Although vacancies in the automotive sector have recovered since the 21-year high in 2023-24, according to the Institute of the Motor Industry, vacancy rates in 2025 remained high at 2.8%, placing automotive among the top six UK sectors for labour shortages, with 17,000–20,000 open roles across more than 200 job categories.
This demonstrates that recruitment packages still need to stand out from the crowd with a well-thought-out recruitment strategy.
The 2025 UK automotive labour shortage is driven by a mix of rapid technological change, insufficient technical training pipelines, salary inflation, and sustained demand for skilled technicians, especially in EV and diagnostic-heavy roles.
Let’s take a look at how attractive employee benefits, such as a Car Benefit Solution (CBS) car scheme, could help your business tackle these recruitment and retention challenges.
Why are employee benefits important for recruitment in the automotive sector?
1. Retirement and recruitment
As the automotive workforce is aging and a large proportion are reaching retirement age, your business could be facing a large recruitment bill to fill the vacant roles.
By attracting the right talent, the monetary investment in recruitment and training is more likely to pay off. Offering the best overall package for potential candidates, that goes beyond just salary, can make you a favourable employer over your competitors.
Being able to provide a car benefit is a sought-after perk. Make it flexible by offering Electric Vehicles (EVs) too, starting your transition to electric and giving your employees an affordable way to drive an EV.
2. The technician shortage
Skilled technicians are very much aware of their value and continue to seek new job opportunities, so at the moment, they’ve got the upper hand. The Motor Ombudsman’s latest survey of independent garages and franchise dealer workshops states 54% of businesses are prioritising investment in recruitment in 2024 to tackle staff shortages and 58% expect recruiting for technicians to be most problematic.
Make your business stand out by offering technicians an employee car benefit with a CBS car scheme. You could even offer a second car for technician roles, meaning they could also have a car for their partner.
3. Combat job-hopping
If you already have a CBS car scheme in place, why not consider enhancing it with FLEXI? By paying a contribution towards your employees’ repayments for their Employee Car Ownership Scheme vehicle, you’ll keep them happy by lowering their costs.
Stop them making a move somewhere else and save on your own recruitment costs and remember for every car added to a CBS car scheme, it could increase your registrations and take you closer to your target.
Discover more information on why employee benefits are important for recruitment and retention in our blog: Drive Recruitment and Retention: The Power of a Car Benefit.
4. Attracting Gen Z
The younger generation doesn’t appear to be as interested in automotive careers as their predecessors, but do they know all the benefits of a job in the industry? You could offer them an affordable way to drive an EV, a great incentive for a generation focused on sustainability. A CBS car won’t impact their credit score (like a PCP or PCH could do), leaving them free to focus on other life milestones, such as buying their first home. Servicing, MOT and maintenance are all included as standard with a CBS car, making this benefit hassle-free for your Gen Z employees.
A CBS driver recently said: “I’ve been using the CBS scheme for a good number of years now, it’s very convenient. I like the certainty of the monthly payments and there’s no need to put down a deposit upfront.”
5. Starting the journey to electric
As the EV market continues to evolve, we’ll all continue on our own path to going green. When it comes to managing the transition of your company car fleet, it may not be right for your business to go fully electric today due to the financial and operational impacts.
Here at CBS, we offer multiple ways for your employees to enjoy their car benefit, including:
– Employee Car Ownership Schemes
So, wherever you are on your journey, we have a solution for you, which can be made up of one, two or all three of our products, creating a blended car benefit package.
Discover how integrated car benefit options can improve employee financial well-being, reduce company car tax, and support fleet sustainability goals in our blog: The Advantages of a Blended Car Benefit Solution.
Personalise your employee benefits with CBS
Our solutions are designed to suit the needs of every business and every driver. We’ll look at what you do today and what you want to achieve in the future. We’ll help you discover which solution works best for your business and will keep your employees feeling valued and rewarded.
Our flexible and tailored approach can help you to personalise your employee benefits package and keep your staff happy.
Get in touch today to boost your recruitment and retention strategy.