers approach the skilled technician shortage
Hire slow, Fire fast by building a back up funnel”— Jason Xavier DuffyMANCHESTER , NH, UNITED STATES, October 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Trinity Talent Group has published its 2026 Technician Retention Report, drawing on 1,000 technician interviews conducted over the last twelve months. Its primary conclusion contradicts how most collision and automotive employers handle staff turnover: openness, not salary, is the leading factor driving technicians out the door.
The report was written by Jason Duffy, founder and chair of Trinity Talent Group, who carried out the interviews across 48 states. What technicians brought up time and again was not a request for higher pay. Instead, it was a series of questions no one at their workplace would answer: how flag hours are truly computed, the reasoning behind their pay rate, what steps lead to promotion, whether work is assigned evenly, and where shop profits go when raises don’t materialize.
"Pay is a painkiller, not a cure," Duffy said. "Every shop owner's first instinct when a tech gets restless is to throw money at him. That buys you a few months and it fixes nothing, because the problem was never the number on the check. It was that nobody ever explained the number on the check. Silence doesn't read as neutral to a technician. It reads as something being hidden."
The report also measures what that turnover actually costs, and the number is far larger than most operators realize. Trinity’s analysis places the revenue lost to one empty bay at $24,775 per week, or $107,276 per month, climbing to $1,288,300 over a year for a strong producer. Standard flag-hour calculations, the report found, underestimate the real cost of a vacancy by roughly 75 percent, since they leave out parts markup, calibrations, and sublet work. Trinity’s average repair order value across the dataset was $4,955.
Against that figure, the report’s recommendations require no additional labor spending. They include putting flagged hours on public display daily, explaining the labor-time method rather than just stating it, publishing a full pay scale tied to promotion criteria, making dispatch decisions justifiable, holding monthly one-on-one production reviews, and informing staff where profit is being reinvested. The report concludes that a shop adopting these practices within 30 days can keep its technicians without adjusting a single pay rate.
Duffy argues the findings serve a second purpose most employers overlook entirely. Once a shop understands what technicians truly value, it can market around that knowledge.
"Knowing what talent wants means you can market for it, and almost nobody does," Duffy said. "Every shop in America runs the same job post. Competitive pay, great team, apply today. That tells a technician nothing, which is exactly why it doesn't work."
The report details where that marketing takes place. Job boards remain the starting point, but the report’s stance is that the job posting itself is the factor almost no employer treats as one: a listing that reveals the pay scale, explains how flag hours are determined, and outlines the advancement path answers the questions technicians raised across all 1,000 interviews, before they even need to ask.
Social media, the report finds, is the strongest channel available, and the one most underutilized in the trades. A shop that displays its bays, its employees, and its daily operations is doing publicly what the report recommends doing internally. Community events deliver the same message to technicians who aren’t actively job hunting but would switch for the right culture. And trade schools, Duffy argues, represent the most overlooked opportunity of all.
"Trade schools produce entry-level technicians, not profit-creating technicians," Duffy said. "Those have to be headhunted. But the schools are still where you go to tell students what you're about and how it differs from where most places are failing them. Walk in and explain that your pay scale is published and your dispatch is transparent, and you've separated yourself from every other shop that will recruit that class."
Duffy built Trinity Talent Group over three years, placing more than 1,000 skilled technicians across 48 states and representing roughly 3 million billable hours of technician labor, before selling the company in 2026. He remains in place as chair. A U.S. Army veteran with over eleven years of service, including time as an Army recruiter, he previously held a vice president role at a medical staffing firm. He has been honored in Marquis Who's Who in America for his impact on the trades and his charitable efforts, and has given keynote speeches to industry audiences.
The complete 2026 Technician Retention Report is available at trinitytalentgroup.com.
Duffy is available to media for discussion on skilled trades labor shortages, technician recruiting and retention, and the role of social media in trades hiring.
About Trinity Talent Group
Trinity Talent Group is a talent acquisition firm focused on the skilled trades and manufacturing sectors, with placements completed in 48 states. The firm assists employers with recruiting strategy, talent marketing, and retention practices.
jason duffy
Trinity talent group
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